A popular Lowestoft attraction is gearing up for another busy few weeks.

After about 1,100 people had descended on the East Anglia Transport Museum in Carlton Colville for their traditional end of season Autumn gala last month, a special Halloween event is being held next weekend.

The transport museum's publicity officer Tony Grice said: 'Superb weather and about 1,100 visitors over the two days helped to make our end of season Autumn gala a huge success. Historically the end of season gala is the climax of the operating season, however this year – for the first time – we opened on October 4, 11, 18 and Sunday (October 25) – with the final event 'Halloween' taking place between noon and 7pm on Saturday, October 31.'

The venue's woodland area will be attracting the ghosts and ghouls as some spooky goings on take centre stage at the museum in Chapel Road.

With prizes awarded to children who attend in fancy dress, there will be pumpkins, soup, a barbecue and witch hunt all to enjoy.

Reflecting on the success of the gala weekend, Mr Grice said: 'As usual we operated our free bus service between Beccles and Lowestoft town centres to the Museum and these proved tremendously popular with full loads on most of the trips.'

With a park and ride facility successfully run once more from the Co-op food store in Ashburnham Way, Mr Grice said: 'This year we are indebted to Danny Beales, Chris Speed and Richard Algar of First Eastern Counties buses for the use of two double-deckers for the park and ride service. On Saturday the duties were covered by an ALX 400 double-decker recently repainted in the old Lowestoft Corporation livery and on the Sunday, park and ride duties were shared between the Lowestoft bus and another ALX 400 double-decker repainted in Great Yarmouth livery.

'The park and ride service was well used throughout both days and we thank all involved for the smooth running of the operation.'

Rides after dark proved popular once more, with fully loaded trams going to the terminus in Hedley Wood and full trolleybuses travelling around their circuit, and the museum's narrow gauge railway was popular as ever.

Mr Grice added: 'At this event, thanks to the enthusiasm of some of our young members, our Thornycroft J-type lorry ran for the first time for many years. All in all this has been a good year for the Museum with visitor numbers higher than normal which will help us to meet the operational and restoration costs of running a heritage transport museum, not forgetting that all staff are voluntary – there are no paid employees.'

He added: 'A big thank you to all of our visitors who have helped make this year successful and worthwhile.'

? Have you got a Lowestoft story? Email mark.boggis@archant.co.uk