Do you buy and operate Halloween stuff on your layout.

Yes, but, not as Halloween equipment.  Often the Halloween stuff is put on deep discounts after the holiday.  I have two of the Hallow's Eve locos (the scale British Hall class) that I bought for half price and re-painted, etc.  Nice little locos now.

 

I think operating some Halloween equipment would be fun if you had kids around but I don't until the Christmas season so I never do it.

My son wanted the Lionel Halloween set some years back so I got it.  We have added a few cars over the years.  The plasma tank car and walking zombie are especially novel.  We don't make a whole layout operation out of it, just run it on the outer loop in the month of October.

I love the Halloween season and all the whimsical train stuff !  Oddly enough, I don't run any Christmas rolling stock, but have an entire Halloween consist, engine to caboose.  My grandkids only get to see it by Skype, so it's mostly for the child in me!  There have been many fine Halloween layout pics posted in the past.  I remember one guy actually made slip-on costumes for his engines, really cool idea!  I don't go so far as buildings and scenery, but the spooky train stuff comes out with the house decorations!

 

Rich

NO!

My wife goes with me to York in October to pick things up for her Halloween display layout. I bought her a number of Dept. 56 Halloween items and shot some black paint onto a loop of fastrack. The display remains up until Thanksgiving and becomes our Christmas display after adding another 40 square feet of board. Niether Halloween or Christmas ends up on my layout though.

No, I have bought none of the equipment and nothing is done for Halloween - just a little at Christmas.

Hi Folks,

 

I love Halloween trains.  I have one engine and a collection of cars that I run on the G&O garden railroad during the club's Halloween show.  Here are a few photos of couple of years ago.

 

 

I myself have never bought any Halloween items. I do think the lionel haunted house is neat, but I would'nt pay the hefty price for it. I've always enjoyed a train under the Christmas tree.

I have one train I bought with Halloween in mind. I bought the complete Phantom train second hand. It has TMCC and sounds right for the holiday. I have not yet made a specific layout for the event but have thought it would be fun to hang several dumping cars on the back of it and dump candy into each child's bag.

Or perhaps a second train to pull the dump cars with a docksider dolled up in orange add-ons, I have a couple of those as well.

 

Christmas gets a small loop under the tree and a few buildings off the side each year. I'd expand but My wife and daughter want less of it, not more.

I like seeing the Halloween stuff, but I don't buy it, except for one item. Being a Lionel PS-1 boxcar fan, I picked up the Grave's Mortuary car.  It is very nice. That is my only Halloween themed piece.

I have several cars and the haunted house, but no locomotive.  We put up a small layout last year and placed our Lemaxx halloween houses inside the loop.  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  Looking forward to watching all those bobbing heads in a week or two.

I've never been big on the holiday, but have to admit that Department 56 and Lemax are putting out some great Halloween buildings and accessories.  But I just can't go down that road.  I have too much invested already in my Christmas layout with more acquired every year.  I just can't start that up with a Halloween layout.  More than the cost it's the storage space!  Plus I just feel like Halloween is celebrated for a shorter period so it's a lot of work setting that up just to immediately take it down. 

 

This thread has reminded me to stop into Michaels this weekend to checkout the new stuff this year from Lemax and see the "layout".  That'll get my fix in.

Halloween is a huge market now to retailers. However this theme never really appealed to me, so personally NO to a Halloween layout.

I like the Halloween stuff. I have sometimes set up a Halloween layout in the front room for the trick or treaters. The kids (and thier parents) loved it. Unfortunatly my new place is not as accommodating and has fewer little kids.
I have the General, Starter set 4-4-2 and the  Docksider. My favorite is the docksider with the green zombie crew. I would have the hogwarts or repaint but I was running O27.

BOO !

 

 

I always was confused by the Christmas, Halloween, Elvis, Beatles, Peanuts gang, Presidents, and all the other wierd stuff they put on some of those cars. I don't own any of it & never understood it. I never even thought of a Halloween themed layout. I guess its ok. I like the pictures of it above where its outside for visitors to see, pretty cool idea, but thats just not my style. 

Halloween happens to be my favorite holiday. I'm not sure what, exactly, that says about a person, but it is! I am working on a small 4x8 layout that can be updated seasonally with a minimum of fuss for my daughter and I to play with. I'm looking forward to our first inaugural Halloween display this October.

 

During the recent (perhaps still current) Aristo Craft/RMT sale, I purchased a full consist (sets 1 and 2) of the "Boo Line" Halloween Express peeps for passenger service and a couple of their depressed center Boo Line flat cars to add to a traditionally proportioned Lionel American Pumpkin Company boxcar I already owned. I have to say for the money, the RMT units are a terrific value. They look and run great, and I love the whimsical nature of it all! To pull them, I am considering adding Lionel's "Diesel" LionChief loco that is part of the Thomas series. They have yet to be shipped so I haven't seen one in person, but I think it might have something of a seasonally appropriate look to it and should be a good value with the Railsounds RC system. (We have the Thomas LionChief set and love it.) 

 

As far as accessories/buildings, I have Lionel's lighted Halloween station platform and plan to add the Transylvania girder bridge and the new lighted Halloween station, perhaps this weekend. I also remember seeing some other maker's cemetery kit (complete with a mausoleum) that looks like fun as well.

 

For my planned hi-rail pike, I'd like to continue the fun, but in a more subtle manner by using scale-proportioned, more "prototypical" looking equipment such as the Grave's double-sheathed boxcar.  This is the first such car I've purchased, and it looks great. I don't plan on having any holiday themed buildings or accessories though.

It's a fun time of year. Why not take the kids to the dollar store and decorate

some of your trains for the holiday ? Here is a couple pics. Then again you could

always go the Lionel route as in the video.

 

 

 

I have two animated Lemax displays I put out...one on the porch and one in the entrance hall. No trains are involved. Some kids forget about the candy and stare at these.

I do run Halloween trains on a temporary (two folding tables) layout in FL. No Halloween on the permanent layout in NC. My wife loves to decorate for Fall/Halloween, and we will frequently have parents one in with their trick-or-treaters and take pictures/movies of the train layout.

 

I run the Lionel Halloween train with added cars on one loop, and Harry Potter passenger train on another. Lemax and Lionel accessories complete the theme.

 

Bruce

I wasn't familiar with the Lemax stuff, looks like fun--and those dollar store and "Five Below" discount places are seemingly everywhere now. I'll have to check some out, good suggestions.

i am not really in to Halloween.  no cars or engines,  not even any trick or treaters unless you count my niece and i just give her a bag of candy makes it so easy for me  

A couple of our club members really get into Halloween.  Our October open house is always a monster invasion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every layout of mine has included a Haunted House, and my eventual O Gauge will not be any different. Just add a small red LED or two inside and VOILA, every day is Halloween!

 

 

I have a couple of halloween things i use at halloween.   

I had planned to buy and set up a Halloween layout but after my trip to the hobby store...well...it ended like this....

We have fun with it as well as several other "Empty Nester" neighbors come over and pass out candy to the beggers. Another plus is that by doing it this way, garage at street level, we eliminated the neccessity for the kiddos going up an down the stairs to the front door.

 

no, stay within traditional  freight and some passenger.

No, I do not celebrate Halloween. But, my thinking is Halloween became popular

fairly recently, because it is an occasion for decorations (like Christmas), but you don't have to buy presents. Just my two cents.

 

Unless you count candy/treats for the trick-or-treaters.

 

I love Halloween stuff for its fun nature, although in general, I think that many decorations have gone a little too far in taking the spooky nature out of the event.

 

Here's a short video of the stuff I had as of 2009 (I have even more now  ):

 

 

Andy

No, but with an *.  I place real trains which have black, and orange themes:  SP Black Widow, SP Daylight, UP SP Heritage, Amtrak work train....But there iis one exemption:  Hogwarts Express!

Because 10-31 is a fixed date, we don't need an official statement from the mallard expert of the seasons:  Daffy Duck!

No, I personally don't get it, but to each his own.

Our club puts out some cars and decorations.

 

 

The Genesee & Wyoming family of shortlines have Halloween colors in abundance ...

 

At our modular club's layout this month and next, I'll fill a gondola or two with empty cardboard candy boxes. At the November show, I'll give away a few of the boxes to the kids that show up with the condition that they give me back the empty boxes. This way I can replace the box or two that end up missing from the previous shows

 

 

 

J White

I don't buy Haloween stuff but since I have a garage layout. I open up my garage, turn on the trains and run then with the night lights on. Since I have a lot of Miller signs and a down town area on the layout with lots of buildings. I get a lot of interest every year and people in my neighborhood ask me about it all year long. It's a big incentive for me to work on my layout every year a month or two before the holiday. I live in Florida and my layout does not get as much use during the summer so Halloween gets me back into the hobby.

Now, will Lucy get to touch dog lips during apple bobbing?  (That would make a good aquarium car!