Holiday Express

 

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Video Transcript

Chuck Denney (UT Institute of Agriculture)
Christmas spirit is right on track at the UT Gardens. “All aboard” the Holiday Express. This display includes ten different rail lines covering a quarter of a mile that runs through the fictional town of Ravensford. It’s a 4,000 square foot landscape with thousands of lights, rivers and waterfalls, and tiny buildings decorated for the season.

Mark Furman (Train Enthusiast & Landscaper)
“Electric trains and Christmas seem to go together so well. In talking to many people, it seems like everybody has got a train set they put around their Christmas tree.”

Chuck Denney
Model train enthusiast and landscaper Mark Fuhrman had visions of sugar plums dancing in his head, and came up with the idea. This a celebration of the season, but also the project depicts the railroad history of East Tennessee.

Mark Furman
“As my wife says so well, ‘It’s gotten out of hand over the years.’ So we model everything from about 1930 up to the present day here.”

Chuck Denney
When you see an elaborate holiday display like this, usually two things come to mind. One, that’s really pretty. And two, man that took some work to put together. The assembly of the Holiday Express started well before Thanksgiving. Crews had to lay down the track, build all the landscaping, and move boulders. It was a chore, but the end result is a delight.

Mark Furman
“It took us 7 days - 12 men, 7 days - to set up what we have here today. And we work about 8 hours a day.”

Chuck Denney
The Holiday Express covers the new ‘Friendship Plaza’ at the gardens. This project highlights a trend in landscaping - twisting miniature rail lines through plants, shrubs, rocks and decorations.

Dr. Sue Hamilton (Director, UT Gardens)
“It’s called garden railroading. We’re teaming up with a contractor who really knows how to work with the rock and the boulders and the trees and the shrubs to create this miniature landscape that ties in with the size of the trains. It is going to be fun to draw in families, great for children, really kids of all ages.”

Chuck Denney
UT leaders hope to make the Holiday Express a Yuletide tradition on the Ag campus. For now, consider it a gift to the community - a chance for families to create new holiday memories by seeing Christmas magic in motion.

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NOTE: The “Holiday Express” runs every weekend through January 4th.
Admission is $5 for adults. Children under four get in free.