Our club, once again, suffered the loss of a cherished member. On December 28, 2000, Tom Hunter, suffered at fatal heart attack while at home. Tom had been quite active with the Trackers since joining the club a couple of years ago.

Tom's two modules contained splendid scenery for which he was awarded the club's "Golden Spike" award. Tom was also active in the National Christmas Tree Railroad.

Private services were held for Tom on December 31, 2000. The club sent flowers to his family in remembrance of Tom. In addition, Tracker Thom McKinney and his wife Becky made up a little plaque in memory of Tom Hunter that we prominently displayed

at the Greenberg Show of Dec. 30 and 31^st. We also took the plaque downtown and ran it around the National Christmas Tree attached to a tank car for the entire day of January 1, 2001.

In addition, Thom and Becky McKinney made black ribbon pins that the members wore at the Greenberg Show. The plaque and one of the pins were presented to Tom's wife, Barbara.

Thanks Thom and Becky, your efforts were appreciated.

Tom Hunter traveled with Bill Buschmeier and Tom Hargis to the York show this past October. It was Tom Hunter's first trip to York. We will fondly retain the memories from that trip.

With the Christmas holidays and our Herculean displays behind us, our next meeting will be on Thursday, January 18, 2001 at 07:00 p.m. Year-end financial reports will be available.

Sow set up started at 7:30 A.M. Saturday December 23^rd, 2000 after a last minute request from the Museum to move our start time earlier to allow for live TV coverage by a Baltimore station. Needless to say, the TV station must have had other priorities that day as they never showed up. Oh, well!!

Set up went well. The railroad was running by the Museum opening time of 10:00 A.M. However, setting up the snow village and other module decorations continued for a couple more hours. When it was finished, we had not only the largest TRACKER layout I can remember, but one of the most presentable. Not only was John Zampino’s Hell Gate Bridge spectacular, but almost half the layout was a Christmas snow scene thanks to Jack Frost and his grandson and John and Karen Harper and their snow village buildings and decorations. Parks Schaefer’s two module scene, Brandon Seyfried’s tenement fire scene, Bob Wilson’s military display, Frank Hale’s used car lot and John Harper’s Choo-choo camera also got rave reviews from the many visitors.

The Museum told me that attendance this year was up over previous years and they attribute that to our presence. Needless to say, we have been invited back next Christmas.

Overall, operation went well throughout the show. One lesson we did learn was we will need a second source of electricity in future shows where we have a lot of lighted buildings. The Z-4000 transformers (using solid state electronics) are designed for service with a very narrow voltage range. When the coffee pot was turned on, they went crazy. Needless to say, the coffee pot was quickly exiled to another power source. On Thursday when the problems with the Z-4000s returned, Carl Condon suggested we disconnect the lighted buildings. That cured the problem, but we couldn’t re-light the buildings for several hours until the Museum provided us with a second power circuit. Chuck Lewis, Curator of the Roundhouse and Director of Facilities has agreed to provide us with two separate sources of power for future appearances in the roundhouse.

On Friday December 29^th we started to remove decorations at 3:00 P.M. (with the Museum’s agreement), stopped running trains at 4:00 P.M. and started tearing down. We vacated the roundhouse by 5:05 P.M. (Museum closing was at 5:00 P.M.) and those scheduled to appear at the Greenburg show in Chantilly proceeded there and began to set back up.

I want to thank all the TRACKERs who participated in the B&O show; those who brought modules, those who helped in setting up and tearing down, those who brought decorations, those who provided manning support for the five day show and those who brought trains to run. I for one had a ball and I think the rest of the TRACKERs did as well.

A letter was received from the Director of Marketing and Visitor Services of the B&O Museum. It is enclosed for your review.

Thanks once again to the Train Depot for printing our newsletters and brochures. This means a substantial savings to our club. Stop by their Manassas store over the holidays for all your train needs and check out their very attractive and extensive Dept. 56 display. While you are there, say thanks to Dennis Driscoll.

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

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

March 24-25, Woodbridge Scouts (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Apr. 27-28, York TCA Meet

Apr. 28-29, B&O Railroad Museum (NCT is scheduled to appear)

June 08-10 Fairfax County Fair in Fairfax, VA (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Aug. 3-4, LOTS convention at the Baltimore Civic Center (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Aug. 12, Montgomery County Fair, Fairgrounds (NCT is scheduled to appear)

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

Sept. 15-16, Culpeper Train Days (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Sept. 29, Fall for Fairfax at Fairfax Government Center, Fairfax, VA (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Oct. 19-20, York TCA Meet

Dec. 22-31, B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore (NCT is scheduled to appear)

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

Apr. 19-20, York TCA Meet

Oct. 18-19, York TCA Meet

Once again, we had a successful show in support of the Fairfax Station Railroad Museum. This is their main fund raiser of the year and is was a success. Thanks to Thom McKinney, Frank Hale, Arleigh Rice, Dave Messerly and Jack Frost in making this show a success.

Without a doubt, this was the best display presented by that ragtag group of "G" men from three different "G" groups and a slew of Trackers. This year featured seven trains running continuously and the addition of two villages, (West Village and East Village) and a rock tunnel. The display was well received by the public.

The trains ran better than in previous years due to the effort spent leveling the loops. Other than a few windy days and the bone chilling cold, the trains ran well from when they were started by President Clinton until put away the night of January 1, 2001.

The National Christmas Tree Railroad will deeply miss Tom Hunter who was an integral part of that exhibit.

Greenberg's found the right key. The show held at the Capital Expo Center on Dec. 30 & 31 drew the largest crowds ever for that location. The Trackers one again had an outstanding exhibit thanks to the members who worked all week at the B&O Museum and then trucked their modules to Chantilly on Friday.

A number of members were showing signs of fatigue but they pulled it off and out thanks go to each and every one of them.

In addition, we were contacted be a representative of Rick Hamilton's estate who asked if we could sell some items that survived the tragedy. Around a thousand dollars was raised through the sale of these items. We sold about 95% of the items we were given.

We were also informed that the modules survived the tragedy. The club intends to purchase them and offer them for sale to members. If the Tee module is intact and if any of the corners are still good, the club will retain ownership of them. The straights will be sold to members. We have not seen the items yet so we don't know how complete they are. We do know that the legs are missing, the status of the plastic protectors, jumper cables, etc. is now known at this time. We hope to know more by our January meeting.

(ED. The following was posted to the TCA message list server)
Whew … another holiday season of building layouts (for non-profit fund-raising events), running trains, and tearing down layouts is over. Festival of Trees event (4 days) in Easton, MD, Greensborough, MD Library (1 day), Museum of Eastern Shore Life (4 days) in Centreville, MD, and the National Capital Trackers B&O Museum layout (5 days) in Baltimore, MD. Lots of hard work and fun, but not without frustrations from equipment failure. Batteries, batteries, cold solder joints, shorted wires, thrown traction tires, and other gremlins. One day, I started with 10 engines on hand and ended with three still running. MTH has been courteous and prompt with repairs, and I have my own backlog of repairs to legacy equipment (i.e., the locos that come with E-units). The only "modern" engine that has survived three years of show layout operation (6 to 10 hr days) without a problem has been my KCC MP-15.

Early in December, I joined this list's contributors who complained of failures in the modern electronics that manage how our toys do very simple things such as move forward and reverse. Lester Mathis (v4 n489 q15825) spoke his "3 klinks and 2 clanks" which pretty much says it all IMHO. The user interfaces leaves much to be desired and the failure modes are confusing and ambiguous. Bill Sprague (v4 n492 q15898) later commented that he was amazed that we can use computers to post our messages but can't seem to operate TMCC and Protosounds. Since I'm a software developer who designs and codes vertical applications that start with the user interfaces and go down through Windows NT internals and device drivers – an incredibly complex machine – and I have a deep appreciation of how difficult it is to build a decent user interface to control complex things (I have been humbled many times by users), I can't leave Bill's comment alone.

The first problem is lack of accurate feedback for a common, expected, failure such as a discharged battery. Several failed Proto-1 engines have started in the normal power-up (2 dings) mode but refused to move. The problem was sometimes fixed by battery replacement. Why not design the hardware and firmware to detect a lack of battery power during startup and sound 4 dings (or whatever)? Better yet, sound the failure indicator and lapse into a vanilla electronic e-unit mode? We can operate and replace the battery at leisure.

Battery replacement with a new Duracel 9V, or swapping a charged battery from a working engine, did not work for several of my dead (or should I call them brain-dead) engines. I recall a phone conversation with a QSI technician debugging Protosounds Plus (or whatever they called their upgrade for compatibility with TMCC's non-sine wave power) where we listened for sounds after powering off but before the engine emitted what we now know as Protosounds Flatulence. The single ding prior to the engine's last gasp indicated the firmware was entering a proper shutdown state and also hinted that the battery power was fine. Not so, and when the engine went to MTH for repair, the repair summary indicated the problem was fixed by battery replacement. Why was the factory replacement successful when my attempts were not? I may have a collection of bad replacement batteries, or MTH has a magic procedure. I need to investigate. As far as the battery charging using a ZW egg cooker at 12V+ for several hours – two out of two engines went insane after that procedure and I no longer attempt that. Bad batteries or bad charging circuits? I don't know. Thanks to Chip Miller and others who identified Walmart as a source for NiH batteries and external chargers.

The next problem is the VCR mentality in the locomotive interface design. Change the VCR's arcane programming screens to clinks and clanks and don't forget your instruction book. This is an interface designed to satisfy the hardware engineer, not the end-user. For engines that can talk to you, why can't it play a voice stating what mode the firmware is in. TMCC's CAB-1 requires lots of practice to understand and exercise the features correctly. Again, bring your TMCC (and ICControls) manuals to the layouts. This is fun: try instructing the club's MTH zealots on using the TMCC controller (and diagnosing problems) in 60 seconds. (60 seconds is all the time I have before the trainee loses interest and layout power is switched back to Z-4000s with a classic ZW interface). Proto-2 hand-held controllers? The demo unit appears to be an incremental improvement over the TMCC hand-held but it's not in our hands yet to find the good and bad features. Don't forget to read the fine manuals (this is known as "RTFM" in the software industry). Compare what we have in toy train control with some of the slicker PC software available today (intuitive, with no manual needed) and you'll see how far the toy train industry needs to go.

A final problem is the growing incompatibility between systems. Was the timing for bell & whistle button activation sequences for Proto-2 station announcements designed to annoy TMCC users? ICControls can probably add special sequence playbacks to their TPC3000 to solve this problem, but why wasn't the Proto-1 activation (bell for 3+ seconds) retained also? (even PCs retain their DOS modes!). I can see the day when operating the various locomotive control systems on the same layout will be like using a KVM switch connected to Windows, MAC, and Sun machines. All of the interfaces are similar but have infuriating differences when the user switches among systems. I haven't had this much fun since the days when IBM, Novell, Microsoft, et al, were shipping a mix of slightly incompatible versions of hardware, drivers, operating systems, compilers, and applications. For me, running trains will be like the postman going for a walk on his day off.

I also observed that Proto-2 engines operated during the holidays on our Tinplate Tracker layout required higher voltages (18v or more) than older equipment. Yet another change of lighting bulbs in cars may be needed and more opportunities to weld derailed wheels to the track. The higher operating voltage is especially problematic for me (a ChooChooCam operator) since the camera's power supply is designed for 18v max. I concede that even simpler electronics fail. At the B&O show a fellow Tracker pulled his MTH F3 lashup off the layout when it failed to start (dead battery – surprise!) and replaced it with Williams U-boats. One of the Williams E-units failed so he was down to a single powered unit – but that ran fine using the legacy ZW interface. Enough said. End of my rambling. The trains are packed until next November (except for the ones in need of fixing and/or testing). Any bets on battery state when I unpack them in November?

Bill Buschmeier is Trackmaster.
The show is full. A show layout is enclosed.

Bill Creech is Trackmaster
A show layout is enclosed. Additional straight modules are needed for this show.

A big welcome to Don Aston who joined our group in December. Don is a schoolteacher at Easton High School in Easton, Md. Welcome aboard Don.

- The Great Train & Toy Meet will take place on 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 WB&A Chapter of the TCA will hold an open/closed Train Meet on March 3, 2001 at Tall Cedars Hall #45 on 2501 Putty Hill Avenue in Baltimore. The meet will be open to TCA members only and closed to the public from 08:00 am until 09:30 AM. From 09:30 AM until closing at 01:30 PM the meet will be open to the public. Directions: Baltimore Beltway (I-695) to exit 30 South, then left on Putty Hill Ave. or exit 31 South, then right on Putty Hill Ave.

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