All of our “Little Engineers” joined in singing with Mr. Dave some well-known Railroad songs and even learned the words to “Down by the Station,” to be sung later at home.

Our main attraction was a video of the famous singer, Johnny Cash, who was a very enthusiastic fan of railroads. We saw Johnny sing about two legendary railroad men: John Henry and Casey Jones. The songs about these men and about others, too, showed us that railroading has always been hard work and often is dangerous, as well. The many famous songs of railroading are lessons in history.

Many of the songs presented during this Little Engineers Club were sung by railroad work crews while laying track. These workers were called "Gandy Dancers"

At our November 12th LEC meetings we learned about bells and whistles. H&R just happens to have a real locomotive bell.

Mr. Dave displayed the big, real-life, shiny brass bell on the table in our meeting room, and we saw how the clapper inside the bell makes it ring. It was very loud!

Also, Mr. Dave ran some model trains so we could hear their bells, steam whistles, and diesel horns, which make them sound just like real locomotives. Our activity used a locomotive cut-out onto which we connected a bell cut-out with a string to make it swing just like a real locomotive bell does.

We went outside and played the whistle game and, naturally, had our usual snack of cookies and juice.