Tehachapi resident John Bell has been a member of the Friends of Tehachapi Depot and the Tehachapi Loop Railroad Club for many years, as well as an active volunteer at the Depot Museum.
Every year at holiday time he creates a model train layout that consumes much of the living area of his house. Bell starts constructing the G-scale layout in October, finishing just in time to host a Christmas party for the TLRC. The layout stays up until mid-January and takes him as long to take down as it does to put up. Even now, Bell said he is planning changes for next year's layout.