This trailer load of skeletons is bound for the Ringgold Depot.IF YOU GOEerie Express• When: 5:45 and 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Oct. 10-11, 17-18, 24-25• Where: Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, 4119 Cromwell Road• Admission: $22 ages 2 and up• Phone: 423-894-8028• Website: www.tvrail.comHaunted Depot• When: 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Oct. 10-11, 17-18, 24-25• Where: Ringgold Depot, 155 Depot St., Ringgold, Ga.• Admission: $8 Haunted Depot, $7 ghost walk, $3 hayride; $15 all three• Website: www.Facebook.com/hauntedringgold
Eerie ExpressMEANWHILEMembers of the Cagle Volunteer Fire Department, Highway 111 North in the Cagle community of Sequatchie County, Tenn., will trade in their turnout gear for spookout gear to man the department’s inaugural Haunting on the Mountain. Scares begin at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays in October. Admission is $10. Proceeds will be used to buy equipment. For more information, call 423-949-7832.
Two Halloween-themed train depots opening this weekend will leave parents with a judgment call: Is your child so small that he might be so traumatized by seeing a man with rubber intestines, a monster head and ketchup blood spilling out of a fake stomach wound? Or is he so old he will feel cheated by anything less than screaming, pants-wetting terror?
Chattanooga’s depot, otherwise known as the Eerie Express, is haunted by nothing scarier than cardboard clowns. The other depot is in Ringgold, Ga., and Facebook photos from last year show a guy dressed like Satan baking plastic body parts in a kitchen spattered with fake blood. He does have a big smile painted on his face.
Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum hosts the family-friendly Eerie Express. “Designed for families with younger children, it is NOT a haunted house,” the museum’s news release explains.
The historic depot is decorated for Halloween. But the highlight of the adventure is riding a vintage train across four bridges and through the Missionary Ridge Tunnel. Upon arriving at the Funhouse Station, there is blacklight indoor mini-golf to play, a petting zoo and pony rides. Train departures are at 5:45 and 7:30 p.m. the next three Fridays and Saturdays.
The Ringgold Haunted Depot Facebook page promises crazy scares including rooms based on “The Exorcist” and “Insidious,” a movie that made baby monitors and dirty fingernails demonically terrifying. There is another room based on “The Conjuring” in which the children were trapped with dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks parents more appalling and annoying than the ghosts. There is also something called The Purge Room named after the horror movie in which home invasion, arson and murder are legal one night each year.
The events start at 7 p.m. the next three weekends in October. In addition to the haunted depot, there are hay rides and ghost tours.
Contact Lynda Edwards at ledwards@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6391.