Our first meeting of the new millennium will be held on Thursday, January 20, 2000. We will be reviewing our upcoming shows at Greenberg and GATS. We will also discuss the fate of our three Lionel ZW transformers.

We will also review our December events, the B&O railroad museum exhibit and the electrical problems encountered, Jim & JoAnn Stapleton's U.S. Geological Survey exhibit and the National Christmas Tree.

Finally we will discuss and vote on a week long display at the B&O Museum next Christmas.

Again, as in September, the Tracker show in the roundhouse of the B&O Railroad Museum was well received. The Museum personnel and the visiting public had nothing but praise for the TRACKER display.

Saturday started off with arrival at 7:00 A.M. By 8:00 A.M. setup was well underway. At this point the trackmaster (me) discovered he had made a major goof by leaving a necessary part of his "T" module at home. At this point my knowledge of progress of setup was interrupted by a panic trip to Annandale, Virginia to retrieve the missing module part. Upon arriving back at the Museum at 9:30 A.M. I found the track setup complete except for my missing part, which was quickly installed (along with a lot of grief from my fellow Trackers). Electrical hookup was underway as was decoration of the railroad. John and Karen Harper as well as Jack Frost had brought lighted buildings and were setting up lovely winter scenes. Others brought interesting decorations for their modules. Carl Condon brought his Toonerville Trolley that runs back and forth between turntables as well as a brand new Lionel Christmas tree with a Blue Comet train running around the base. The decorating ideas were too numerous to list completely. Thanks to all for a marvelous overall display.

Enter the Gremlins. Carl Condon reported a dead short in the outer track. This was followed by a report of an electrical cross connect between the outside track and the inside track. This resulted in a frantic attempt at troubleshooting led by Ed Beaver and Rick Hamilton. Well, Junior Junction was up and running by the time the Museum opened at 10:00 A.M. However it was 11:30 A.M. before the first train was running on the main railroad. The cause of the electrical cross connect turned out to be a switch in the Potomac Yard control panel which allows the Potomac Yard sidings to be powered from the outside track being in the closed position. Once the switch position was changed to open, the electrical cross connect went away. And alas, even though no one could explain it, the dead short in the outside track went away as well. There were a lot of mia culpas from various Trackers for not having checked the Switch position earlier. Again, there is a need to better understand the design and particularly the electrical features of Potomac Yard. In all the effort to troubleshoot these problems, no one had wired the inner loop of the bottleneck end of the display to a power supply. The good news is that from 11:30 A.M. Saturday, all afternoon and evening Saturday and all day Sunday the main railroad ran beautifully.

The Museum was very understanding of our frustration at not being able to get trains running and did not criticize us.

One thing demonstrated by the wine bottle layout we used at the B&O Museum is that Potomac Yard can wind around a corner. Thanks to Rick Hamilton bringing some 054 and 042 curved track, it was possible to run the first and second sidings around a 90 degree corner. The third siding would have required a very tight curve and didn’t work. This increases the flexibility to use Potomac Yard in smaller layouts that can’t accommodate the full Yard in a straight section. Thanks to Rick Hamilton, Keith Webb and Tom Hargis.

Another feature was John Harper’s Choo-choo CAM Camera he had installed in a baggage car. The Museum located the receiver on a cross beam high above the layout for us. Once John corrected some wiring problems on the baggage car the choo-choo cam proved to be a great big hit with Museum personnel as well as the viewing public, including the Saturday night party goers.

Also, the Museum provided coffee, juices, breakfast buns and doughnuts on Saturday morning, lunch at their in house snack bar Saturday and Sunday and arranged with the people who had rented the roundhouse Saturday night for a Christmas party to feed those of us who remained to operate the railroad for the party goers. I think overall the Trackers did not go hungry.

Sunday started off just fine. The railroad operated as it should. As the day progressed it became obvious that take down would take longer than normal due to the extensive snow scene decorations, particularly the snow village provided by John and Karen Harper. The Museum came to our rescue again by allowing us to start taking down the decorations at 4:00 P.M., an hour before the 5:00 P.M. Sunday closing time. The last train stopped at 4:30 P.M. Even with this early start, it was 6:15 P.M. by the time all Trackers were packed up and ready to depart the Museum grounds.

The Museum likes our displays. We have been invited back on 29 and 30 April 2000 for their spring All Aboard Days open house and we have been promised the turntable as we had in September 1999. In addition, we have been asked if we can set up a Tracker display on the turntable the entire week between Christmas 2000 and New Years day 2001. We will consider whether we can support this at the January 2000 Tracker meeting and I hope to be able to provide the Museum an answer after that meeting.

Again thanks to all the Trackers who participated in the shows at the B&O Museum on 11 and 12 December 1999. We continue to build our reputation for first class entertainment.

-------------------------- 2000 ------------------------

Jan. 22-23, Greenberg Show at Capital Expo Center in Chantilly, VA (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Feb. 12-13, Greenberg Show at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Feb. 26-27, GATS Show, Montgomery County Agriculture Center, Gaithersburg (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Apr. 14-15, York TCA Meet

Apr. 29-30, B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore (NCT is scheduled to appear)

May 13 Beltsville Day in Beltsville, MD (NCT is scheduled to appear)

June 03 Manassas Railroad Festival in Manassas, VA (NCT is scheduled to appear)

June 09-11 Fairfax County Fair in Fairfax, VA (NCT is scheduled to appear)

July 15-16 Greenberg Show at Capital Expo Center in Chantilly, VA (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Sept. 17 Gaithersburg Olde Towne Day in Gaithersburg, MD (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Oct. 07 Fall for Fairfax Festival in Fairfax, VA (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Oct. 07-08 Brunswick Railroad Days in Brunswick, MD (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Oct. 20-21, York TCA Meet

Nov. 11-12 Rockville Lions Club Train Show in Rockville, MD (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Nov. 25-28, Festival of Trees in Easton, MD

Dec. 02-03 Fairfax Station Railroad Museum Train Show in Fairfax Station, VA (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Dec. 06-31, National Christmas Tree exhibit on the ellipse in Washington, D.C.

Wow ... a new Millennium. Our club and the model train hobby are both in exciting shape. The January issue of Classic Toy Trains is focused on Lionel's 100th anniversary. New offerings in the manufacturer's 2000 Book 1 catalogs are outstanding. Personally, I am hoping for MTH's Pennsylvania T-1 4-4-4-4 in Railking later this year. Also of interest are the new projected Metroliner offerings from Williams (I spent many days on those in 1973). K-Lines' Reading Crusader set is really neat. Lionel's hobby shop is truly interesting even if a bit pricey - but there is lot in the model. Our club has several new exhibit opportunities (in the Far Side but Trackmastered and staffed by both Far Side and Southside members). These should offer all members a chance to participate. As always, the key to our success and fellowship is our cooperation and patience with each other.

Notable in December was our B&O Museum Exhibit under Skip Scheetz's direction which debuted our first ever wine bottle shaped layout in front of large crowds. Our new make-up module fit easily in Gargraves which mated well to Carl Condon's, Jack Schmidt's, and Jim & Joann Stapleton's modules to form the neck of the bottle. Both Carl and John & Karen Harper set-up excellent winter scenes. Carl even had Lionel's new miniature Christmas Tree with circling Blue Comet train. Jack had one of his new switch yard modules set-up with a siding to create an enhanced scenic effect. Rick Hamilton's T-modules and John Zampino's bridge fit well with Skip's T-module to form the cross-over allowing three train operation. Mike Fistere provided a new, visually enhancing set of cables for the High Tension Towers. Jack Frost tailored his modules with a winter scene. The ever versatile Potomac Yard by Keith Webb and Tom Hargis set a new milestone by operating around one of the Club corners. The only problem here was in switchology when Rick and Ed Beaver could not remember the cross-over switch phenomena which delayed our operation start time. (Yes, I have an action item to document our electrical set-up in an easy to remember form.) Special recognition and thanks is noted to Jack Frost's Grandsons Mark, Greg, & Scott who tirelessly supervised Junior Junction with an ever present crowd.

Looking forward to the future, plan to support Trackmaster Bill Buschmeier at the Upper Marlboro and Gaithersburg events this winter. Also, the Trackmaster position for the May one-day show in Beltsville is open - any volunteers? In the corrections department, John Zampino informed me that his patent for the quick release legs had not been rescinded; however, OSHA will not allow their distribution in the U.S. because of safety concerns. (ED. To date, five ants and one spider have been killed by falling quick-release legs)

January we will be back at the Greenberg show at the Capital Expo Center in Chantilly. Click here to see the exhibit layout.

February finds us at another Greenberg show in Upper Marlboro. We should be back in the "Tack Room" again. Click here to see a layout for this event.

Just a few days before the lighting of the National Christmas Tree, Edie Frank, wife of former Aristo-Craft employee and Aristo coordinator, Bill Frank passed away. She will be missed by all those who knew her.

Our heartfelt sympathies go out to Bill Frank in this trying time.

December was a very busy month. Our annual Fairfax Station appearance was a super event. Great crowds and great weather again. Super display by Trackers Frank Hale and Thom McKinney.

Jim & JoAnn Stapleton again produced a masterpiece at the U.S. Geological Survey. They also had great crowds and managed to get live TV coverage.

Our B&O Railroad Museum display is covered in a separate article in this issue by trackmaster Skip Scheetz.

The National Christmas Tree display was the finest it has ever been. Lit houses, stations, and a couple of bridges and raised rock viaducts added to its eye appeal. Thanks to new volunteers Tom Hunter, and Rich Eudy for filling in. The regulars Carl Condon, Ted Rabusseau, Jack Frost and John Zampino completed the effort.

Out website went online November 11, 1999 and to date we have hosted over 640 visitors to the site. The site now contains layouts for upcoming shows and the Beltline is now online. The site also contains pictures from several of our exhibits both recent and past.

Check out the Blue Caboose which is listed under our links. You can buy your own caboose from them.

With the inclusion of the Beltline on our website, we have been able to remove several people from our mailing list who were receiving complementary copies of the newsletter. They have been informed that they can now retrieve it on-line. Partners and Passengers will still receive a mailed copy, at least for now.

The Internet version of the Beltline has been edited to remove all references to individuals phone numbers or addresses.

There is a train shows coming up in Frederick Maryland on February 6. It will be held at the Independent Fire and Hose. Take US 15 which bypasses Frederick to exit 14 (Rosemont Ave.) Go north on Rosemont (towards mountains) and make a left at the second traffic light (Baughman’s Lane). The Fire house is 100 yards on your left. Admission is $3.00 and the hours are 09:30 a.m. until 02:30 p.m. For further information contact Rich DeLong at 41 Greenvale Road, Westminster, MD 21157 (410) 848-5458.

Copies of our year-end financial statement and inventory are enclosed. (Note: only members and passengers receive these, they are not available on-line)

A model train made its first appearance this year at the U. S. Supreme Court. It was set up around the Christmas Tree in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court. Thanks go to Supreme Court employee and TCA member Kraig Krist for making this a reality.

The Beltline is published 10 times a year on a monthly basis excluding the months of July and August. Its purpose is to provide notices of timely events, and information to its members. All inquiries, questions, and submissions should be e-mailed to the editor at: NationalCapitalTrackers@RRmail.com