An Explosion of Halloween Fun - The "holiday decorating season" used to start with Thanksgiving. But more and more families are getting started even earlier with their "seasonal decorations," not with pilgrims, turkeys, and maize, but with elaborate Halloween decorations. Our "Halloween Trains" pages have received an explosion of interest. And many of our new readers have never owned a collectible village or electric train before, so we have put together this "primer" page targeted to beginning Halloween train and town hobbyists.

This page will answer a few basic questions, then list links where you can go for more information and project ideas.

How Big are Halloween Trains and Towns?

• Towns - Most name-brand Halloween village structures average between 4.5" - 8" in all directions, with a few pieces up to 9" or 10" tall. This makes them small enough to fit a nice village on a tabletop or large shelf, and large enough to see clearly.

• Trains - Almost all train sets made to work with Halloween villages can fit a track circle into 38". If you don't have a table quite that size, consider getting a 40" or larger square of 3/8" plywood cut for you, or get a piece of 4'x8' insulating foam and cut it down to size. (I use a "coping and scrolling" blade in my B&D hand-held jig saw.)

For detailed information on the scales of Halloween villages and trains, please see our article "Halloween Trains Sizes and Scales".

Where Do Halloween Towns Come From?

If you want to make your own Halloween-themed town, or are looking for ideas to "flesh out" the Halloween town you already have, check out the free, downloadable Spook Hill(tm) Halloween village building and accessory projects, some of which are shown a little further down the page.

On the other hand, if you're interested in shopping for Halloween-themed buildings, here are some major manufacturers whose products you will enjoy.

• Dept. 56(r) has two Halloween series, the Halloween issues in their "Original Snow Village" collection, and their new "Secrets of Sleepy Hollow-een" series.
• Lemax(r)'s "Spooky Town" collection is available at craft, department, and even hardware stores each September.
• Hawthorne Village - makes several Halloween-themed village collections, which you subscribe to like a magazine - then you get and pay for one "issue" at a time.

  Most of Hawthorne Village's Halloween collections are based on specific movies and television shows such as the Munsters, the Simpsons, Nightmare Before Christmas, and the Disney(r) Villains, so they hold great appeal for movie and TV show fans as well as Halloween fans.

For more description of these vendors' offerings, please refer to our article Halloween Village Manufacturers.

Where Do Halloween Trains Come From?

For a review of your major choices for Halloween trains, please see our article "Halloween Trains Sizes and Scales".

To jump right to a buyer's guide listing many individual Halloween trains and towns, please check out our Halloween Trains page

Halloween Train and Town Projects

Bringing Autumn to Your Railroad or Display Village - How two easy crafts can make your model railroad or display village look like it is enjoying the fall season.
Introducing Spook Hill™! Designer Howard Lamey, together with author and graphics artist Paul Race, bring you a series of free, 100% original Halloween building projects in O or S scale, enough to give you a complete, unique, and totally collectible Halloween village.

The following Spook Hill™ projects are currently available. We already have three more projects on the drawing board for 2009, but if you get started early, you can have a nice Halloween community by this Halloween.

Shakey Pane Manor - the first building specifically designed for our Spook Hill™ collection.	Spook Hill™ Station - The FIRST EVER model train station designed specifically for Halloween.	Spook Hill™ Water Tower - Any easy and unique structure to complement the Spook Hill™ Station.

Spook Hill™ Billboards - The easiest Spook Hill™ project to date - great for kids, works with almost any Halloween village.	Howard's "The Frost is On the Pumpkin" project - the one that started it all.

Halloween and Fall Textures - If you want to design your own buildings for a fall or Halloween village, check out this brand-new addition - roof and wall patterns for making your own seasonal structures. The Halloween and Fall Textures page includes brick, siding, and roofing tile patterns in colors that are ideal for fall decorating.

Collectible Halloween Trains and Towns

The largest single manufacturer of Halloween-related trains and towns is Hawthorne Village, who sells their products through Collectibles Today and the Bradford Exchange. The Hawthorne Village trains are assembled by Bachmann, one of the world's largest model train manufacturers, then detailed by Hawthorne Village artists. This means that the trains not only have exquisite detail but also a limited lifetime mechanical warranty. They are also compatible with On30 Christmas trains and On30 model trains. In fact they even use the same track, so if you get a Hawthorne Village Halloween train collection and a Bachmann On30 "starter set," you can combine the track for a very large railroad.

The Hawthorne Village Halloween Village collections are made of quality porcelain and sculptural resin components, and finished with the same precise attention to detail.

Subscribing to a Collection Most of the products on this page are available by subscription, which means that you sign up for them like you would a magazine. Then you get (and pay for) one "issue" about every four weeks for the next four months (longer, if the collection contains more than four issues). For more information on subscription trains, please refer to the "About Subscription Trains" article. That said, Collectibles Today and the Bradford Exchange also offer a one-year satisfaction warranty, so you can stop your subscription at any time, and you can return any issue within 365 days of purchase, so there is no risk to you as a buyer, except for the risk that a collection you want will become unavailable before you have made up your mind to buy it.

The accessory packages, however, are sold as single-purchase packages.

About Limited Runs Although service will always be available, it is worth noting that the products on this page will not. Most of them are "limited runs" which will be discontinued after the initial "run" of products is completed. In most cases, this means that the time will come when these trains and villages are unavailable except from other collectors who will demand a huge profit. (A good number of the e-mails we receive about these products ask us to track down trains that are no longer available, so as Dave Barry used to say, we're not making this up!)

• Our Best Seller! Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas Express Subscription Train
• New for 2008! Disney® Holiday Villages and Accessories - including a Halloween Village based on the Disney® villains.
• New for 2008! Winnie The Pooh's Haunted Acre Halloween Village Collection
• A Reader Favorite! Universal Studios Monsters Halloween Subscription Train
• A Reader Favorite! John Deere Halloween Subscription Village
• Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas Subscription Village
• New for 2009! The Simpsons Collectible Halloween Village Collection
• New for 2009! M&Ms Halloween Village Collection
• New for 2009! Monster Mash Village Collection
• Universal Studios Monsters Halloween Village Subscription Plan
• The Munsters™ Express Halloween Subscription Train
• The Munsters Halloween Village Super Starter Set Subscription Plan
• The Munsters™ Village Accessories Subscription Plan
• Tim Burton's Corpse Bride Village Collection
• Scary Movie Halloween Village Subscription Plan
• Thomas Kinkade End of a Perfect Day Subscription Train
• Lionel® Hogwarts Express® from the Harry Potter™ Movies!
• Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Collectible Christmas Town Collection
• Disney Pirates Of The Caribbean Collectible Black Pearl Ghost Ship Collection
• Accessories for All Trains and Villages on This Page

Other Articles and Links from BIG Indoor Trains™

Since early 2007, Big Indoor Trains™ has been providing articles on making your own scenery inexpensively, using materials that are relatively easy to find in most parts of the world.

For this page, we have posted the projects that would be most useful on a Halloween or Autumn railroad or display. We usually have a couple in the works at any given time, so please check back often. Or Join our Mailing List for free hobby ideas and to be notified when new articles are posted.

In addition, you can help by sending us project tips, article ideas, and photos of your railroads and villages. We want this site to be as useful as possible to as many people as it can be. As the hobby grows, we all benefit.

Sizes and Scales of Big Indoor Trains - Which trains are best for around a collectible village or other indoor use? How much room do these trains take up anyway?
Combining Trains and Towns - Why combining collectible village pieces and model trains is a growing and rewarding hobby.
Portable (Foam-Based) Indoor Displays - Using a foam-based portable scenic foundation to display your trains and towns to their best advantage.
Easy Indoor Lakes and Rivers - How to get the effect of waterfalls, rivers, lakes, and streams on both temporary and permanent indoor railroads and display villages.
Free Scenery Set Pieces - Add a vertical dimension to your holiday village for little or no investment. The technique can easily be adapted to all seasons.
Easy Homemade Trees - How to make realistic and inexpensive trees using (mostly) natural materials.
Winter Trees from Floral Picks- A quick and inexpensive way to add interesting textures to your late-autumn or winter railroad or village
Desert Accessories from Playmobil Products - How repainting carefully-chosen toys can add fun details to a Large Scale desert landscape. Many of the ideas shown here will work for other scales as well.