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.

At our January meeting there was much concern raised about the August LOTS convention in Baltimore and the role union labor would play in it. Brian Turner has resolved all the issues and it turns out they are all non-issues. We should be able to function just like we do at Upper Marlboro or the Capital Expo Center. Nice work Brian.

Also at that meeting it was pointed out that the dates for the Woodbridge scouts show were incorrect. The show is March 17-18 not March 24-25 as previously reported.

Tom Hunter's wife Barbara donated his modules to the club. The club is maintaining ownership of the outside yard which will handled by Ed Beaver. His two straight modules were obtained by Alan Crotts and Lynn Gaines.

We also obtained Rick Hamilton's modules. These were sold with the proceeds going to the estate. Don Aston purchased three straights, Dan Danielson purchased one straight, Ed Beaver purchased one straight, Richard Myers purchased two straights and the Trackers purchased the wide radius curves (180 degrees) and the Tee module (2 straights and a wedge). The wide radius curves are being handled by Ed Beaver and the tee module set by Brian Turner.

Have you been there lately? The new Lionel catalog is in with the MTH catalog due out shortly.

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.

A special tip of the Maryland Tracker’s hats to Skip Scheetz for all his leadership and efforts at the B&O Museum show in December. Many other folks contributed many hours before again committing a full weekend at the Greenberg Chantilly Show. A special thanks to Jack Frost for handling the Maryland team’s part of the Tracker equipment.

All the Maryland folks were deeply saddened over Tom Hunter's sudden death on December 30^th. We lost way too many friends in 2000…Bill, Brian, Rick, Bene, Katy, Sarah, and Tom. 2001 must be better!

We look forward to operations under Bill Buschmeier's Trackmaster leadership at the Greenberg Upper Marlboro show on February 10^th and 11^th. We will use some of the newly acquired modules from Tom Hunter's (a donation) and Rick Hamilton's estates. When upgrades to all 072 switches are completed, yours truly will be handling Tom Hunter's outside loop yard as requested for the club. I plan to have a memorial billboard in Tom's honor and call it the Ivy Yards in recognition of the Washington Terminal yard area. This means that the existing set (number3) of corner modules (180 degrees) is available for another member to handle if they wish.

On January 10th, I had the opportunity to travel on business to Stamford, Connecticut for an early morning meeting. Working near BWI only 0.5 mile from the AMTRAK station, what’s a red-blooded Tracker to do? Ride the new 5:20am Accela Express to New York of course!

At that early hour, I easily obtained a seat in a middle car next to the Club Car. This was most interesting because I soon notice several Bombadier technicians in adjoining seats. They were in contact with the AMTRAK technician who was using the computer based instrumentation station in the Club Car closet in the next car to monitor events during operation of the new train. Occasionally, I overhead minor glitch reports of "stuck doors requiring two cycles for closing", etc. What this means is that the Accela is a first article unit still being reviewed and tested. This also explains AMTRAK’s initial plan to operate at off-hours to minimize subjecting customers to minor glitches. All of this was most interesting to a technical type but completely unnoticeable to most travelers.

Travel on Accela is a good improvement over the current Metroliner service. The cars have a more modern, open appearance with conspicuously larger windows with curtains. The inter-car vestibule floors have a new design using rows of multiple small composite tapered plates rather than single large plates. When combine with a more modern, lighter material in the flexible coupling forming the vestibule, this gives a better sealed, smoother, more pleasant vestibule appearance. Acceleration seemed a little faster than on the current Metroliners. Ride is noticeably smoother even on the outdated Washington to New York roadbed. In any case for this moderate length trip, it beat the airline-rental car combination hands down!

To achieve high-speed operation, the Accela uses a single pantograph on each 6000 HP motor unit at each end of the 6-car train. This provided reliable power without the noticeable interruptions present in normal Metroliner operation. Only one power interruption was noticed at Philadelphia during some type of "Pans Down" reset operation. (Sounds about like a Tracker operation!) Incidentally, a Big Boy was rated at about 6000 HP. At Philadelphia, the train was nearly full. We arrived on schedule in New York at about 7:20am. A large crowd was waiting to board for the 8:00am departure for Boston.

On the next day’s return trip, I boarded the 9:00pm Accela in a moderate crowd at New York. The conductors indicated that the First Class car was again at the end of the train. This means that AMTRAK is turning the train at each end of the trip. We arrived on schedule at BWI at 11:00pm. As the train exited the station, I noticed that the rear power unit had a loud blower sound as I stood near to it on the platform. (This would not be noticeable to most passengers.) Does this mean that the Accela can retake the "Jet" nickname from the old New Haven EP-5 rectifier electrics?

AMTRAK is achieving its faster schedules by also minimizing the times for station stops as indicated on their schedules. Also, since electrified operation is present all the way to Boston, at New Haven there is no longer a change of motive power requiring a 30-minute stop.

A HO model of the Accela Express is now available. Who will be first with the 3-rail version - MTH or Williams?

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

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

March 17-18, 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)

Dec. 29-30, Greenberg Show at Capital Expo Center in Chantilly, VA (NCT is scheduled to appear)

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

Apr. 19-20, York TCA Meet

Oct. 18-19, York TCA Meet

-------------------------- 2003 ------------------------

Apr. 11-12, York TCA Meet

Oct. 18-19, York TCA Meet

-------------------------- 2004 ------------------------

Apr. 16-17, York TCA Meet

Oct. 15-16, York TCA Meet

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

We welcome two new members to our group. Steve Gobel from Rockville, MD. and Stan Schelhorn from Fairfax, VA. A big welcome to both. Updated rosters are enclosed.

O. Winston Link, Photographer of Steam Engines, Dies
Feb. 2, 2001

O. Winston Link, whose dramatic nighttime photographs of smoke-puffing steam engines documented a vanished era of American railroads, has died. Link, 86, was found dead in his car Tuesday outside a train station in Katonah, not far from his New York state home, said Robert Mann, the gallery owner who represented Link's work.

He had a history of heart trouble and was enroute to see a doctor when he pulled his car over and asked a passer-by to call for help, Mann said Thursday.

Link began taking photos of trains for the love of it; decades later, they were recognized as important works of art. Link, who was was raised in Brooklyn, said in a 1996 interview that his love for trains dated back to his infancy, and as a teen-ager, he often spent time at a train yard. Link supported himself as a commercial photographer, taking pictures around the country.

While working in Virginia in 1955 he began taking photographs of the Norfolk & Western, a coal-hauler and passenger railroad that maintained the country's last steam trains at a time when the era of rail travel had largely passed. Over the next five years, he took 2,400 pictures of N&W's 450 locomotives along 2,300 miles of track. "I was strong and healthy and I was enjoying what I was doing," he told The Roanoke Times in Virginia. "I was one man and I tackled a big railroad. I did the best I could." Link also took nostalgic pictures of a disappearing rural culture - stoop-shouldered neighbors around a stove and children swimming at night beneath railroad tracks.

Although he took the pictures in the late 1950s, Link was not well known in the art world until the early 1980s. His photographs are collected in two books, "The Last Steam Railroad in America" and "Steam, Steel and Stars." Link, who was trained as a civil engineer, was also noted for his technical expertise. He had a synchronized flash system to capture high-contrast nighttime images of passing trains that involved hundreds of lightbulbs and miles of cable and wires, using a heavy, large-format camera 10 times the size of today's hand-held cameras. "Just mastering the hardware alone is a technical feat, but then to master it in such a way as to make it subtle and create the images he did - people can't even fathom what it took to create those shots," Mann said. Link's ex-wife was convicted in 1996 of stealing 1,400 of Link's pictures, with an estimated value of between $1 million and $2 million. Conchita Mendoza Link remains in a New York prison, serving up to 20 years. The pictures have not been found.

By coincidence, a historic Norfolk & Western passenger station in Roanoke had burned down the day before Link's death. Link had been lobbying to have a steam locomotive put on display at the station amid talk of creating a museum for his photos.

- 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