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September 12, 2004
Streetcars in the Train Garden
Streetcars in the Train Garden
A green Perley Thomas car on the “St. Charles” line passes car 2002 on “Canal Street” on the train layout in the New Orleans Botanical Garden in City Park. Known to locals for decades as “The Rose Garden,” The NOBG is now a very important part of City Park’s splendor. The original Rose Garden dates back to 1936, when the Park was the beneficiary of a number of WPA projects (such as the lagoons and various buildings around the lagoons). The current Botanical Garden is a wonderful extension of the Rose Garden that offers a number of attractions. During the holiday season, the NOBG is the focal point of the walking tour portion of the “Celebration in the Oaks” light display in the park.
The Train Garden is a fascinating part of the NOBG. These aren’t just any train models. The layout is G-scale, which is four times larger than the typical HO-scale home train set. The track and cars are from LGB, a German toy train company. LGB makes a wide selection of G-scale engines and cars, among which is a model of a Perley Thomas streetcar. The hobbyists who have created the Train Garden’s layout took one of the standard green streetcars, painted it red, and numbered it “2002” to make it a Von Dullen car. They’ve also changed the running boards on one of the cars to show that car operating on the “West End” line.
The structures in the Train Garden are also quite interesting, because they’re not simply plastic kits. All of the buildings are made of botanical materials. The layout is loosely organized by neighborhoods, such as Uptown, the CBD, the Lakefront, and Gentilly. They even have a steam passenger train lettered for the “Pontchartrain RR. Co.” running as the “Smokey Mary” out to “Milneburg.”
The Train Garden is in the back corner of the NOBG, which is in City Park. Visitors who ride the Carrollton Spur of the Canal Line to the end of the line at Beauregard Circle can get to the NOBG by walking past the New Orleans Museum of Art and its lovely Sculpture Garden behind the Museum, into the center of the park, where they’ll see the entrance to the garden complex. The NOBG is open Tuesday through Sunday, closed Mondays, from 10am to 4:30pm. Adult admission is $5. (Admission to City Park itself is free).
Posted by Edward J. Branley at September 12, 2004 08:06 PM
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