Educational train trips available to classes

Teachers can provide their preschool and elementary classes with a historical educational experience onboard the Fillmore & Western Railway Co. School Field Trip trains.

The vintage trains depart at 10 a.m. from Fillmore on selected weekdays throughout the year and travel to the Fillmore Fish Hatchery, where millions of trout are raised for distribution throughout western streams and lakes. The students and teachers learn about the Fish & Game Department's job and also study the history of railroading and safety around trains and tracks.

In October every year, the school field trip aboard the train is longer in duration and travels to Ichabog, a private pumpkin patch in an orange grove nestled in the Heritage Valley region of eastern Ventura County. In addition to learning facts about railroad history, students and teachers are taught about harvesting pumpkins and how they also fit into the country's Halloween heritage.

The trips are aboard railcars that were built during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. the rail line was built in the 1880s.

For information on the school field trips, call Fillmore & Western Railway Co. at (805) 524-2546 or take a trip on the website www.fwry.com.