All Aboard for the "Holiday Train Show"

I'm ashamed to admit that despite living in New York for 28 years I've never visited The New York Botanical Gardens. Founded in 1891 and a National Historic Landmark since 1967, the NYBG is a spectacular 250 acre oasis of green in the middle of the Bronx. The gardens include a herbarium, a conifer arboretum, an azalea garden, rose gardens, lilac and magnolia groves, a rock garden, wetlands and 50 acres of old-growth forest all dominated by a magnificent 1890s vintage "crystal palace style" greenhouse now dubbed the Enid Haupt Conservatory. It is to this Conservatory that visitors flock during the Christmas season to see the annual Holiday Train Show - the impetus for my long-overdue visit!

Friends have been telling me for ages that I ought to go and see the train show at the Gardens, but for various reasons I never got there. This year I made it a priority and ordered the tickets over Thanksgiving weekend for the Friday afternoon before Christmas week. I was committed! After an easy ride up on the "D" train and a short walk through the neighborhood I reached the entrance where I was guided to the path that would take me to the Conservatory.

It was very peaceful to walk through the Gardens in the quiet of a December afternoon. I passed a few wild turkeys strutting through the grounds and then I came to the welcome tent where overall-clad "engineers" took my ticket and directed me into the Conservatory and the beginning of the tour. The magic was about to begin!

I entered the rotunda of the Conservatory - a lush, palm-filled tropical environment with a reflecting pool in the center. Here in the pool were several models of New York institutions like the Statue of Liberty, the old TWA terminal at JFK Airport and the Great Hall at Ellis Island...

So far, so good, but I still hadn't seen any trains! Wait a minute, is that a whistle up ahead? Sure enough, just past the reflecting pool the entire north wing of the Conservatory had been transformed into a model train mecca!

Look up! There goes a tram over the Brooklyn Bridge...


Look down, a freight train is passing the Guggenheim Museum...


A commuter train is passing some townhouses on the Upper East Side...


All Aboard! The passenger trains are boarding underground at the old Pennsylvania Station...


Here we are Downtown in Washington Square Park...


In Midtown where the buildings reach the sky...


And Uptown at the Apollo Theater...


You may be wondering what these model building are made of? A side presentation, the "Artists' Studio" provided an informative guide to how these works are created. Once a subject has been chosen, the original blueprints are studied and a structure is made out of foam board. This frame is then entirely covered with natural vegetation such as twigs, leaves, acorns and bark to reproduce even the smallest architectural details entirely out of plant material. Here is a look at how the replica of Rockefeller home "Kykuit" was put together:


The 2011 Holiday Train Show comprises over 140 replicas of New York buildings and monuments, both past and present, with more being added every year. Some favorites include The New York Public Library with the lions "Patience" and "Fortitude" flanking the steps...


The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue...

The tracks cover 1,200 feet using gauge 1 brass track that can actually run outdoors. It takes ten days for a team of twenty to assemble the tracks, mount the replicas, tuck in the plants and install all the bells and whistles and switches to make this show come alive. So visitors such as myself can wonder at the George Washington Bridge...


Historic Grant's Tomb...


Or just enjoy the magic of New York City at Christmas time...