Halloween Train Rides 2012

Booo... chooo... chooooooo... there's an eerie express on the horizon... it's a Spooktacular Halloween train ride... rolling down a track near you!

Halloween train rides are frightfully good choices for celebrating the year's spookiest season. Trains are as varied as the ghosts that haunt them, from quaint narrow-gauge steam trains to diesel-powered streamliners. Party trains assemble a masked mob of witches, warlocks, super heroes and storybook characters to compete for best costume prizes. Night trains venture down isolated rail beds and through shadowy landscapes lit only by the light of the moon. Pumpkin trains head head straght to the patch, their passengers in pursuit of the perfect jack-o-lantern.

Among the range of Halloween themed trains, trick-or-treating and haunted house excursions are favorites. Unique rides featuring on-train dining and murder mystery performances are not uncommon. And pick-your-own-pumpkin excursions are always full. In any event, costumes are always encouraged.

Conjuring up a Halloween train ride event in your area doesn't require a lot of hocus pocus. Scenic and heritage railways hosting Spook-tacular celebrations can be found across the USA.

Hollywood-style magic cranks up the Halloween mojo at railways across the Western U.S. In Fillmore, California, the Fillmore & Western Railway — 'Home of the Movie Trains' — rounds out its Headless Horseman excursions with a BBQ feast. Not for the faint of heart, the Nevada Northern Railway, in Ely, plays host to a scary Haunted Ghost Train. In Utah, Heber Valley Railroad excursions disappear into the haunted recesses of Provo Canyon.

Railways in America's heartland treat Halloween celebrants to a cauldron of dire delights and frightful fun. The Illinois Railway Museum, in Union, features a haunted Terror on the Railroad event for big kids and a nightmare-free Trick or Treat Trolley rides for the little ones. Ghosts and goodies await little gremlins at the Crossroads Village and Huckleberry Railroad heritage site in Flint, Michigan. Goblins chase the train through a ghostly Indiana forest and into a haunted tunnel when the French Lick Scenic Railway rolls out its Legend of the Lost Train event.

For Halloween train lovers across the U.S. South, North Carolina's Blue Ridge holds the charm. Arguably, America's premiere spooky-season destination: the month-long Tweetsie Railroad Ghost Train Halloween Festival in Blowing Rock draws enthusiastic crowds with a range of attractions including train rides, a haunted house, a "freaky forest" and much more! In Stearns, Kentucky, the Big South Fork Scenic Railway runs both Haunted Hollow Express Trains for older youngsters and Trick or Treat Trains for tots.

Railways in the Northeast U.S. offer up a range of chilling choices. In Connecticut, a pair of trolleys creep off into the darkness. Rails to the Darkside, at East Windsor's Connecticut Trolley Museum, dares visitors to ride through the haunted site of a former cemetery. In East Haven, the Shore Line Trolley Museum delivers brave souls to the edge of Haunted Isle. New Jersey's Black River & Western Railroad, in Ringoes, offers spooks of all ages an opportunity to get lost in the 10-acre Corn Maze at Pumpkin Junction — accessible only by train!

Among the country’s dozens of pumpkin trains, Peanuts™ The Great Pumpkin Patch Express Train events are standouts. This year, Charlie Brown and the gang will be on hand at the Texas State Railroad in Rusk, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in Durango, Colorado; the Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City, North Carolina; and the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum in Lenox, Massachusetts. Highlights include meet and greet opportunities with Peanuts stars Charlie Brown, Lucy and Snoopy — plus train rides and the chance to choose a pumpkin straight from the patch!

This year, scenic and heritage railways across the U.S. will host over 100 Halloween train ride events. Additional events are scheduled in Canada and the U.K. Not all trains are appropriate for all ages and some Halloween events may be deemed too frightening for younger children. Check with individual railways in advance to verify age restrictions and warnings. In cases of inclement weather, train ride events incorporating outdoor activities, may be altered, postponed or cancelled. Advance reservations are generally advisable and required in many instances. Remember to dress appropriately: many Halloween trains operate at higher altitudes or after sunset in conditions where colder temperatures may prevail.

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