Children’s Hospital
(Children’s National Medical Center)
Show Report
10 September 2014
This was the first time we have had a show at Children’s Hospital. The Show was a one day show with setup from 0800 to 1000 and shutdown at 1600. The reaction from the audience and the club members was unanimous that it was a successful show. We are planning on a return to this venue in March or April 2015 with a two day event.
All nine participants had plenty of run time. In addition to the eight club members listed below, Eli Berkowitz (13 years old) was invited to participate as a guest engineer running the Thomas trains. He also provided the scenery on one of the corners. Eli has been a patient or Children’s on a number of occasions. His mother Michelle was instrumental in us holding the show there.
The arrival went smoothly although the drive in for many of the members was a bit long. Checking in with the Security force was simple and required just showing a drivers license. The loading dock was on the first floor, the same as the show space, so it was a simple trip thru some wide corridors to the space. We had the layout complete and the first train running at 1000. It was actually 1030 when we had completed the scenery.
We used a simple rectangle with wide radius corners, the Geezer Gate and the two 2 foot bridges. Attached is the layout drawing.
Club Participants included:
Regis Harkins (1 Module)
Mike Smith (1 Module)
Fred Koester/Barry Sheehe (3 Modules)
George Tsakiris (2 Modules)
Marty Dougherty – Setup and ran trains
Dave Eadie – Take Down and ran trains
Since this was a new venue and we weren’t sure how difficult it would be to get there or to set up, we used a minimalist approach on the scenery (i.e. simple stuff easily setup and taken down with only a buildings. There was a coffee bar within 15 feet of us and a very nice cafeteria on the second floor for snacks and lunch.
The member vehicles, other that the tow vehicle and club trailer, were all parked in the attached parking garage. The parking was paid for by the hospital. The tow vehicle and trailer were left near the loading dock for the day.
One final note, one of the audience approached Regis about doing a show at another healthcare facility in the District. She left her contact information so we will investigate that further.