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All Aboard!: Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Garden
Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Let us join the throngs of travelers, I mean influencers, who are here today to enjoy the train show
and tell about it. There are, I was told, something like 38 or 40 tracks with trains chugging around
past a diversity of buildings, some down on the ground and other trains high overhead on bridges.
Applied Imagination has been making holiday magic here at NYBG for more than 30 years.
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The bridges are well supported on piers created from branches. Two influencers stroll beneath. Who is that?
We met last February, at the NYBG's media preview for their Orchid Show. Today she is again wearing a shawl she knit. I wonder if her two cream color Persian cats again assisted with this month-long knitting project.
There is so much to see. The conductor is checking to see if we are keeping on schedule.
Some of the buildings are replicas of historical structures. Built in 1805, this Montgomery Place
mansion in Annandale-on-Hudson is part of a 380-acre estate adjacent to the main Bard College campus
overlooking the Hudson River. Designated a National Historic Landmark it is an elegant country estate.
Built in 1748, Van Courtlandt Manor is in Croton-on-Hudson, where the Croton and Hudson Rivers meet.
Also a National Historic Landmark, the actual property is currently temporarily closed while undergoing
renovations to the historic site and restore landscape elements that are central to the property's integrity
It's all a matter of scale. And magic. We are inside the Enid Haupt Conservatory. And also
enchanted by Applied Imagination's elegant, detailed model. This year it is placed where we
are standing closer to it, even better able to admire the intricate detail of its structure. Superb!
The same may be said of the Mertz Library model. Look closely. Applied Imagination
cleverly replicated the library's magnificent copper dome by using naturally blue-toned
eucalyptus leaves. Built in 1897, the library was the first of its kind in the United States,
housing a library and museum focused on botany. Today's collection: over 600,000 volumes.
Some models are of buildings still extant. Others, such as Penn Station, are gone.
Signage at the holiday train show offers information, sometimes snippets, sometimes more.
Regardless, we are in the here and now, able to admire and enjoy these models and trains.
Trainman Bill Clark points out a particular point of view for
visitors to enjoy. Notice the tiny conductor in the train car.
One of today's conductors told me that at night the two of them
shrink and end up back in a train car. He was joking, wasn't he?
A view of the Angel of the Waters fountain in Central Park as the NYBG train passes by.
I'm fascinated by the curving, curlicue branches that support Bridge No. 28,
the Gothic Arch bridge. Designed in 1864 and made of cast iron and steel, it is
third of the great Central Park cast iron bridges around the Reservoir, and one
of the most impressive bridges designed by Calvert Vaux and the Cornell Ironworks.
Branches, pine cone scales, leaves and acorns, Applied Imagination makes full use
of found natural materials utilized in creating their models of buildings and bridges.
Imagination, definitely. A rotting tree trunk? Yes, now a gargoyle tunnel.
Some models, such as the Haupt Conservatory, are important standbys for the holiday train show.
They will appear year after year. Others are sometimes given a year off, providing space for new
structures, such as this marvellous Terminal Warehouse building. In fact, the model is "more"
than the real structure. Built as a freight terminal in 1891, it became a popular nightclub in
the 1980s and 90s. Now being transformed for the 21st century with glass-clad apartments on top.
This model has them. The actual building is still under construction. Time warp happening now.
Here's a better look for you, of the Conrail train and cars passing behind the building.
Time warps, buildings no longer extant recreated with garden bits and bobs
geography shifts too. Rockefeller Center, Chrysler and Empire State buildings.
Another "new this year" building is the modernistic Whitney Museum of American Art
in the Palm Court pool (where the Statue of Liberty and other structures are on display.)
In the heart of Manhattan's Meatpacking District it sits beside the Hudson River.
Since 1930 the Whitney has celebrated art and the artists shaping culture today.
Polished chestnut bark and a new, reflective plant-based resin created this model.
And of course where there is water one can expect boats. What else but the Staten Island ferry.
I hope that you, dear reader, enjoyed these images and their accompanying text. There are more buildings to see than those I have presented here. Do make a visit. You will enjoy what's to be seen at the New York Botanical Garden.
Day time or after dark, when the pathways are lit.
Opening to the public on Saturday, 15 November. For tickets and ticket information you may e-mail ticketingsupport@nybg.org or call: 718.817.8716; 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
image courtesy NYBG
If you have any comments or questions, you can e-mail me: jgglatt@gmail.com
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