Replica of Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, NYBG, 27th NYBG Holiday Train Show, Applied Imagination (Carole Di Tosti)

27th Holiday Train Show, 3000 ft. 360 degree extension, New York Botanical Garden, Applied Imagination (Carole Di Tosti)

Once a year The New York Botanical Garden gets dressed up in the reds, greens, whites, sparkles, golds and silvers that echo all that is bright for the wintry weather and coming cold and snow. Though some dislike all the fuss of the holidays, I enjoy it, because I visit family and friends. Thankfully, I don’t have a tree and pets to wreck it.

27th New York Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show, Applied Imagination (Carole Di Tosti)

27th NYBG Holiday Train Show, Metro North, Applied Imagination (Carole Di Tosti)

I help decorate my family’s trees and enjoy the celebration of present giving especially with my young nephews and nieces. For folks like me who tangentially celebrate with friends and family, but don’t do a lot of decorating at home, the New York Botanical Garden is the place to go to feel festive. And what makes the Garden especially celebratory during the holidays is their annual train show.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral, NYBG Holiday Train Show 2018, Applied Imagination (Carole Di Tosti)

A vista of Bridges, NYBG Holiday Train Show 2018, Applied Imagination (Carole Di Tosti)

Each year various innovations are made. Displays change. Sometimes, I find I lose whole areas of New York City replicas (Coney Island, Central Park, Museum Row,) that normally are featured together. When I don’t see them, I wonder if they have been saved and stored for next year. But then I find them again in a different section of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory than they were the previous year. Indeed, there appears to be an infinite variety of placements of the over 175 replicas that compromise the permanent Holiday Train Show collection that collaborators Applied Imagination and NYBG create for one of the most well attended events the Garden offers.

Elephantine Colossus, Luna Park Gate, Coney Island, 27th NYBG Holiday Train Show, Applied Imagination (Carole Di Tosti)

Thousands of first-time tourists, visitors and members attend each year, participating in Bar Car Nights, the Holiday Tree and Minorah Lighting Ceremony, the Annual Bird Count and much more. However, the central themes of winter reside in trains as a throwback of the past. Ironically, they are the most mechanized feature of the train show along with the colorful lights interspersed throughout. For Founder Paul Busse eschewed using the plastic villages that came with model trains. When he decided to make his architectural “villages” of organic plant parts to husband the environment and throw down the “fake,” it was a boon. For every model, ever bridge, every house, gate, feature he and later others on his staff designed, use as their building blocks plants: twigs, bark, acorns, gourds, fruits, seeds, leaves, ferns, fungus, moss, nuts, nut shells, plant fiber and much more.

Palms of the World Gallery and Reflecting Pool, One World Trade Center and Maritime buildings NYBG Holiday Train Show 2018 (Carole Di Tosti)

Detail of the Oculus, One World Trade Center, Palms of the World Gallery and Reflecting Pool, NYBG Holiday Train Show 2018, Applied Imagination (Carole Di Tosti)

The Oculus at the foot of One World Trade Center, Palms of the World Gallery and Reflecting Pool, NYBG Holiday Train Show 2018 (Carole Di Tosti)

Both Applied Imagination who creates the stupendous replicas of iconic New York City buildings and the New York Botanical Garden team work like Santa’s elves for two weeks. During that time they set up the more than 25 HG model trains that skip and breeze over 1/2 mile of track non-stop during the daytime when the Garden is open through 6 pm when it shuts down. Then the trains glide from 7-10:30 pm on select Bar Car Nights, their headlights glinting through the dark mystery of the Garden’s dense, exotic evening atmosphere.

Lower Manhattan Display, Bronx ferry and buildings, Palms of the World Gallery and Reflecting Pool, NYBG Holiday Train Show 2018 (Carole Di Tosti)

What those who have been attending the show for a while and certainly the newcomers do not realize in this 27th year of the Holiday Train Show is its evolution. Each year buildings have been added to the collection. Paul Busse always strives to forge out and tackle the different and unique, so he and his creators in Applied Imagination’s Alexandria, Kentucky Studio plan ahead with conceptualizations. After decisions in collaboration with the NYBG team, then the drawings are finalized. Then the construction begins and all is completed around the time the Garden staff strikes down the fall exhibits in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, the soil is regraded and plants chosen and prepared to feature the Holiday Train Show’s old and newly fabricated models.

Exquisite detail of the seeds, flower petals and twigs that comprise the stained glass windows of St. Patrick’s Cathedral replica, NYBG Holiday Train Show 2018 (Carole Di Tosti)

Laura Busse Dolan, owner of Applied Imagination (Carole Di Tosti)

The journey from start to finish is a prodigious one, but the Applied Imagination team headed up by owner Laura Busse Dolan are practiced artisans. Clearly, they enjoy giving children and adults pleasure which one can easily assess just walking from one end of the conservatory to the other listening to the kids screams (daytime exhibit) and seeing adults relaxed amble with drink in hand through sections of the conservatory during Bar Car Nights. Those nights or Member Days are a great time to reconnect with friends, lovers and partners while enjoying the splendors of the Garden’s wintertime loveliness.

New York Public Library replica, NYBG Holiday Train Show 2018, Applied Imagination (Carole Di Tosti)

The festive and popular Bar Car Nights on select Fridays and Saturdays from 7-10:30 pm, December 15, 21, 22, 28, 29, January 5, 12. for adults over 21. Have a bite to eat fro the Bronx Night Market Holiday Pop-up, There are fire pits in the Leon Levy Visitor enter. Watch live ice-sculpting demonstrations, sing along to favorite tunes with dueling pianos in the Pine Tree Cafe and listen to roving a cappella groups as they guide you through the Garden.

Join former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins for a special reading of poems on December 16 at 2 pm. New this year as part of the Kids’ Poetry Contest and in partnership with the Poetry Society of America, Collins will select 12 winning poems to be displayed at NYBG during the Holiday Train Show. And the student authors will share their work during the special reading.

For special programming during the Holiday Train Show 2018, go to the New York Botanical Garden website.

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