Enchanted Express, an indoor garden railway adventure traveled through the Conservatory’s plant collections to small-scale architectural wonders of the world and to places that exist in our imaginations.

Created by famed garden railroad designer Paul Busse, Enchanted Express was on display from October 13, 2007 to March 30, 2008.

Paul Busse created elaborate, three-dimensional structures made of natural materials including mosses, twigs, leaves, and seeds. Amazingly accurate in detail, his creations look remarkably like they were constructed of the originally used materials. Only upon further inspection can the natural materials be identified.

Installed within the Conservatory’s Himalayan Mountain, Rain Forest, and Desert biomes, small-scale model trains will travel around the world to vignettes of well-known places such the Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal. A plant of significance to each location or culture was featured along with a character that tells the story of that plant’s importance to that society at that time.

In the Conservatory’s Show House, the journey continued to imaginary places and the homes of well-known fairy tale characters including Rapunzel, the Three Little Pigs and the Old Woman in the Shoe.