Every year, the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, DC, puts on a great Christmas show that features toy trains. These aren’t your average toy trains, like my own set, but large-scale Lionel model trains, made of metal, lit up inside, painted carefully, running on metal tracks. The decor is also special. They put together a different setting to showcase the trains each year, built around a particular theme. The year that I filmed the train show, they’d put together a mountain terrain with tracks hugging the mountainside, going through tunnels inside the mountains, passing by waterfalls and little mountain towns, and crossing long suspended bridges overhead. The video you see below was recorded on December 1, 2007, and you can watch it on Youtube or here.

This year, the Holiday Magic show runs from November 26, 2009 through January 10th, 2010. If you’re in DC, don’t miss it. It’s held in the Conservatory East Gallery and Garden Court. Here’s what the US Botanic Garden says about this year’s show:

The U.S. Botanic Garden’s National Mall and fanciful garden-train exhibits have become a beloved Washington tradition, and this year we’re serving up even more magic with larger and more amazing displays made of plant-based natural materials. You’ll find an enchanted storybook garden with trains popping in and out of a landscape that now includes Snow White’s cottage and the Owl and the Pussycat’s beautiful pea green boat. Our exhibit of the National Mall landmarks is up to date this season with the Obama children’s swing set and another new addition: the National Museum of the American Indian. Again this year, one of Washington’s largest indoor holiday trees will tower over pools of colorful poinsettias and other holiday plants. The whole family will enjoy the children’s plant hunt, which will take visitors through our collections in search of particularly “magical” plants.

For more information about the US Botanic Garden, you may view a gallery of photos I took inside, or you can visit their website.