Our third meeting of the new millennium will be held on Thursday, March 16, 2000.

We will still be at the JOHN C. WOOD Municipal Center, which is located at 3730 Old Lee Highway just behind the Fairfax City Police Station. We’ll be in Room #1 and the meeting will start at 07:00 p.m..

February saw us back in the Show Place arena for another Greenberg show. The crowds were consistent throughout the weekend. Bill Oehrli's son Rob and his wife stopped by and brought some of Bill's items to sell at our table. We enjoyed meeting them. Jack Schmidt performed a yeomen's job by bringing a truckfull of modules for a center island yard.

Later in February, we were at the GATS show in the Montgomery County Fairgrounds. Once again Jack Schmidt brought the center island yard and we were able to work in Brendan Lynch's two modules. With Brendan now owning modules, he will move from passenger to partner status.

The official attendance figures are in and the Stapleton train display at the U.S. Geological Survey during this past December drew between 8,500 to 9,000 people. Great job Jim & JoAnn.

While not O gauge related, but as information to those modeling in larger scales, IE&W Supply is the East Coast dealer for Sunset Valley Railroad, manufactures of a complete line of code 250 Ga. 1 track and dual gauge 0/1 track products. If you want something better than the code 332 of Aristo or LGB, contact IE&W Supply (aka Jim Stapleton)

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

Apr. 14-15, York TCA Meet

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

May 21 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. 16-17, Greenberg Show at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Sept. 24 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.

Dec. 26-29, B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Dec. 30-31, Greenberg Show at Capital Expo Center in Chantilly, VA (NCT is scheduled to appear)

At the clubs February business meeting, we moved around the corner to another meeting room that had a VCR and a TV. Jack Schmidt was kind enough to bring the latest MTH promotional video on their control and sound system for the members to view. The system is definitely impressive.

The club also voted to purchase a brick in the name of Bill Oehrli for the TCA Museum expansion. The club also purchased a brick in the club's name.

There is more than one way to construct a curve. Generally, when one constructs a curve they tend to use the same radius track. More interesting curves can be constructed by mixing track. This allows for a softened curve that starts out gentle, becomes sharper, and eases out again.

The rules to follow is simple: a circle is 360 degrees, a half circle is 180 degrees and a quarter circle is 90 degrees.

The curvature in degrees for each common curved track is as follows:

Track	Degrees	Number for circle
027	45	8
031	45	8
042	30	12
054	22.5	16
072	22.5	16

Using these dimensions, the following combinations are possible:

Quarter circle (90 degrees)
 

Tracks	Summary
031 - 031	2-031
054 - 031 - 054	1-031, 2-054
072 - 031 - 072	1-031, 2-072
042 - 042 - 042	3-042
072 - 054 - 054 - 072	2-054, 2-072
054 - 054 - 054 - 054	4-054
072 - 072 - 072 - 072	4-072

A number of Trackers have visited Bill over the past weeks and he has received numerous cards of cheer and good will from Trackers. Bill is confined to bed at a hospice in the Howard County hospital. He enjoys the cards, telephone calls, and the visits. He thanks all the Trackers for their caring and concern.

His phone number at the hospital is 410-740-5557. If anyone is going over to visit, please check first at the above number. His son Rob or daughter Karen are always there.

We spend so much time involved with our trains and activities that we never really get to know one another. Bill is a special person and over these past weeks we were fortunate enough to finally get to know something about him. We are very lucky as a club to have someone like Bill Oehrli as one of our members.

A large number of Trackers attended Clem's "museum"of antique trains and old cars on Sunday, Feb. 20^th. They were impressed with his layout and his collection of trains. In addition his front yard was full of antique cars. We all had a great time and we thank Clem and his wife Sandy for their hospitality.

WOW!

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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