VIEW FROM THE END OF THE PLATFORM

DON’T MENTION THE C WORD

Apparently, magazines that make a fuss of the upcoming festive season on their cover scare some of their readers away. Far from bearing gifts, rotund men in red suits only deliver lower sales, which will lead to a distinctly frosty reception from any publisher.

So, with that in mind, we’ll stick with the official title for this month’s feature layout, The Holiday Train Show®. To be fair, the duration of the event covers a fair few celebration dates, not just the one we won’t mention.

When I first spotted the event online, I knew it would make a great feature on our pages. What I hadn’t appreciated until after some research, is just how achievable the amazing models are. If you can cut foamboard and stick leaves to it, then you too can make models like the New York ones. Of course, there is a big difference between doing this, and the levels of skills shown by the American model makers, but then it is nice to have something to aim for, and we have reached just the time of year to gather materials.

Sadly, the Garden Rail budget doesn’t run to a trip for me to photograph the display, but it’s definitely something to add to my list of dream destinations for the future. In the meantime, we’d like to thank the New York Botanical Gardens press office, especially Steve Swanson for supplying the amazing photos and answering my questions.

Looking forward to 2022, let’s hope the world continues to open up. Fortunately, outdoor events such as visiting garden railways should be possible, and perhaps readers would like to suggest places we should be looking at to help with those travel plans. Send us your snaps of outdoor railways for the letters page and we’ll try to inspire people to get out there.

Anyway, since this is the December issue, it only remains for me to wish all our readers and their families, season’s greetings and a happy and healthy New Year from everyone working on Garden Rail.