All aboard the toy train holiday express.

• Position: Collectibles

Magnificent model trains, train stations and sheds, bridges and tunnels, carousels and Ferris wheels--all populated with toy figurines in colorful 19th-century dress--can be seen in "Holiday Express: Toys and Trains from the Jerni Collection," featuring vintage European and American toys chosen from a collection that is widely acknowledged as one of the world's best.

Assembled over a period of some 50 years by Jerry and Nina Greene and numbering some 35,000 items, the Jerni Collection spans from approximately 1850 to 1940 and contains a comprehensive representation of the work of every major manufacturer, including the German firms of Marklin, Bing, Ernst Plank, Carette, and Rock & Graner that set the standard for the Golden Age of European toy manufacturing.

"Many of the real buildings and bridges that you see represented here in scale model were destroyed in battle, but the toys survived both World Wars," explains Jerry Greene. "For me, these wonderful objects are a part of history. It's now time to show them in public, so everyone can appreciate them. I hope they bring as much joy to others as they have brought to me."

Adds Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New York Historical Society: "The holiday season has been an integral part of this institution from its very beginning --so much so that one of our members, Clement Clarke Moore, is credited with having written 'A Visit from St. Nicholas" What better way to...