Trains, Landmarks And Plants At Model Railroad Garden

The Model Railroad Garden: Landmarks of America chugs back into the Chicago Botanic Garden on May 12 for its eighth season, with several new attractions and vignettes. Visitors step into an enchanting outdoor exhibit of model trains, miniature representations of America's best-loved landmarks, and small-scale gardens.

Train and garden enthusiasts, young and old, return year after year for the delightful sights and sounds of G-scale (garden-scale) trains traversing high and low through tunnels, across bridges and around buildings-all intricately handcrafted with natural materials, including twigs, bark, leaves, acorns and pebbles. Nearly 5,000 tiny trees, shrubs, groundcovers and flowering plants in 238 varieties recreate the topographical landscape of America. Vignettes of tiny people and animals give the exhibit a storybook feel, while sound effects and a working geyser capture visitors' imaginations.

New or enhanced scenes proposed for the Garden's 2007 exhibit include: Mt. Rushmore, a dinosaur dig in the Badlands, Wrigleyville, rebuilt Golden Gate Bridge, Thomas the Tank train section and Frank Lloyd Wright building(s), plus a new circus train.

Paul Busse of Applied Imagination, Alexandria, Ky., designs and creates the "Landmarks of America" exhibition. Busse's fascination with trains began at age five when he received an American flyer train. By 1982, he was a landscape architect and entered a model train garden in the Ohio State Fair. Since then, he has enjoyed a career in train garden design. His exhibits are in numerous private and public spaces, including botanic gardens in New York and Atlanta.

The Chicago Botanic Garden's 7,500-square-foot Model Railroad Garden features 16 trains on 1,600 feet of track. Children squeal with the delight as Thomas the Tank engine runs past Main Street, or the elusive Ladybug Train pops into sight. Other train lines include Amtrak, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Freight, Burlington Route Freight, Good Humor Ice Cream Train, Napa Valley Passenger, Pikes Peak Cog Railroad, Rio Grande Freight, Rock Island Freight, Santa Fe Freight, Santa Fe Super Chief Passenger, Union Pacific and Wilson Brothers Circus Train.

In the exhibition, visitors travel coast to coast from the Seattle Space Needle past Yellowstone, with its Old Faithful Geyser, and Yosemite National Park, underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and past a Napa Valley vineyard, where miniature ivy plants become grapevines. An old-fashioned Hollywood movie set is just a skip across the track from the Muir Woods and Badlands National Park.

"Passengers" then travel to Chicago for a view of the 7-foot-tall John Hancock Building and a sing-along with Harry Caray at Wrigley Field, complete, of course, with miniature bleaches, fans and ivy wall. A Midwestern farm is a step or two away from an old-fashioned schoolhouse. Located around the bend is a charming scene of a typical American Main Street, right next door to The White House. See a demolition derby in progress at the County Race Track. Visit a French cottage, American and Creole townhouses, and the plantation-style Luling Mansion built in l964-all located in the replica French Quarter. In all, there are more than 35 historic landmarks in the exhibit.

Many visitors come to gather ideas for their own backyard garden railway. Garden railroading is the fastest growing segment of hobby railroading, and more and more gardeners are "getting railroaded." Today, the United States has as many as 25,000 garden railways.

Volunteers work with Model Railroad Garden engineers Dave Rodelius and Larry Marchetti to ensure trains run smoothly and on time. Volunteer greeters provide visitors with information about the trains and locations depicted in the garden. Training for railroad volunteers is Sunday, May 6 at 1 p.m.

Model Railroad Garden admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children ages 2-12 (Garden members save $1). A season pass is available for $28. Strollers are not permitted in the exhibit; however, stroller parking is located near the entrance. -- www.chicagobotanic.org