Our next meeting of the new millennium will be held on Thursday, April 20, 2000. We will 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..

It is with great sadness that we have to inform you that Bill Oehrli passed away Sunday morning, March 19, 2000, around 08:00 a.m. at the Howard County Hospice. Services for Bill were held at Slack's Funeral Home on Old Columbia Rd. in Ellicott City on Saturday, March 25, 2000. Bill is survived by his son Rob and his daughter Karen.

His family asks that those who want to remember Bill send a donation in his name to the Hospice of Howard County. Their address is 5537 Twin Knolls Rd., Columbia, MD 21045

The National Capital Trackers are in a state of shock and disbelief. The day following memorial services for Bill Oehrli (our oldest member), we received word that Brian Kurtz (one of our youngest members) was in a severe motorcycle accident. This happened around 04:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 26. Brian died from those injuries the following morning, Monday March 27, 2000, around 10:15 a.m. Services for Brian were held on Wednesday, March 29 in Springfield and his funeral was the following day.

Brian had recently completed a renovation of his module and at the GATS show, the hi-railers stated that his module really belonged in their group because of its detail and the effort he put in on scenery. Brian was a heating and air-conditioning engineer and his employer was located in Gaithersburg. Brian, along with Gary Lavinus, Jr. and Gary's wife, had taken Brian's bike to his work so he could store it there. Brian was planning to move the following weekend when his lease was up. Brian transported his bike to his work place on his truck. Once there, they decided to start it up and ride around the parking lot. Brian had made a couple of loops around the parking lot when he popped a wheelie. He ended the wheelie but he lost control of the bike and collided with a trash dumpster. He was transported by helicopter to the Baltimore Shock and Trauma center. Brian never regained consciousness and died the following morning. He had suffered massive head injuries.

Brian was also employed part-time at Trains, Etc. in Lorton, VA where he did train repairs, and at Choice Trains in Landmark Mall. Brian also was a featured performer at the Six Flags America amusement park in Largo, MD. where he played the role of Batman in their live adventure show.

Brian had been a star baseball player (shortstop) when he attended Annandale High School. He graduated from George Mason University with a degree in mechanical engineering. He also was a professional jet ski racer and he was rated in the top ten racers nationally.

The following email was received by the Trackers from Jason Leyva, Entertainment Manager, Six Flags America.

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

Apr. 14-15, York TCA Meet

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

May 6-7 Stapleton Spring 2000 steamup

May 20-21, Six Flags America (formerly Adventure World ), Largo, MD (Uncertain)

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)

We want to welcome Watson Major of South Riding, VA who joined our club at the March meeting. Welcome aboard!

Updated rosters are enclosed with this newsletter. The rosters now contain the member's spouse's first name. If your spouse is not listed and you wish to have them listed, contact Bill Buschmeier or email the Trackers. Limit of one spouse per member.

First quarter financial statements will be available at the April meeting.

As we did for Bill Oehrli, the Trackers purchased a silver brick (rail brick) in the name of Brian Kurtz. The TCA Toy Train Museum is undergoing a major expansion and the remodeled front entrance will feature a design in shape of a railroad track leading into the building. The track will be composed of different color bricks. There will be brown ones for the ballast, black bricks for the ties, and silver bricks for the rails. The TCA is selling the bricks and will place a plaque on each brick sold.

The National Capital Trackers have purchased two silver bricks for our two fallen members.

At both the Greenberg Show in Upper Marlboro and the GATS Show in Gaithersburg, a new club in town was present. They are known as the Washington Metro Area LEGO Users Group or WAMALUG. They build lego trains and their entire layout is composed of legos. They have a web site which has been added to the links on our site. Go check them out. Their layout is quite interesting. No glue is used in any of their structures.

They apparently have a digital camera and took several million pictures of both events which they published on their website. We absconded with the pictures they had of our layout and added them under our photos. See Greenberg - Upper Marlboro. Also check out the photo taken by Tracker Mike Fistere which is found under GATS - Gaithersburg in our photo section. It is the only picture we have with Brian Kurtz in it. He was always outside the layout roaming the show floor and not around when pictures were being taken. The WAMALUG group also have some good pictures of the Crescent Hi-Railers layout on their website.

We are probably going to be seeing a lot of them in future area shows. They are a young, enthusiastic group. Stop by their layout and spend some time appreciating what they are doing. Their lego trains are close to O-gauge size. They are a nice addition to the train shows.

Also check out the pictures from the Easton Festival of Trees which includes Bill Oehrli.

The third month of the new Millennium is a Black March for us -- we have lost two members as they walked through the Valley of Death. Brian Kurtz's tragic accident and death on March 27th was a shock to all of us. Our sympathies to his parents, brother, sister, family, and friends. The memorial funeral home service on March 29th was a warm remembrance of Brian's spirit that showed us the many sides of his life that always focused on sharing with people. He was a star baseball athlete in high school as well as a champion jet-ski and motorcycle racer. His HVAC work at Six Flags in Maryland provided the opportunity to become a performer -- now we will always think of Brian anytime we see Batman. His dad mentioned that his reputation as Mr. Fix-it prompted him to be the first person to test the new roller coasters at Six Flags.

Bill Oehrli passed away on March 19th after a tough fight with cancer. In our recent visits before his death, Bill remarked at the warmth and thoughtfulness of the Trackers in their cards, photos, calls, and visits. He wanted me to extend a thanks to all the members of the club for their concerns and prayers. Our sympathies to his daughter, Karen, and his son, Rob, and family. His memorial service and reception on March 25th was warm, remembering, and a celebration of Bill's life. As if on cue from Bill, a thunder clap echoed right in the middle of the service on that warm spring day.

Brian's and Bill's deaths remind us of the fragility of life. We will miss them! To the extent that our shared model train interests strengthen our friendships and bring a little more happiness into our lives and others, we enrich everyone's life. I hope each member finds an appropriate level of fellowship in our club -- let's take care of each other. In remembrance of Brian and Bill, let's put a ribbon of black tape on the bottom of our namebadges at the April and May events.

The Maryland activities in February under trackmaster Bill Buschmeier's leadership operated on schedule with no major problems in spite of the usual buzz and grumbling. At the Upper Marlboro Greenberg show Skip Scheetz, Jack Schmidt, Carl Condon, Ed Beaver, Frank Hale, Gil Baldwin, Jack Frost, John Zampino, Brian Kurtz, and Keith Webb did the honors. Notable were debut of an Atlas Track based module with outstanding scenery and John Harper's packaging of the Choo-Choo Cam in a Williams U33B Dummy unit, which once again provided a popular focal point of interest.

At the Gaithersburg GATS show Skip Scheetz, Richard Eudy, Jack Schmidt, Carl Condon, Ed Beaver, Brendan Lynch, Jack Frost, John Zampino, Brian Kurtz, and Keith Webb did the honors on a slightly enlarged layout. Smoke and sound output was a tad controversial with the small scale crowd, but everyone survived. At this show, Brendan "officially" took over ownership of Bill Oehrli's modules thus setting a record as the youngest full partner in the National Capital Trackers history. (The brief history of these modules is that John Zampino did the original framing in 1995 for Ed Beaver who operated them for two years before selling them to Bill Oehrli who then improved the modules with a third track and updated ballasting.) We look forward to Brendan's innovations! Incidentally, Brendan has been a tireless helper on many seemingly small details that were essential on many event setups -- our thanks and welcome to the club! Our event setup process always seems to be somewhat chaotic in spite of our best intentions. On reflection, setup involves Modules, Electrical, Skirting, and Scenery phases, or M.E.S.S., which is what we are trying to avoid!

The Module Phase involves setting the initial "locator" modules and then building the rest of the layout "out-from" them. This means that the "locator" modules need to be on-site and positioned early. (Because of the new configuration, this positioning was one of our delays with the new wine-bottle setup at the B&O Museum in December.) After setting-up our own modules, we need to check with members handling large module sets or corner sets to see if they can use help in order to have their modules in position in a timely fashion. Emphasis needs to be on those modules in the outside of the layout so that the entire loop can be completed. Internal T-sidings can be deferred somewhat. Module setup teams work in both directions from the "locator modules" by connecting individual member's module sets which need not be complete with scenery. To get smooth, consistent operation of trains, care must be taken to level, align, and smooth the transition tracks in all 3 dimensions while maintaining tight pin joints for good electrical connections. (As needed, Gargraves adapter tracks and pins must be installed with the pin-offset down to assure a smooth, level joint.) We can complete the critical Module phase most quickly by focusing on layout assembly rather than completing our own individual module setups. Completion of the module phase involves putting our stuff inside the layout.

The Electrical Phase overlaps with the Module Phase and involves providing the power cords, connecting the module jumpers, and connecting the module harness between the transformers and the "control-station" modules. This means that "control station modules "must be setup early with the transformers to begin checking for shorts, miss phased transformers, and miss set crossover switches. Shorts can include misplaced pins or other metals on the track, failed mechanical control pins on switches which connect the frames to the hot rail, etc. A particular member should have this electrical setup focus so that it commences early --if the trackmaster or other members see that this is not being done, a reminder is of great help! (This would have helped avoid the delay in achieving operational status at the December B&O museum wine-bottle setup because yours truly forgot his electrical duties.) The last part of the Electrical Phase includes making sure that all module jumpers are in place.

The Skirting Phase occurs after the Module Phase is complete. It is helpful to work from any opening or planned egress point so that the edges of the skirting sections are at the appropriate boundaries. (This includes placement of Carl's rug-mats which are particularly helpful on the floors at these egress points.) Hopefully no shorts are present -- if they are, then the Skirting has to be undone at selected spots to allow the short to be isolated by a binary sectioning and isolation technique. This is what occurs when we have stubborn shorts.

Notice that the Scenery Phase can occur last because it is the easiest, fastest, most trouble-free, and is done by all members in parallel. We are always in a better show position to have the layout complete, working electrically, and skirting in place without all the scenery complete than vice-versa.

To summarize these generally well known processes: (a) the "locator modules" should be assigned and located on-site early, (b) the electrical master should be assigned and checked that he has started early, (c) help assemble other modules including corners and large sets before focusing on your own scenery, (d) check that the skirting process is started appropriately, and finally (e) if you seem not busy, check if you can help in any of these processes elsewhere in the layout. After the M.E.S.S. Phase, then comes the good stuff -- Operating our trains! This is the part where we have to share Track Time. (Yours truly has to frequently be reminded!) There are various methods such as combining trains into longer consists and rotating engine assignments. Alternatively, Keith Webb's and Tom Hargis's Potomac Yard modules offer the ability to switch trains on the inside loop so that multiple members can use the same track. If you are the operator on the transformer, remember to switch the trains for variety. After more that about 45 minutes of operation of your "favorite train", assertively yield -- ask another member to get his stuff out of the boxes and place his trains in the yard or on the track.

Conversely, it is also OK to assertively ask for Track Time after other members trains have been running for a while -- folks will usually yield in a reasonable manner. If trains are too long for your engine(s), it is OK to shorten trains. In all cases, care must be taken with other members equipment to avoid damage -- it is usually best to ask before removing another member's equipment since he may prefer to do it himself. Note that this is a particularly good use of other storage tracks or a center working table (make sure things do not roll off!). Incidentally, our fans often find our five-fingered switching operations a point of interest with the kids (Oh ... they are putting on a new engine or wow ... they are making the train longer!). One new thing we might try is a simple Track Time sign-up list (at our larger shows) which we fill-out the day of operation. This sign-up list would simply identify when a person would be operating the trains and allow each member the freedom for planned operating times and breaks. Typically we operate our longer trains on the outside loop -- this is the ideal place for the bigger "scale" equipment. One tradition we have done in the past is to operate reasonable length trains (about 20 car freights or 9 car passenger trains) until late in the day when we try for a super length train. In any case, polite logic says that the folks that have modules or other significant parts of the setup should have the first shot at when they wish to run their trains, but they also must abide by the assertive yield concepts above. Common sense says that when you stop operating or leave the immediate area of the layout, then your trains should be parked on a siding or removed from the layout.

A major new suggestion and prototype which Tom Hunter presented at the March meeting is to construct a one or two track yard for the outside loop-- this would give us the flexibility of Potomac Yard on the outside loop! Questions such as viewing blockage of other modules and mounting techniques are still open issues. One configuration would only place these outside loop sidings with Potomac Yard. Talk to Tom with your suggestions and concerns. I believe he has the genesis of a great idea. In any case, we must apply the golden rule with each other -- help each other and think of how other members are able to operate their trains! Overall our goal at a show is to have trains in operation continuously for our fans -- a good rule of thumb here is to only be making changes on one loop at a time. Also this means that the transformer control stations should be in close proximity to foster communications and allow one person control in emergencies. Future Club events in Maryland include the B&O Museum on April 29-30 (Skip Scheetz is Trackmaster) and the Beltsville Day on May 21 (Brandon Seyfried is Trackmaster). The Six Flags show on May 20-21 is now indeterminate. Together, these are big activities in which all members can have the opportunity to participate. As always, comments and feedback are welcome -- happy tracking!

(Ed. The Far Side column has been absent the past few months and we are glad to see its return. Volume II of this column is being shipped collect by ground freight and should arrive by Christmas!)

Once again, we want to thank the Train Depot for printing our newsletters and brochures. This means a substantial savings to our club. So stop by their Manassas store and say thanks to Dennis Driscoll.

Our next appearance is at the B&O Museum where we will again have the turntable. Tracker Skip Scheetz is the acting trackmaster for this show. Setup is at 07:00 A.M. Saturday April 29. A layout for that event is enclosed.

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