Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
The Loop's Local Scene
Each student got to ring the brass bell, which is a part of every train engine. Anticipation of its loud tone is seen as some students cover their ears.
Arriving Tompkins School kindergarten students about to tour the Tehachapi Depot as part of "Knowing Your Community" classroom project.
The tour afforded the opportunity for a class photo in front of the city of Tehachapi's Christmas Tree located at the Depot.
Students, teachers and their escorts watch as FOTD docent Ken Williams explains the importance of railroad signals to the safe operation of a moving train.
Each student colored their own railroad-themed hat as part of a classroom project prior to their visit.
Since its founding the Friends of the Tehachapi Depot (FOTD) have taken on the task of promoting railroad safety. Here in Tehachapi, with its many vehicle crossings and over a mile-long corridor of double railroad tracks going through the center of town, unsafe crossings by pedestrians are a common sight. FOTD helps to promote safety awareness through TUSD class tours and by hosting other student tour groups to the Tehachapi Railroad Depot and Museum.
Recently students from Tompkins Elementary School toured the depot with their teachers Shelly Marks and Zenita Kaplan. Over 40 kindergartners spent the morning learning about local community places to visit and their importance to the community, including Tehachapi's railroad history and railroad safety. Marks stated, "Prior to the tour of the depot the students, while in the classroom, were given paper railroad themed hats with various railroad designated jobs written on them, such as conductor or engineer. Students got to choose their own hats for coloring based on their recently learned information about that job title."
After the tour, kindergarten teacher Shelly Marks told of how her students, "Continued with questions about the Depot's fire, its cause (illegal use of fireworks) and how and where it's safe to cross railroad tracks. The Depot's in-house produced coloring book handed out by the Depot tour docents to each visiting student was an excellent classroom follow-up activity."
