Their BACK! On November 16th, 2021 we had an opportunity to attend the press preview for the most popular train show in New York City. Each year we’re super excited to see what’s about to be unveiled. The Holiday Train Show® at The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is celebrating 30th years. In celebration of 30 years, the Holiday Train Show will be showcasing 190 of NYBG’s buildings and structures including a new replica of the majestic LuEsther T. Mertz Library Building, along with the iconic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
In recognition of the Holiday Train Show’s 30th year, the artists at Applied Imagination have re-created one of the most significant sites at The New York Botanical Garden: the LuEsther T. Mertz Library Building, the Lillian Goldman Fountain of Life, and the John J. Hoffee Tulip Tree Allée, which were collectively designated as a New York City Landmark in 2009.
The Goldman Fountain of Life, a dramatic composition of mythical figures in front of the Library Building, was designed by American Renaissance sculptor Charles E. Tefft in 1905 and was restored in 2005. The replicas of the fountain’s Beaux-Arts sculptures, including charging seahorses, a lively nymph, and a startled mermaid and merman, are covered in tobacco leaves, with grape vine tendrils for the figures’ hair. The fountain’s basin is fashioned from large shelf fungus.
New LuEsther T. Mertz Library Building Replica – Photography @NYBG
Photography @NYBG
The Holiday Train Show includes such famous New York landmarks as the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, One World Trade Center, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, and many other favorites, all crafted by the creative team at Applied Imagination in Alexandria, Kentucky. These landmark replicas are artistically crafted out of natural materials such as leaves, seeds, twigs, bark, acorns, and pine cone scales.
The craftsmanship and details of the 25 G-scale model trains and trolleys are impeccable. You can watch these beautifully designed masterpieces as they hum along nearly a half-mile of track in the Holiday Train Show. American steam engines, streetcars from the late 1800s, and modern freight and passenger trains travel along overhead trestles, through tunnels, and across soaring bridges such as the Brooklyn Bridge and George Washington Bridge.
Tickets on sale now here – show begins Saturday, November 20, 2021–Sunday, January 23, 2022.
An Expanded NYBG GLOW Also Returns
In addition to the Holiday Train Show, families and friends can start a new holiday tradition as day turns to night on select dates, exploring the Garden’s festively illuminated landscape and enjoying music, dance, food, and more at NYBG GLOW, expanded for its second year. The outdoor 1.5-mile color-and-light experience will take place from 5 to 10 p.m. on 25 nights starting Wednesday, November 24, 2021, and running through Saturday, January 22, 2022. Visitors to NYBG GLOW will be able to round out their evening with an after-dark visit to The Holiday Train Show by purchasing a special combination ticket here. It will be the perfect night out this holiday season.
