Current Exhibit Opened May 4, 2024

The Great Garden Express

All Aboard!

The Great Garden Express brings classic model trains to life! Walk under elevated tracks and spot engines pulling passenger cars and freight through tunnels and over bridges; listen as the trains chug through the Arizona landscape, past Missions of the Southwest and railroad stations, depots, and towers from across the country.

Train Schedule:

October 1 – May 30	June 1 – September 30
Tuesday – Sunday	Tuesday – Sunday
9:00am – 2:00pm	8:00am – 12:00pm

Trains don’t run on Mondays. Schedule subject to change due to weather and safety concerns.

Nestled among mature shade trees, and with an eight-foot waterfall cascading into a meandering stream, six G Scale model trains wind their way through an Arizona, high elevation inspired landscape. You’ll find intricate models of familiar structures like Tucson’s own Mission San Xavier del Bac, the Canyon Diablo elevated bridge, and railroad stations, depots, and towers from across the country.

Historic Buildings

All the buildings featured in The Great Garden Express are built entirely from plant materials such as twigs, leaves, seeds, nuts, and mushrooms.

Learn About the Buildings

Sky Island Inspired Landscape

Enjoy the cool tones of high-elevation Piñon-Juniper woodlands, plants you’d see at the Grand Canyon, and the dramatic geology of Arizona’s Sky Islands, like the famous hoodoos from Mt. Lemmon.

Applied Imagination

The Great Garden Express was custom made for the Tucson Botanical Gardens by Laura Busse Dolan and the team at Applied Imagination. Nationally-recognized garden railway designers and artisans, this is the only Busse railroad in Arizona, and the first to debut west of the Mississippi.