Our first meeting of the fall will be held on Thursday, September 21, 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 report that Bernie Gross's wife lost her long battle with cancer this past summer. This news was relayed to us at the Greenberg Show in July. Bernie, we want you to know that we have you in our thoughts and prayers.

Our June meeting was the scene for the presentation of the coveted Silver Rail award. This award is only presented to one recipient each year and is the highest honor bestowed by the Trackers. Our first recipient for the new millenium was Tracker Ed Beaver.

Ed has been with the Trackers for several years and acts as chief Tracker for Maryland activities. Congratulations Ed!!

We were all pleasantly surprised to see a full page ad from Greenberg Shows that featured a picture of the Trackers layout in the September issue of Classic Toy Trains. If you missed it, the same ad appear again in the October issue.

The ad shows our layout with one of its more crowd pleasing features, our center crossover (Build by Tracker John Harper). The crossover allowed us to in essence run two layouts (three trains) with the outer loop traveling through both layouts. Many of the current members have never seen this module since it was retired when we went to larger radius corners. Tracker Brian Turner has built an updated one that will work with our current corners but we have not had the space at recent train shows to use it. After seeing the photo, interest has been rekindled in the crossover and we will see how we can work it into current shows.

As a side light, there are six Trackers in the picture, see if you can name. All correct entries will receive a handshake from Year 2000 Silver Rail recipient Ed Beaver.

Also notice that none of the members are attired in our green shirts and club hats. This dates the picture to before we adopted a common dress uniform for shows. We believe the picture was taken at the Show Place arena in Upper Marlboro several years ago.

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

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)

-------------------------- 2001 ------------------------

Feb. 10-11, Greenberg Show at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Aug. 18-19, Greenberg Show at Capital Expo Center in Chantilly, VA (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Apr. 27-28, York TCA Meet

Oct. 19-20, York TCA Meet

-------------------------- 2002 ------------------------

Apr. 19-20, York TCA Meet

Bill Creech is working on an appearance for next March with the scouts in Woodbridge.

Brian Turner is working on an appearance for next August at the LOTS convention being held at the Baltimore Civic Center.

As our new season arrives in September, a brief taking stock of our club's operations is appropriate. Not including the National Christmas Tree, operations since last September, we now do 18 days of community events (64%) and 10 days of commercial train events (36%).

This is due in no small part to Skip Scheetz's leadership at the B&O Museum and the just completed Montgomery County Agricultural Fair with all of its set-up innovations. With all these events, he now qualifies as an "Honorary Marylander". I guess our only complaint is that the events he leads all start set-up at 7:00am -- %*!x#&z! In any case, he will need our support during the multi-day Christmas exhibit at the B&O Museum.

Closer on the calendar in Maryland are the Upper Marlboro (Greenberg), Gaithersburg, and Brunswick events. Bill Buschmeier is Trackmaster for Upper Marlboro - I am not sure if we are going to try the two level operation Bill needs a firm count of those there with modules. On thing we observed from the August 14 Montgomery Fair is that we could use the leg adapters to simply raise existing modules 10 inches above the current level. This height worked OK on one end of the layout at the fair. Jack Frost and John Zampino will be making a major effort to sell Bill Oehrli's estate collection on the main floor at that show - a great chance to see it and make an offer.

Gaithersburg is nearly full. There are a few openings for Brunswick where we will again use the cross-over layout. Ed Beaver is trackmaster for these events.

Speaking of the calendar, our club passes a major milestone in December. According to the Tracker history published in the October 1999 news letter, it will be 10 years since our club began operation of loops. Tom Davis, Joe Pennell, Pat Pennell, and Bill Buschmeier were the founding folks at that time. Give some thought to how we might have a special get-together in November to commemorate our 10 year anniversary.

In the 1:1 gauge world, AMTRAK is pushing for improved services in many new corridors across the country according to their website. My travels to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Stamford, Connecticut this spring on AMTRAK were much better than driving or flying. I wonder who will be the first to model their new Acela train with speeds to 150 MPH? (This is almost the correct scale speed at which we run some of our freight trains!)

This summer, Williams released their models of the original 120 MPH Metroliners from the Surface transportation Act of 1996. I spent a summer riding those on business - it was truly an interesting commute. (Of course when I could arrange it, I booked a train behind a GG1 - they still hit 100MPH in some sections south of Philadelphia.

Finally, on a personal note, it was truly awesome to be the 3rd recipient of the Silver Rail award in June. Thanks to all my friends in the Trackers!

Montgomery County Agricultural Fair Railroad Day Show, Sunday, August 13, 2000

After the cloudburst was over, the weather turned beautiful for the rest of the day. The layout site was anything but level. Ed Beaver estimated there was a good foot drop off from the high side to the low side. John Zampino and others went to work with a shovel to excavate footings for the high end modules. Leveling eyebolts were removed from two sets of corners and several modules and the legs buried up to 4 inches deep in the gravel. Starting at the high end and working around the layout, using the shovel and wood blocks provided by Ed Beaver and the Fair, the layout assembly proceeded. By the time work proceeded to the low end, the leg extension sleeves (suggested by Frank Hale, Jack Schmidt and John Harper) were the savior of the day.

Work continued at a fast pace. While a couple of TRACKERs held the module at the desired height, others adjusted the sleeves. At the low end the sleeves were extending the module legs the best part of a foot. Even with this leveling effort there was a visible grade up one side and down the other.

After the modules were all assembled and leveled and the power wires hooked up, power was turned on. Trains operated on both loops from the get go. John Zampino was heard to comment that this was a first, noting that there was no gargraves track in the layout. In fact the club remote controls were used and took over control on the club Z-4000 transformers and maintained control all day until the 5:00 P.M. shutdown without a hitch.

Most of the modules in the layout were new or had their track replaced. I had my two new modules built by Frank Hale using K-line phantom track. Jack Frost’s modules had new K-line phantom track. Parks Schaefer’s modules had new Lionel track. Joel Wasserstein,s and Tony Duncanson’s modules were recent builds by Frank Hale and Thom McKinney. Two new 90 degree corners with tubular track were provided by Ed Beaver along with four 45 degree corners he had brought to previous shows. John Zampino’s three module truss bridge set had the oldest track in the layout. Brendan Lynch rounded out the layout with the two modules he acquired from Bill Oehrli.

Needless to say, a good time was had by all the TRACKERs. The crowds were heavy, most who passed the tent stopped in. Jack Frost had his usual logging scene on his modules. Parks Schaefer had a nice scene displayed on his modules. Joel Wasserstein brought his Lionel Train store. Tony Duncanson brought track to store trains on his modules. Brendan Lynch brought his Lionel Factory. Everybody got to run the trains they brought.

We had to pull the plug at 5:00 P.M. in spite of the Fair remaining open until midnight. The Activities Tent where we were set up was scheduled for two concerts by church choral groups, the first starting at 7:00 P.M. The TRACKERs vacated the premises by 6:00 P.M. without incident.

I want to thank the TRACKERs involved for a terrific show. I think we will get invited back next year, hopefully with more advance notice.

Just like the TV show Survivor, we also had an outstanding summer. We welcome three new members to our ranks. They are Gary Tregaskis, Donald Mayer, and David Messerly. Updated rosters are enclosed.

The Fairfax County Fair went off smoothly. We had three days of trouble free running. Our only glitch was some late arrivals on the setup evening that delayed final clampdown.

The July Greenberg show at the Capital Expo Center went off without a hitch. Approximately 90% of the layout was in place on Friday making for an easy clamp down and final setup on Saturday morning.

Jim Warrington's new modules made its initial debut at this show.

Tracker Frank Hale who retired from his regular 40 hour per week job to start a module construction company where he now puts in 60 hours per week, has informed us that he has completed and delivered modules to the following: Mike Fistere (2), Skip Scheetz (2), Dave Messerly (1), Bob Wilson (2), Joel Wasserstein (2), and Bernie Gross (1).

2000 - Richard Eudy
2000 - Tom Hunter
2000 - Brandon Seyfried

1999 - Rick Hamilton
1999 - Skip Scheetz
1999 - Brandon Seyfried

1998 - Keith Webb
1998 - Tom Hargis
1998 - Jim Jamison

1997 - Gil Baldwin
1997 - Carl Condon
1997 - Jack Frost
1997 - Frank Hale
1997 - John Harper
1997 - Thom McKinney
1997 - Parks Schaefer
1997 - John Zampino

- The WB&A Chapter of TCA will hold a train meet at Tall Cedars Hall located at 2501 Putty Hill Ave., Baltimore, MD on Sept. 9, 2000 from 8:00 am - 9:30 am for members and open to the public from 9:30 am until 1:30 pm.

- The Arbutus Volunteer Firehall will have a train meet on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2000 from 9:00 am until 1:30 pm. They are located 1/4 mile off the beltway (Baltimore beltway), Exit 120, Southwestern Blvd.

- There will be an Inner Harbor Train Show on Sunday, November 5, 2000 at the B&O Railroad Museum, 901 West Pratt St., Baltimore, MD from 10:00 am until 04:00 pm. This will take place in the roundhouse.

- The Great Train & Toy Meet will take place on both Dec. 16, 2000 and Feb. 3, 2001 at the Knight of Columbus Hall, Columbus Gardens, Klosterman Ave. and Belair Road, Baltimore, MD from 8:30 am until 1:30 pm

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 addressed to the editor at: National Capital Trackers c/o Bill Buschmeier 15145 Wetherburn Dr. Centreville, VA 20120-3925 or e-mail at bush9@erols.com

Setup: 08:00 A.M. Sat. Sept. 16th, 2000