Not really my main area but I've been reading through a load of Dogman case files lately because a mate got me into it, and the railroad connection does seem to come up more than you'd expect. Makes me wonder if there's something to the idea that these old lines follow natural corridors or ley lines, because the geography does seem deliberate in a weird way.
The bit that gets me though - has anyone looked at whether the abandoned stretches see more reports than the active ones? Like is it the physical structure, the isolation, or something about the history of the land underneath?
There's a few old rail routes round Durham I could potentially check out if anyone has a methodology for documenting sightings properly. I'm more of a ghost hunter so I'd be coming at this pretty fresh, not sure what evidence is actually worth gathering for something like this.