"Rails to the Darkside" Offers Frightening Fun

Although still early on in the Halloween season, folks lined up Friday night for a chance to ride two restored trolley cars on what began as a leisurely trip down reconstructed rail lines and concluded at a “dead end.”

The Connecticut Trolley Museum’s annual Rails to the Darkside event has opened and passengers who dared to buy a ticket are treated to a frightful ride to an abandoned trolley car where the remains (pretend, of course) of a passenger who never reached her destination.

As the nameless woman came to life, so did a variety of other creepy characters, some wielding chainsaws, guns and torches. Amidst the screaming of living passengers, the motorman made a desperate attempt to drive the trolley out of the woods and back to safety. Of course, the trolley only made it so far before the driver asked the passengers to exit the car and walk back to “safety.” This meant walking down a dark path then through the haunted Trolley Museum.

According to the Connecticut Trolley Museum’s Web site, legend goes as follows:

“Back a few years before we were running Rails to the Darkside, one of our members was out taking pictures along the tracks of our trolleys. Once he got home and took a look at them, he found some very disturbing images.

Desiring some photos of a trolley with the fall foliage around sunset, our member had poised himself near Winkler Road. As the trolley approached, its whistle spooked a deer just on the edge of the tracks. As our member attempted to catch it running away, the photo shows he was not lucky this time. In the background, it only appeared that someone was just walking by.

Our member met up with the trolley again at the end of the line at Station 9, Wells Road. As the trolley departed, our member snapped one more photo before calling it a day. The black figure appeared again on the edge of the tracks, this time glaring at the camera.

Museum volunteers did a little research, discovering that a cemetery was relocated with the construction of the Hartford and Springfield line to Rockville.

Our volunteers operating the trolleys always asked why operations always ended before dusk. Written in the operating rules was a clear order not to run into the night during the weeks leading to Halloween.

It was decided by a few brave souls to try running a trolley into the darkness. The waiting dispatcher at North Road Station couldn't believe his eyes when the trolley rolled back into the station empty. Do you dare take a ride to the darkside?”

Rails to the Darkside takes place each Friday and Saturday from 7 to 9:30 p.m. through Halloween. Admission is $13 for adults, and $8 for kids 12 and under.