Ok.
We need to come clean. This outstanding garden railroad
doesn't belong to any of us. It was created by Paul Busse and his
crew at Applied Imagination for display at the Chicago Botanic Garden,
which has been displaying a model garden railroad since the summer of
2000.
Like many garden railways, the
buildings and landscapes were created with
less focus on scale and proportion and more focus on the overall illusion of the
scene. These landscapes were created using natural materials and living
plants. If you look closely at the buildings, you can notice the little details,
such as acorns being used as the decorative end of a hand rail.
The trains
included seven large G-scale model trains that cruise past re-creations
of several national historic sites, including: John Muir National Historic Site
(California), Cabrillo National Monument Lighthouse
(California), Golden Spike National Historic Site (Utah), Vanderbilt Mansion
National Historic Site (New York), Lincoln Home National Historic Site
(Illinois), and the George Washington Carver National Monument (Missouri). For
the summer of 2002 the Seattle Space Needle, Napa Valley, the Statue of
Liberty and the White House were added. And for the 2003 season the John
Hancock building from Chicago was added. In addition, a
circus train made a long awaited appearance.
