SILVERHILL, Ala. — It looks so charming, so normal, so … Welsh, you are tempted to forget that you are in Silverhill. Maybe you’ve come across the Island of Sodor, and Thomas the Tank Engine is about to huff self-importantly around the tracks.

Then you see the hanging bats and the cobwebs strung along the cars pulled by the locomotive “Lady Ann,” and you know that you are in for (will it be the last?) ride of your life.

Ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy things that go bump in the night abound. Oh my.

Not to worry. The staff of the Wales West Light Railway will make sure you get back to the train station safe and sound. Maybe just a little scared, but that’s part of the fun.

You have a choice — an afternoon excursion that is suitable for the youngest or a scaredycat reporter and an evening ride for the braver of heart that begins at dark and runs to 9 p.m.

The daytime excursions are happening on weekends now, and the night time rides will begin Oct. 15. All rides include a cup of punch, a cookie and the chance to pick out a small pumpkin as a souvenir. The price is $10 per person. The Web site is at waleswest.com.

The ride begins innocently enough, in a replica of Welsh train station. As you pull out, a number of buildings done up to look like a Welsh village greet you. You pass a trim spring-fed lake that in warmer weather serves as the park’s beach. There are also bream and largemouth bass in the pond, and there is a fishing area. You pass the park’s large indoor pool and the community room that on Tuesday nights from 7 to 9 p.m. hosts “Bluegrass by the Tracks” concerts. According to Shelby Carraway, the park’s special events coordinator, the concerts happen every Tuesday night until March, and culminate with a “Thank You Snowbirds” festival the first weekend of March. Admission to the Tuesday night concerts is a $5 per person donation and includes refreshments and a train ride. Call 1-888-569-5337 for more information.

“There’s no smoking and no alcohol at the concerts,” adds Carraway.

But we are scarcely past the community room, the Lady Ann chugging along nicely, when we pass out first sign that something goulish this way comes.

There’s a large cemetery on one side, and then just beyond, is a ghoul family.

“We call that “Ghoulville,” said Carraway nonchalantly, adding that during the “Ghoul Family Night Train” excursions, costumed area high school students “greet” the train as it goes by and a few of the ghouls make their way aboard to the horrified delight of the passengers.

But by then, we were rolling into “Chapel Halt,” a large barn-like structure that had been converted into a haunted house. During the day, there’s plenty of light so the little ones aren’t scared by the “G” rated decorations.

But, Carraway says night is another matter.

“We have characters that pop out,” said Carraway.

After traversing (or was that surviving?) the haunted maze, train riders come out into a “haunted pumpkin patch,” which features a number of kid-sized pumpkins. All riders are welcome to select their favorite and then bring it back inside the building to decorate it with felt, markers and glue-on googly eyes.

Then, it’s time to hop back on “Lady Ann” for the ride past some more scary fellows to the station.

“We try to keep it very generic,” said Ken Zadnichek, one of the park’s owners. “I don’t see anything unholy in a few little creepy crawlers.”

The train and the park is a labor of love for owners Ken and Ann Zadnichek.

“I figured if I named the train after my wife, I could have it,” joked Ken Zadnichek.

Zadnichek added that work began on the Wales West railroad about seven years ago, and the line opened to the public about four years ago.

“We want to educate kids about trains and their history,” said Zadnichek.

Zadnichek says he grew up in a railroading family, and while he did not make a career on a railroad, he figures his 2-foot Welsh narrow gauge railroad is the next best thing.

Zadnichek added that a number of school trips come to the park on field trips to ride the train and get a hands-on lesson in how locomotives work.

According to Ann Zadnichek, the pair got the idea of adding their own Welsh railroad while on a trip to Wales.

“We were riding a train, and my husband said that the valley we were riding through looked like our valley back home. the next year, we were looking at trains.”

The couple settled on a “Hunslet” type train. Financing the venture to turn farmland into a destination RV resort was something else. They had to get rid of their bull named “Sirloin” and the 40-odd cows on the land.

“They said it would take a year to build it, and when we went to our bank they told us to talk to them about an RV park but don’t tell us about the train.”

So, as Ann Zadnichek said, they didn’t.

The themed train rides were developed out of necessity.

“We needed a reason for people to come,” Ann Zadnichek said. While a number of families come to the RV park for a few days for an inexpensive “get away,” the train had to pull some more weight.

“This all grows on its own,” said Ann Zadnichek. “It just sort of evolved.”