Eagle Academy PCS
Capital Riverfront Campus
New Jersey Ave S.E.
9, 10 November 2016
The Eagle Academy Public Charter School Capital Waterfront Campus is the smaller of the two Eagle Academy campuses. The Eagle Academy Capital Waterfront campus had 124 students (pre-K thru 3rd grade) who attended the train show as part of their program on Transportation.
The Tracker Team arrived on site at 1200 and promptly retired to an eatery across the street. We began the setup at 1300 after the students had finished their lunch in the cafeteria. We had trains running at 1545 and had everything completed by 1645. We used an 8 module square with the wide radius curves giving an overall layout of 20’ x 20’ with a rail height of 31 ½”. We encountered no issues getting to the facility or setting up. We were provided with parking which had easy access to the room. Numerous children looked into the room as we were setting up. They were clearly looking forward to the next day’s show. A number of them commented to friends that they remembered us from our show in February 2016.
Since there were only two of us doing the show, Bill ran on one loop with two trains running. He ran one train on each of the other loops which gave us plenty of run time. We began running trains at 0800 to ensure we were ready and then the students began coming into the room at 0900. One class arrived every 20 minutes. We ran essentially nonstop from 0900 until 1200. By that time all of the students (124) had been able to attend the show. The classes were scheduled so that the younger students came in first and the 3rd graders were the last classes we entertained.
We stopped the trains after about 15 minutes with the 2nd and 3rd graders and talked about the types of trains that used to run and still run now. We discussed Steam, Diesel and Electric power and the types of trains (freight and passenger). We had examples of each train and car on the tracks to show the students. Bill had a manual switch to show the students how trains moved from one track to another. We also talked about being safe near railroads and the need to stay off the tracks, that a train can come up very silently and hurt you. The students and staff enjoyed that part as much as watching the trains and looking at the decorations.
We were completely out of the building and on our way home at 1420. It was another very successful National Capital Trackers show.
One of the younger classes.
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