SURREY — Halloween-themed trains will run this month at a pair of very different Surrey railroads.
At Bear Creek Park, the “Gordon Manor” façade that once decorated a home in North Delta will stand on the grounds of the miniature railway during the month of October.
Sunshine Hills-area “home haunt” decorator Gord Sauck recently sold many of his Halloween decorations to operators of the park’s nighttime “Haunted Forest Scream Train” and daytime “Pumpkin Express.”
Linda Penn, who runs the Bear Creek Park train, said the façade “looks amazing there, like a movie set.
“Riders pass by it and can’t go inside it,” she added. “We were going to put it on our deck but we couldn’t figure out how to do our daytime and nighttime events, having people pass through it, so we’ve got it in the back display area, where we often have our graveyard.”
On Oct. 31 each year, “Gordon Manor” featured Halloween-themed illusions, lights, singing pumpkins, projections and more.
When Sauck decided to sell his stuff, Penn contacted him and negotiated a deal.
“We bought a lot of his stuff,” she said. “We have six acres to fill so for us, we have a place to put it, and people who are doing homes might not have the space to store it all.”
The park’s “Pumpkin Express” train started on Friday (Oct. 7) for daylight-hour rides, daily from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and the “Haunted Forest Scream Train” gets going on Friday, Oct. 14 for evening thrills from 6:30 to 10 p.m. For admission rates and other details, visit bctrains.com or call 604-501-1232.
• In Cloverdale, Surrey’s Heritage Rail will feature “Halloween Train” rides on Saturday, Oct. 22 and Sunday, Oct. 23, daily from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
PICTURED: Creepy sites at Surrey’s Heritage Rail, host of “Halloween Train” rides on Oct. 22 and 23, in Cloverdale. (photo submitted)
“The train will be running on our tracks only, but will have all sorts of scary… surprises for riders,” spokesperson Ray Hudson told the Now.
“We will reprise Spidey the Speeder for an open-air experience, the Old Rail Riders Graveyard (hilarious gravestones) and the haunted car barn where the grim reaper and the ghost of the Duke of Connaught still linger.”
Call in advance for tickets (604-574-9056), or visit the website Fvhrs.org for details.
On Dec. 10 and 11, the rail group will be running a Christmas train at its station, located at the foot of 176A Street, south of Highway 10.
Earlier this month, the 20,000th passenger boarded the train on the last day of Surrey’s Heritage Rail’s summer season. Lachlan Down, his father Simon and mother Lindsey received a certificate and other prizes from John Sprung, chair of Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society, and station master Shane Suter. See photo below.
tom.zillich@thenownewspaper.com
