The SPCRR does a haunted railroad... Bay Area Electric does a Pumpkin Train... Both fund raisers...

What do others do?

Orange Empire's Pumpkin Train(s) brought out about twice as many visitors as last year.

Hi Randy,

Our smallish museum operates Farmer Ken's Pumpkin Patch at our Como-Harriet Streetcar Line in Minneapolis and Halloween/ghost trolley at both our Como-Harriet and Excelsior streetcar lines. We also run "Trick R' Trolley" at both sites for the younger children featuring local children's book authors reading their Halloween stories. The Trick R' Trolley runs are limited to the capacity of the streetcar used (55) and we typically run 2-3 runs on the Sunday prior to Halloween. This year both were sold out with Como-Harriet's three runs selling out in 15 minutes!

I suspect that most active groups/museums like ours have come to the conclusion that running these kinds of special events is very lucrative,especially when you compare the revenue gained to the time and effort expended to plan and execute the events. In 2010, close to thirty percent of our museum's gross revenue was gained from special events such as the ghost trolley, pumpkin patch, pajama party trolley, etc. Of course, our museum is small (annual income is less than $100K) compared to the likes of Seashore, OERM, IRM, etc., so these extra fare events impact our gross revenue more. But for us, the gain is well worth the effort.

Thanks!

At NCTM we hosted "Pinson's Pumpkin Market" for weekday school groups and also one weekend for the public. Participants rode a streetcar to the front entrance of Street Car Hall where they entered the Market. This was our first year for a Hallowe'en event. The concept worked well and will be repeated next year.

Wesley

The New Hope Valley Railway runs two days of "Halloween Express" trains. We schedule the runs so that the first one occurs during daylight for our younger audience, and the last train runs at night for the older kids. This year we had record breaking attendance on both days. The event is a lot of work to set up, but is the most fun we have all year, and the only opportunity we have to run at night.

http://www.nhvry.org/halloween.htm

Mike MacLean
New Hope Valley Railway

Grand Canyon Railway did a Pumpkin Patch Train for the first time this year, and attendance was decent for an innagural event.

The diesel powered train went 4 miles to the 'Pumpkin Patch', a sectioned off area in the forest with hay bales and Pumpkins spread out before each weekend. Passengers dissembarked and each child was able to choose his very own pumpkin to keep (included in ticket price). The whole event lasted about an hour. Back at the depot there was a hay bale maze and a 'Harvest Room', where families could pose for photos and kids could decorate their pumpkins with markers and stickers.

We have already announced plans to do it again next year, but we're looking for ideas to expand. Guest comments were very favorable and gave us some ideas, but I'd be curious as to what other operations do for their Pumpkin or Halloween Trains.

Unfortunately, we were not able to do Public Pumkin Runs this past weekend, as the staff needed time to get set up for Christmas. It starts November 10th, you know!

Jim -

At WRM, the Pumpkin Patch contributes about 35% of our annual admissions income, so it is well worth the effort for us as well.

It's also worth the efforts for the three local Rotary Clubs who actually run the Pumpkin Patch. They get whatever profits they earn there, plus one dollar per head on our passenger count (we raise fares by that amount), which is often over $10,000 for the total event.

Equally important, getting people to visit for what is often their first time is beneficial. We also sell a good number of family memberships during October.

I still encounter local residents who are making their first visit to the museum after driving by for many years without stopping...

The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum sponsored two daytime "Pumpkin trains" on both October 8th and October 22nd. These trains ran west from the North Judson depot to English Lake, back east past the depot to a spot where passengers disembarked to pick out pumpkins, and then back west to the depot. Ridership was over 400 on 10/8 and over 500 on 10/22.

Then last Saturday (10/29), a "not-so-scary Halloween" train was run at 4:00 p.m. from the depot all the way to La Crosse, Indiana where riders disembarked for a presentation on the grounds of the Library there. The return to North Judson left La Crosse at dusk and the B&LE cupola caboose had a set of lighted Pennsy caboose markers, provided by one of HVRM's members, on this run. Unfortunately, I don't yet know the passenger count for this particular operation.

Les

The Southern Michigan Railroad Society has operated "Fall Color Tours" since 1986. This year, it did rather well, more than doubling revenue from last year. Possibly the best year since 2000, and nearly "maxing out" practical capacity. (far from actual capacity, because crowds flock to the open or closed cars, depending on weather.) Indeed, average train ridership was 68% of closed-car capacity, even factoring in the slower Thursdays and Fridays, and a breakdown on one of those days. So the weekends were really running tip-top - rain or shine.