The Rube remembers visiting this holiday train layout appearing at the CitiBank building back in the early nineties, and it now returns for at least another four year engagement there, from Thanksgiving through New Year's.

It was created by a former Broadway set designer, Clarke Dunham, and his wife Barbara (known for their spectacular layouts around the country), with the help of 55 other carpenters, painters, electricians, studio artists, and rail layers.

3 scales of trains are used, with the biggest ones closest to the viewers, making the smaller ones appear farther away and giving a greater sense of depth to the layout.

The setting is the New York area in the 40's and 50's (the Manhattan skyline is seen from Weehawken at upper left), and as one works their way around the edge the landscape changes to the rural upper Hudson River valley. It generated an intense sense of nostalgia in the Rube.

Each area is richly detailed, with many animated elements (such as the spinning Ferris wheels at the carnival on the right), and the lighting cycles from day to night ("High Noon" plays at the drive-in theater at upper right).

Admission is free.

Viewpoint: Citigroup Center Atrium, 153 East 53rd St. at Lexington Ave., 12/22/01 1:30PM.