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The holiday season is rolling back into The Bronx and with it, one of the city’s most beloved traditions.
Under Penn Station, through a tree trunk and over the Brooklyn Bridge - model trains fill the New York Botanical Garden, bringing New Yorkers a dose of holiday nostalgia. “It’s giving just nostalgic holiday vibes,” said visitor Veronica Munoz. Munoz is visiting the annual Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Garden for the first time. Of the hundreds of building models, she says Grand Central Terminal is her favorite. “All the intricate details are just so spot on,” she said. That dedication to detail has been three decades in the making. “Our early day you can see the progression and the artisan ship through the earlier more whimsical models to the really technically detailed ones that we do now,” said Laura Busse Dolan, CEO of Applied Imagination, the company that created the display in the early 1990s. This year, trains circle two new models — the Delacorte Theater in Central Park and the Whitney Building in downtown Manhattan. “I’m a big fan of modern architecture — so this was a thrill to build,” Dolan said. Like the other models, each is made entirely from natural materials like bark. But for the first time, the windows reflect the nature around them. For 34 years, the show has been a holiday staple New Yorkers can’t go without. Dolan says that joy is what keeps the trains — quite literally — running. “It’s our duty to carry this on for generations of New Yorkers, for generations. It’s too special to not put on,” she said. The exhibit opens Nov. 15 and runs through January, giving visitors plenty of time to hop on the train and head out to the tracks.