Welcome to Spook Hill™

Imagine you've just boarded an old-fashioned train that has a lot of orange and black in its color scheme. There's something "unearthly" about the conductor and the other passengers. But the ride is smooth. Then you disembark at a Victorian station that seems just a little "dark." As you move around the town, you see that the houses seem a little "off-kilter," somehow - the walls aren't all quite straight, and doesn't that one house look rather like it's glaring at you? You sense that the residents of these houses may not be quite ordinary, either. You begin to wonder if this town is permanently stuck in October 31. There's no telling who - or what - might be lurking around the next corner.

Welcome to Spook Hill™, an entirely original way to bring seasonal charm to your home each October. Its name is inspired by an attraction in In Lake Wales, Florida - a stretch of road where you can put your car in neutral and it seems to coast uphill. Our Spook Hill™ community comes from the mind of Howard Lamey, a retired designer who likes reproducing those vintage cardboard Christmas houses with celophane windows and holes in the back for Christmas lights. The Spook Hill™ collection, though, celebrates a distinctly different holiday.

Depending on your color choices, many of these buildings would look good with any holiday village or O scale train, including:

• Hawthorne Village® Halloween trains and Villages
• Bachmann On30 trains, and
• "Christmas Villages," both the new ceramic and resin kind, and the original cardboard and celophane kind that Howard promotes in his LittleGlitterHouses.com web page.

Howard's Spook Hill™ collection for 2008 is complete. If you start now, you can have a complete Spook Hill™ village by Halloween. Each project features:

• Lists of recommended tools and materials (Xacto knife, glue, acid-free paper, various kinds of cardboard, etc.)
• Downloadable scale plans (in PDF and .jpg format)
• Step by step instructions (with hints, tips, and options)
• Links to other useful articles and resources.

The following Spook Hill™ projects are currently available. We already have three more projects on the drawing board for 2009, but if you get started early, you can have a nice Halloween community by this Halloween.

Shakey Pane Manor - the first building specifically designed for our Spook Hill™ collection.	Spook Hill™ Station - The FIRST EVER model train station designed specifically for Halloween.	Spook Hill™ Water Tower - Any easy and unique structure to complement the Spook Hill™ Station.

Spook Hill™ Billboards - The easiest Spook Hill™ project to date - great for kids, works with almost any Halloween village.	Howard's "The Frost is On the Pumpkin" project - the one that started it all.

Update for September, 2008 - If you're planning to set up an indoor Halloween railroad this year, check out our Halloween Trains page to see many clever, attractive On30 trains that will delight railfans and Halloween-lovers alike. But remember, these are subscription trains - you get one piece about every four weeks, starting with the locomotive and tender (coal car).

Even if you order "late," and only have the locomotive or maybe the locomotive and the second issue (a car and a circle of track), you can run whatever you have with any HO train power supply and Bachmann HO scale EZ track. And you will be impressed with the quality of these trains - in fact Hawthorne Village guarantees it with a one-year money-back satisfaction guarantee from Collectibles Today!

Also, these are quality products with a lifetime mechanical warranty from Bachmann Trains. Plan ahead now for a frighteningly good time this October.

Click on the following link to learn more.

http://www.halloweentrains.com

What if you like these structures but can't build them yourself even with our instructions? Howard has often been "commissioned" to design and or build vintage-style cardboard houses for collectors and fans of this delightful, but usually underrated art form. That's why he started his own web site, LittleGlitterHouses.com. If you would like to ask Howard to bid on a project for you, or if you have any questions for Howard, stop by there and you'll find direct contact information. If you have any questions for Paul, use this link.

Finally, if you have a similar project you'd like to share with your fellow readers and hobbyists, let us know. We'd love to add it to one or both of our sites, and we'll be sure to give you full credit for your contribution.

Other Articles about Halloween houses, villages, and trains include:

• Halloween Trains - an index of collectible trains and towns that will increase your October decorating fun.
• Building a Vintage-Style Barn and Silo - this isn't technically a Spook Hill™ project, but it looks great with the Spook Hill™ structures or with many other kinds of trains and towns.
• What You Need to Build Glitterhouses - lists resources that will help you build Spook Hill™ structures as well.
• Building Glitterhouse Bases - contains instructions that will help you build the bases for pastboard building projects, including the "Frost is on the Pumpkin" house and "Shakey Pane Manor."

Other Articles related to vintage pastboard houses include:

• What is a Glitterhouse? - an introduction to the history of those Japanese pasteboard Christmas houses, and the hobbies of collecting and reproducing them.
• LittleGlitterHouses.com, Howard Lamey's own site about glittered cardboard Christmas houses, featuring many he designed himself.
• Building a Glitterhouse - A detailed primer on building your own vintage Christmas cardboard houses.
• Winter Trees from Floral Picks - A quick and inexpensive way to add interesting textures to your putz or Christmas village.

To Return to the BIG Indoor Trains™ Primer Page, click here.