The Four B&O Railroad Hot Sauces
These bottles of liquid fire are licensed products of the B&O Railroad Museum. Their sauces include: Thunder Fire Hot Sauce commemorating the ‘Fire’ that keeps steam trains alive; Iron Thunder Hot Sauce evoking the power of ‘hundreds of tons of iron roaring down the track’ (and into your mouth); and Fire Box Hot Sauce providing a smoky flavor with aged cayenne red pepper & chipotle in honor of the hottest part of the steam engine, the firebox.
Finally, there is Ghost Train Hot Sauce which according to these Hot Sauce folks commemorates the general phenomenon around the world of ‘Ghost Trains’, phantom locomotives that appear ‘out of nowhere and in an instant, consume your senses’ likely, much like their hot sauce. This sauce is made with the world’s hottest pepper, Bhut Jolokia, which is also known as Ghost Chili.
Bhut Jolokia - The World's Hottest Pepper (Photo by Peter Baer)
But the B&O rails have their own haunted history. In the 1800s there was work going on in the Brandy Gap Tunnel (also known as the Flinderation Tunnel) in West Virginia when a train unexpectedly came through startling the workers. One of the workers was unable to get to a safety alcove in time and was killed by the train which then derailed. The resulting ‘ghost train’ has been the subject of some television shows such as Ghost Stories on the Travel Channel. Reportedly visitors experience hearing the train’s whistle and sounds of metal scraping the walls when passing through the tunnel which is now part of West Virginia’s 72-mile North Bend Rail Trail.
Haunted Flinderation Tunnel - Photo by Jerry Edmundson