Going out on a high

This coming weekend is the last operating days of the season - hasn't the year just flown by? In previous years, the season has ended with rather a dull diesel operating Saturday, then the train is put in the shed, and that's about it until Santa. Not this year. Oh no. This year we're trying to go out on a high with the First Ever Apedale Halloween special. The Legend of the Lost Engine is writ large, and hopefully we'll see throngs of punters just itching to find out what horrors lurk down at Apedale. Actually, the horrors are there most weekends working in the workshop, it's just this time they are being allowed to meet the public. It's some sort of Care in the Community initiative, apparently. Check out the AVLR website for more details, but suffice to say that the Halloween Specials will be running from 4pm to 8pm on both Saturday and Sunday.
On the off chabce that we survive our excursion into the Dark Side, the next Big Thing will be altogether less scary - Santa. The Santa Special booking system is now up and running on the AVLR website, and this year is fully automated. I gather it is run by HAL9000. In the event that you get an e-mail asking about opening pod bay doors, it is probably time to get quite worried. Do feel free to get in touch here if you feel worried, and we'll pretend to be concerned.