For many around the country, the upcoming weekend is a vacation in itself. The schedule usually involves such winning events as stuffing yourself silly for Thanksgiving; living off gourmet leftovers for the better part of a week; and forgetting about workaday hassles for a rare four-day weekend. (To everyone having to work on Black Friday, you have every ounce of sympathy we can muster.) The Thanksgiving Day Parade is what really brings home the nostalgia for some, and others the Sunday football. But as for me, it has to be the post-feast nap–that tryptophan is serious business.
Still, not everyone loves the idea of spending the entire holiday weekend cooped up in the house, playing host to a family that just wants to get out and do something. And that makes the coming days the perfect time to visit the Holiday Train Show, fresh off its grand opening on November 19 and picking up steam as we head into the winter months.
We know you’ve been anxious for the Holiday Train Show to open its doors–we’re right there with you! And truth be told, ever since preparation began in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory two weeks ago, it’s been a struggle for those of us at Plant Talk to keep our excitement in check (and why would we even want to, at that?) Watching the bridges and tracks being put in place, seeing this year’s layout take shape under the careful attentions of Paul Busse and his Applied Imagination team–it’s left us daydreaming over how spectacular everything will look under the lights this weekend.
But there’s more to the Train Show than locomotives and landmarks. This weekend also marks the start of our holiday celebrations at large, with grand opening ceremonies, music, and all sorts of entertainment outside the glassy walls of the Conservatory.
The trains are on the track (complete with caboose). The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory (in miniature) is in-place under the dome of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory (full size), as are other significant New York-area landmarks.
The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory in the Holiday Train Show (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Christmas is days away. The kids are out of school, the shopping is (maybe) done, the presents are (mostly) wrapped, and it’s time to concentrate on kicking back and reveling in the joys of the season. For many families in the New York City area, a visit to the Holiday Train Show is as much a part of the holiday season as seeing a performance of The Nutcracker or the Rockettes, gawking at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, ice skating in Bryant Park, and watching the animals open “presents” at the Prospect Park Zoo.
And as any seasoned New Yorker can tell you, Christmas in the city can be immensely enjoyable. It’s easy to feel in the spirit of the season when surrounded by so much joy. But, for every jolly Christmas elf, there’s a Grinch whose heart is made several sizes too small by overlong lines, overwhelming crowds, and overheated offices. Escape the lines and hullabaloo of Midtown and come experience the wonder of the Holiday Train Show at the Garden. In an effort to spread the holiday cheer, we’re offering a few tips for maximizing your Train Show enjoyment during these jolly peak weeks (December 21, 2010-January 2, 2011).
My nephews, like millions of other peoples’ nephews, are obsessed with trains. Obviously, I cannot wait to bring them here to the Garden this year for the Holiday Train Show, and I’m promising them a full-on train adventure.
Sure, we know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet (somebody better tell Ms. Turkey here to go into hiding for the next few days), but that doesn’t mean we can’t start getting festive here at The New York Botanical Garden!
Friday marks the unofficial start of the season here at the Botanical Gardens when members are invited to take a sneak peek at the amazing Holiday Train Show.
Sculptor Takes Us Behind-the-Scenes Building the Botanical Replicas
Sculptor Annette Skinner has worked on the Applied Imagination team since 1992.
Memories of travels, saved in a giant box. The twisty stick, obscure seed pod, shapely leaf quietly await the next decisive moment. If lucky, my boss, Paul Busse, will require my sculptural eye for the intriguing job of creating another scale model of a historic building. These varied natural objects possibly will become a banister, urn, or portico.
Paul, designer of the Holiday Train Show, (see the two of us in the photo at right, courtesy of Judy Glattstein) has a unique concept that requires integration of the natural world with traditional G-scale model railroad layouts. His highly dimensional, textural interpretation is populated by finely detailed versions of American art and architecture. Each year The New York Botanical Garden adds to its collection of New York landmarks, and I have been helping on these starting with Poe Cottage in the early days. This year’s newcomer, Penn Station, took staff at Applied Imagination over 1,1,00 collective hours to complete. Also new this year is the Brooks Brothers flagship store, LED lights on the Yankee Stadium replica, and an audio of lovely organ music by Paul’s son, Brian, accompanying the St. Patrick’s Cathedral replica.
Most of Paul’s designs are drawn in a studio he shares with his wife, Margaret Duke, in northern Kentucky. His drafting table overlooks a stream, reflecting the flow and curves of his blueprint sketches for track assembly.
Authors of Old Penn Station History and Children’s Tale Visit
John Suskewich is Book Manager for Shop in the Garden.
A replica of the late, great Pennsylvania Station is new this year in The New York Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Show. I remember that building at the end of its life. My family used to go by train to Philadelphia to visit my aunt who was actually born in Russia and scared us kids by removing her false teeth. Penn Station seemed like a ruin even when it was intact. It was grim and grimy and as you got pulled downstairs and yanked down corridors, it loomed overhead like a cliff or a cave. During demolition the building sat on its city block with broken columns and cornices and clocks hanging in midair like Valhalla after the gods had left.
The rendition of Pennsylvania Station that designer Paul Busse has created for the train show imagines it as it was in its heyday and is impressively colossal even at reduced scale, with bark colonnades, acorn capitals, pine cone clocks, and sugar-water windows.
In Old Penn Station, author William Low traces the history of the great depot from its inception as a monumental gateway to Gotham to its glory days as a transportation hub and its decline and destruction in the name of progress and profitability. His muscular, colorful illustrations, lit like an elegy and pictured from every conceivable angle, bring this fallen monument to life and will turn even a tot into an ardent preservationist.
How many times have you seen It’s a Wonderful Life? A Christmas Story? Too many times to count? Rather than watch the holidays from a couch, break out your favorite festive sweater and create memories of your own with friends, relatives, colleagues, or others on a group tour of the Holiday Train Show.
Make a visit to this spectacular exhibition of twinkling lights, model trains, and replicas of New York landmarks made from plant parts a way of reconnecting with the special people in your life during this special time of year. Groups of 15 or more who plan a weekday visit receive a discount off the general admission price.
You may want to gather friends for a seasonal get-together or plan a day away from the office with co-workers or congregate with neighbors—come with any group of 15 or more during the week and everyone saves.
For many around the country, the upcoming weekend is a vacation in itself. The schedule usually involves such winning events as stuffing yourself silly for Thanksgiving; living off gourmet leftovers for the better part of a week; and forgetting about workaday hassles for a rare four-day weekend. (To everyone having to work on Black Friday, you have every ounce of sympathy we can muster.) The Thanksgiving Day Parade is what really brings home the nostalgia for some, and others the Sunday football. But as for me, it has to be the post-feast nap–that tryptophan is serious business.
