Canada is very lucky to have someone who really cares about boys and girls who live here. This special fellow is our own Elmer the Safety Elephant.He wants all boys and girls in Canada to learn the safe ways to play, the safe places to walk, and all the other fun things children like to do.
Elmer roams from town to town and city to city, just checking on all children to see if they are following the rules of safety, especially railway safety rules that they have learned in school and at home.
One day he was walking past a railway station on one of his journeys, when he noticed a group of children with their teacher.
Elmer decided to ask the teacher if he could join the children and naturally the nice teacher agreed. She told him she had arranged for the children to visit the railway station so they could see the people who run the train, and to show them why it is dangerous for youngsters to play near a railway.
The first person the children met was the stationmaster who introduced the children to the locomotive engineer who operates the train engine and sees that everything is working the way it should. the locomotive engineer's name was Pierre.
Pierre acted as the children's guide. While walking to the train he told the children how dangerous it was for them to play near railway property.
He showed them how easy it would be for their feet to get caught in the track and how they could stumble over the uneven cross-ties under the steel rails.
Elmer said the children had never thought about falling down on a track or getting stuck in it. They always thought of running along the railway as great fun. They weren't so sure about that, anymore.
At the front of the train is the locomotive that pulls all the cars hooked to it. It has a big light in the middle that Pierre turned on to show the children how bright it glows to warn people of an approaching train.
He showed them the big steel wheels that keep the train on the track. At the back of the locomotive is a hitch called the "coupler" where the freight cars, and passenger cars are hooked on. Pierre told the children that a railway yard is not a place to stop and play because cars are always being moved around. That's why no one should walk between the cars.
Elmer told the children that they couldn't fly out of the way of a moving train like a bird, so they should not even think of playing around something as big and heavy as a railway car.
The children continued their tour with Pierre. They looked at the different kinds of cars that were on the tracks. There were passenger cars that carried people, freight cars that carried all kinds of things used by factories and farmers.
Pierre showed the children how the cars were unhooked to let them go where they were supposed to be delivered. The last car looked a little different from the others. This car was at the end of the train. It was the caboose.
One of the children asked Pierre why one of the caboose windows was broken. Pierre explained that some other children were playing and started throwing rocks at the train as it moved on the tracks. One rock hit the window and it broke.
Elmer asked if anyone was hurt? "No," Pierre said, "but there sure might have been if someone would have been sitting near the window."
Pierre took the group back to the station to show them some other very important things - a railway crossing and warning signs. The signs are meant for pedestrians and drivers alike. Elmer asked the children to name the signs as he pointed to them and to say what colour they shoud be. Can you do this with Elmer?
Elmer thanked Pierre for telling the boys and girls all about the railway. He was sure that the children understood why it is dangerous to play around with something that was not their own size.
Everyone thanked the locomotive engineer for a very interesting visit.
Elmer told the children that he was so tired from walking with the boys and girls that he was going to take the next train to another place in Canada where he was needed to tell other children to be safe around a railway.
