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, but I do it outside to keep from filling the house with "styrosnow.")

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 such as the Nightmare Before Christmas, so they hold great appeal for movie 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 and Towns Buyer's Guide 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 HillTM! 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.
Halloween Storefronts A unique vintage-looking Halloween craft inspired by tinplate candy boxes of the early 1900s, many of which found their way to the train table once the candy was gone. Though they keep the vintage lithographed-building look, they have unique colors and signage that will bring a bit of spooky cheer to your own little communities. Click on the picture to the right to go to the free downloadable graphics, plans, and instructions.

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.
Sizes and Scales Halloween 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.
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.
Easy Homemade Trees - How to make realistic and inexpensive trees using (mostly) natural materials.
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.

The following Spook Hill^TM 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 HillTM collection.	Spook HillTM Station - The FIRST EVER model train station designed specifically for Halloween.	Spook HillTM Water Tower - Any easy and unique structure to complement the Spook HillTM Station.

Spook HillTM Billboards - The easiest Spook HillTM 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.

Click on the picture above to see our Vine-Covered Tinplate-Inspired Cottage, now with a Halloween graphic option.	Jeckyll Park Station is the Halloween version of our Lewis Park station. Click on the picture above to see the Lewis Park station with new graphics for a Halloween version.	Click to see the Halloween-themed options for our "Picture Window House."