holiday express adds new year’s day showing

garden railroad exhibit features miniature world of wonder

published: December 30 2008 03:10 PM updated:: January 02 2009 05:21 PM

KNOXVILLE – An additional showing of the Holiday Express at the UT Gardens will give visitors more time to see the exhibit during its final weekend.

The Holiday Express will now be open 1 to 6 p.m. Thurs., New Year’s Day. It will also be open from 5 to 9 p.m. Fri., Jan. 2; 1 to 9 p.m. Sat., Jan. 3, and during the final showing from 1 to 6 p.m. Sun., Jan. 4.

Ten garden-scale model trains, thousands of lights and a miniature landscape featuring rivers, waterfalls and more than 100 buildings decorated for the holidays have already delighted thousands of visitors young and old at this event for the UT Gardens, a part of the UT Institute of Agriculture.

The hand-crafted display is located on the Friendship Plaza at the entrance to the UT Gardens off Neyland Drive. The cost is $5 per person; children under 4 are admitted free.

One of the community’s finest treasures, the UT Gardens feature more than 1,000 woody plants under long-term observation and 2,000 varieties of herbaceous plants evaluated annually.

The Holiday Express, which has been open since Thanksgiving, was created by Mark Fuhrman, a local train enthusiast and owner of Mark Fuhrman Complete Landscape Services. Fuhrman customizes each train car and building by hand with a passion and care that has resulted in one of the largest train collections in East Tennessee.

For more information, click on utgardens.tennessee.edu or call 974-7141.