Special Events
Since 2002, the Historic Jefferson Railway has hosted an annual "Runaway Fright Train", a moving haunted house. Each October, spooks and spirits descend on the railway with every intention of scaring the pants off of passengers. The ride takes place after dark, with ultraviolet and strobe light effects. Live actors and animatronics provide scares, with skits and other decorations along the right-of-way. Halloween 2005 marked the premier of "Terror on the Bayou", a multi-themed event with a creepy cornfield maze, haunted forest walk, and train ride. It is still going strong now in 2009. Halloween has proven to be the railway's most popular event, with weekly ridership in the thousands.
Another popular event is the weekly "Ghost Train of Jefferson", which is another ride in the dark, minus the jump scares. A narrator provides "true" ghost stories as the train cruises with no light provided. Jefferson's reputation as the "most haunted town in Texas" attracts amateur and professional ghost hunters of all ages, and the "Ghost Train" is highly popular. As of this writing, it is the only regularly scheduled event of its type in the United States.
From Thanksgiving through New Years Day the Rail of Lights Christmas Train and New Years Train light up the piney woods of East Texas. With more than 300,000 Christmas lights the Rail of Lights had become one of the most sought out events on the Arklatex Trail of lights. As well as the number one draw in Jefferson during Christmas.
Read more about this topic: Jefferson And Cypress Bayou Railway
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