This San Francisco Is A Dump -- A Magical, Glorious Dump

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Model trains? The Conservatory of Flowers? Yeah, we know that this might not be you're into but, oh my god you guys, the Golden Gate Express Garden Railway show at the Conservatory is so cool!

The Bay Area Garden Railway Society's laid out an SF cityscape constructed entirely from recycled materials (much of it from the SF dump) by folks from SF Recycling's Artist in Residence program, through which a model train, cable car, streetcar wind their way unimpeded (that's how you know it's a fantasy, ha ha Muni sigh).

Why materials from the dump? we asked Conservatory director Brent Dennis. "A lot of conservatories use all natural materials. We wanted to be signature San Francisco and use all recycled, refurbished materials."

We learned a lot about what each landmark was made out of, but, as Tim Ehhalt, our photo/videographer for this piece said, "no one wants to get bored by a bunch of dumb words when all they want to do is look at pictures of a San Francisco made with garbage." And he is probably right. So we'll leave you with the details, and get out of your way so you can watch a little video we shot (above) and look at out slideshow (below).

What: Golden Gate Express Garden Railway show
When: Tuesdays-Sundays from 9-4:30 Pro tip: at 11:15 AM and 4:15 PM each day, they turn on a fog machine and "envelop the City in mystery." It is very neat! Go then.
Where: The Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park
Tickets: Free with Conservatory admission: $5 (non-SF residents $7) general; $3 ($5) youth 12-17, seniors and students with ID; $1.50 ($2) children 5-11; children 4 and under FREE.

Photos, video, and additional reporting: Tim Ehhalt