Midwest Haunted Rails 2025 Highlights - Mount Pleasant, Iowa

Since my last video featuring the Midwest Haunted Rails event in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, I've gotten a lot of requests for making another video. I've only been to a few Haunted Rails events since 2019, but this year, 2025, was my first since then that I've taken a significant amount of video. My wife and I went to this year's event on October 18th, 2025, and throughout the night I took several video clips with my iPhone. We got there in the first hour of operations (6 PM), and quickly got on Midwest Central Railroad's "Train of No Return" at the North Station, pulled by West Side Lumber Company Shay locomotive 9. The train takes us on a full round-trip around the grounds, with a slow pass through the South Station, transformed into a giant haunted house full of scary scenes and animatronic characters. We then made a visit to the Midwest Electric Railway for their "Ghostly Trolley", that takes people around their railroad circling the Old Threshers campgrounds, with a number of Halloween displays throughout. Unlike previous years, the "Headless Horseman" was not along the tracks which was a little disappointing. Maybe it was his day off? Lol! Getting off the trolleys, we made our way back to the Midwest Central for one more round of the Train of No Return, but not before a pop-up thunderstorm swept through, dumping quite a bit of rain and sending dramatic lightning through the sky in a quick period. Already in line, we waited it out and I got a few pretty neat shots of the train as 2-6-0 steam locomotive 6 pulls in. As you may notice in the video, a portion of the grounds briefly lost electricity as well. After making another successful round-trip on the train (this time seeing the other side of the haunted South Station), we headed home, and the video ends with a run-by of one of the trains shortly after departing the North Station.

"Midwest Haunted Rails" is an annual event put on in McMillan Park in Mount Pleasant, IA by the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion, Midwest Central Railroad, and Midwest Electric Railway. The event is held on Fridays and Saturdays for three weekends in October leading up to Halloween. Along with the train and trolley rides, visitors can also ride the haunted carousel and other carnival rides set up near the Midwest Electric's depot. The popular "Thrasher's House of Terror" is also located on the grounds, for those wanting a full-fledged haunted house experience.

Video timestamps:
0:00 Train of No Return, 1st ride on right side
4:39 Ghostly Trolley
6:33 Thunderstorm!
8:50 Train of No Return, 2nd ride on left side
14:32 Train run-by near North Station

For a slightly more in-depth video of Midwest Haunted Rails, check out my video from 2019 by clicking here:    • Midwest Haunted Rails 2019 - Mount Pleasan...  

Also, check out my extensive series "The Trains at Old Threshers" for the Midwest Central and Midwest Electric operations during the Old Threshers Reunion each Labor Day. Subscribe and visit my channel for many more train videos! ‪@BobbyHarveyVideoProductions‬

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