The week had started out pretty much the same as all the other weeks this past year – with rain. It continued to fall as well as diminish the hopes of better weather that all the volunteers possessed since we started up last May. But, being of stout north country stock we pushed our plans to complete the task at hand – our first real Halloween extravaganza in Lake Placid.

We had done some Halloween trains before but not since Billy B took over up here with Jill as his associate and me and Forrest tagging along to witness first hand the beginning of what we hoped would be an annual event.

It started with ideas that were batted around in the camp cars at night when the TV offered little more than the usual summer reruns. And then, one day while I was at work, Jill called me to tell me that she and Billy and Forrest had been working on the actual plans to pull this off and would I be kind enough to come down this evening after work to help them out with the finishing touches. Naturally, I agreed.

Upon arriving at Lake Placid around 4:30 I was met with excitement and giddy-ness that I thought only a teen in love could demonstrate.  Billy and Jill and Forrest were like 3 little kids that had a new toy. A very BIG toy.

We went to Saranac Lake to complete the decorating of the station and string some lights for the festive night on Friday and completed the displays in good time. It looked great! The next day Billy had secured all the lights we needed to accomplish our next task; light the undersides of the cars with spot beam work lights for the night train so that our right-of-way displays could take on an eerie, shadowey scenario to the delight of our prospective passengers. To do this I came up with a plan to secure the lights on the undersides of the cars with threaded rod, beam clamps and EMT conduit holders. This worked great. The only problem was – as one might expect – was the weather.  It continued to rain for the next 2 days while we worked to string extension cords under the rail cars and secure them from coming loose. We got soaked. But that didn’t matter nor did it dampen our spirits when we knew that we had something special going on here. After making the final decision on the style and type and wattage of the bulbs that we would use (a process that took as long as it took to build the Grand Canyon), we made our way to the store to buy their supply of 150 watt clear bulbs to illuminate the entire underside of the train. Rest assured that everything was well secured and tight to make sure it all stayed in place during our trip that coming Friday night. We even ran a test train to figure out the speed at which optimum exposure to the ground displays would be most effective with yours truly at the throttle. It was quite a trip.

The next day I drove to work from Placid (as I quite often do during the summer) and took the afternoon off to take a little rest once I arrived at Placid since we had worked so long the last few days. I laid down in the camp car around 1:30 with rain pounding on the metal shell like hail. Some time later I heard the rain stop and I slipped into a sleep befitting a tired railroader. I slept until 4:00 (or 16:00 hours).  I woke up to silence and a familiar quiet that was both unsettling and comforting. After clearing my eyes I realized (and this is no joke) that I couldn’t see outside. At first I thought the camp car windows were all fogged up.  Imagine my dismay when I opened the door and still literally could not see the station from my steps. It was an all out blizzard. I put on my coat, woke and hitched up the sled dogs, and filled my hot water bottle with brandy as I headed out to locate my wife and friends.

I reached the station 3 days later (OK….so it was more like 5 minutes) and found Billy, Jill, Forrest and Linda all sitting in the station with turned down faces that told me that our work was for naught. I knew the evening train was a wash and that we wouldn’t get to try our lights out with real people. How depressing is that after getting soaked for 2 days putting them on!

The village police pulled in a bit later and told us all roads were closed anyway and that nothing was moving. Naturally we shut the station down and headed back to our camp cars. Ming Chen and Bob Ludlam had driven over from Potsdam to work this train. Bob stayed with Billy and Ming took off to spend the night with his family.

We signed out and headed for the camp cars and had no sooner left the caboose when the entire town went black. The power was gone.  It was cold, blowing, dark, wet, and just generally miserable. We hunkered down in the camp cars with my railroad safety light as the sole light source along with one candle for heat. What a night. Being in the north country in the summer or fall doesn’t mean you still have your winter wear put away. Indeed, we get ours out around July up here. Jill and I were warm and the power came back on around 1:30 so our furnace came on and we slept in relative comfort. 

On Saturday morning Billy and I knew we had to do a track inspection so we fired up the 4243 and loaded it with chain saws. Bob and Ming joined us as we headed south towards Saranac Lake. It was a beautiful trip if you overlook all the trees that had to be cut out of our way for 10 miles. And then to top it all off, BOTH chain saws broke on us and we were reduced to pulling trees off by hand. What a job! We took the engine all the way to Aubuchon Hardware and parked it while I went in and purchased 4 bags of play sand for the trip up the hill.  Imagine the cashier’s expression when I told him I needed some sand for my ride and he looked out and saw an Alco parked in his parking lot.

We filled the sand bins and headed back towards Placid. Billy sanded the hill liberally on the way up so that he’d have good traction for the first trip south. We arrived at Placid just in time to hitch the engine to the train and make the first run of the day. I can truthfully say it had to be one of the most beautiful rides we had ever taken. With the fresh fallen snow clinging to all the trees and wires above, it was a sight that people seldom see during our regular operation. To make matters better, both trains that day were packed full! It was a banner day for us.

After shutting down for the night, Billy said he wanted to take the train down the line in the dark and use our lights to see how it looked in the snow. We called some volunteers to join us and away we went. Again, slowly we went around curves and down the hill with the lights casting those eerie, moving shadows on our displays. It was worth getting wet for 3 days to see this.

With a little luck, we want to make our Halloween train even better this year but it’ll take more people helping out to pull it off.  We don‘t have a Polar Express train so we’re going to make this train our signature train of the year. Maybe someone out there would like to help.

Doug Vensel