Southport Model Engineering Club's Ghost Train is back on Rotten Row on 30 and 31 October, 4pm to 8pm. Tickets £8, £5 under 3s, and a goody bag after the ride.
The SMEC Ghost Train runs again this Halloween at Southport Model Engineering Club on Rotten Row, next to Victoria Park, on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October 2026, 4pm to 8pm each night. Tickets are £8 a passenger, and children get a goody bag when they get off.
“Our SMEC Ghost Train is back for its 2nd year in Southport on Rotten Row, bigger and better, tickets priced at £8 each and kids receive a goody bag after the ride!” Tom Taylor wrote to us for the club this week.
The quick answer
- When: Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October, 4pm to 8pm both nights
- Where: Southport Model Engineering Club, Rotten Row (next to Victoria Park), Southport PR8 2DA
- Price: £8 a passenger; £5 for a child under 3 or under 90cm, without a goody bag
- Quieter session: 4pm to 5.30pm on both nights
- Book: southportmec.com/halloween/tickets
All of the times, prices and rules here are from the club’s Ghost Train website, checked on 6 October.
What the ride is
The club runs its miniature railway as the ghost train, with real locomotives pulling the passengers. When Tom first wrote to us, ahead of last year’s opening, he put it like this:
“Our attraction at the Southport Model Engineering Club is unique as we use real live steam and diesel electric locos to pull up-to 7 passengers per Ghost Train around our spooky site, with lots of spectacular lighting effects and audio, this is not to be missed!”
Which engine you get is down to luck. The club’s website says each train is pulled by “a live steam or diesel battery electric locomotive (randomly allocated)”, and that the experience has been “reimagined” for 2026 as “a fully immersive spooky railway journey”. This year’s route takes in haunted tunnels, ghostly stations and what the club calls friendly spirits, and riders are asked to count the different “silly spooks” for a treat at the end. The posters name the stops along the way: the Witches Haunt, Spider Cove, the Jackolanterns and the glittering bats and spooks.
New this year are stalls, games and refreshments on site, for before or after the ride.
Tickets and who it suits
The club suggests the ride for children aged 3 and over. A standard ticket is £8, and any child aged 3 or over, or 90cm tall or over, needs one. The reduced £5 ticket is for a child under 3 or under 90cm, and the club is clear that it comes without a goody bag, “as the contents are not suitable for younger children”. It also warns that it may refuse entry, without a refund, if the wrong ticket has been bought.
Children under 13, or under 1.2 metres tall, must ride with an adult. Costumes are welcome, but the club’s safety page rules out masks that cover the whole face, trailing items that could catch on the railway, and impractical footwear. The event is outdoors, so dress for the weather.
The money goes back into the club. In Tom’s words, the tickets “are donations to support the club as any money is reinvested”.
A quieter first 90 minutes
Families who want something gentler should book the start of either night. Between 4pm and 5.30pm on both evenings the club runs what it calls a neuro-inclusive session: no jump scares, the music and effects turned down with no sudden bangs or screams, smoke and strobe-style lighting reduced or switched off, and the route still in daylight or dusk. You do not book it separately, you simply pick a ticket in that slot (SMEC Ghost Train sensory page).
The loop takes about six to eight minutes. “It is built to be spooky rather than scary,” its website says: “think friendly ghosts and pumpkins, not horror.” Stewards in hi-vis jackets can take a family to a quieter spot away from the queue and the speakers.
The full evening is a different matter. The club’s safety page says the event features sudden sounds, flashing lights and spooky effects, and does not recommend it for people with severe anxiety, claustrophobia or epilepsy.
Last year, the first year
The Ghost Train first ran on Halloween weekend in 2025, on 31 October and 1 November. Pupils from Farnborough Road Junior School helped make the Halloween characters placed around the track, and were invited with their families as VIP guests on the test night, Tom told us at the time. The club’s website says ITV’s Granada Reports broadcast live from the Ghost Train.
Getting there
The club says Southport station is about 15 minutes’ walk away, and that there is free street parking on Rotten Row and the surrounding streets. For the town centre car parks and charges, see parking in Southport, and check Southport roadworks and travel the week before.
If you want to see the line in daylight first, the club runs trains every Sunday for donations to keep it open, its website says.
What it means for you
This is one of the cheaper Halloween nights out in town: £8 a head, a ride behind a working miniature locomotive, and a goody bag for children 3 and over. Friday is the last day of Sefton’s half term, and Saturday 31 October is Halloween night, when Southport Market and The Grand have their own events. Our Southport Halloween and half-term page has the rest of the week, from the free Books Alive trail to pumpkin picking.
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