Our Open Yard Halloween this year was as much for our benefit as it was for those who stopped by. We have run our trains on Halloween for the last nine years so this provided a small bit of normality in an otherwise weird year. We had all three tracks cleaned up and running trains, in fact the squiggly inner track was running two trains. They almost stayed synchronized. Plus, there was another, one-off pizza box layout just for the day.
The Albemarle Express got in a nice long run with its newly assigned locomotive – an Aristocraft C-16 Consolidated engine and tender. We also broke out a few of our kerosene lanterns for extra light and fired up the antique Standard heater for the first time. The extra heat was welcome.
Visitor wise it was a quiet evening, but at least there were some. A new neighbor who has not seen one of our open houses yet came by with his son and watched for quite a while. It is always enjoyable when folks drop by to just chat and watch the trains runs and we do not need a crowd. We did have a few kids come by to get candy. We would love to have had more but given the current situation it was probably best as it was.
Dismal Creek Railroad 