Happy Halloween All!
Up until about seven years ago Halloween was just an excuse to buy large bags of candy cheap (we tend to favor chocolates vs. hard candies).
Once the kids grew up, Halloween just wasn't that special. Then for reasons unknown the bug hit me, and I started building free downloadable haunted house type kits from the Internet.
That led to my first set-up in 2016 out in The Cave. There were no trains running on the larger layout board during 2017-2019 while I worked on my Edge of Town micro-layout, but by 2020 Halloween train setups had reappeared and I've had a lot of fun doing them these past few years.
This year my Halloween train layout is in the living room set up on the board I built last year for the Christmas village.
I try to either buy or make one new thing a year to add to it and this year it was a cheap paperboard house from Target.
I ran Lionel's Hallow's Eve Express LionChief Set for the first week or so then switched it out to Lionel's Scooby-Doo The Mystery Machine Set. It's been a lot of fun - and very convenient - having the layout in the living room
Here's a couple of Y'allTube videos of the layout:
From Spooky Town Las Vegas
Ed
I like the Pumpkin orange trim on the Lion Chief, but the Mystery Machine livery just seems a mash-up too far, I take it that set didn't even include the Scooby Gang!
ReplyDeleteAs far a Halloween goes, the Munsters car and family is really in the spirit!
My first Halloween trains weren't Halloween at all. I was running any orange and black engines and rolling stock I could find like New Haven and Milwaukee Road stuff.
DeleteThat's just an amazing Halloween track layout, Ed. A lot of things going on there. The station in particular gets my vote for being the spookiest place to be seen.
ReplyDeleteThanx Tony! I always tell people who are new to the hobby that it's the details that make the layout. Even simple track plains can become nice layouts with a lot of details.
Deletethat's track "plans" - world's worst typist strikes again! :-)
DeleteThat is a great layout, with a lot of detail in it. I knew about the Scooby Doo train set, but I have not seen the Hallow's Eve set before. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanx Paul! Lionel (and MTH) has made several Halloween themed sets plus a bunch of add-on cars. As much as I'd like to get more they tend to be pricey.
DeleteGlorious railroad! Lionel is such a great brand, glad some of you are keeping it alive. I was always into HO scale, but always envied the Lionel people...
ReplyDeleteThank you! I was into HO scale for decades - from ca1966-1991 then I switched to 3-rail O-gauge. Back in the day the HO guys took themselves and the hobby waaaay too seriously - it just wasn't fun. I've never had more actual fun with trains than when I switched. That being said, I still have my HO engines, rolling stock, buildings, and figures. Maybe one day I'll get back into it.
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