Our November meeting will be held on Thursday, November 18, 1999. We will be going over module assignments for the B&O Christmas Show, Fairfax Station show, the Greenberg Show in January, the Greenberg February show and the GATS February show.

In the last issue, we welcomed aboard two new members from Maryland. This month it is Virginia’s turn. A big toot of our whistle goes to Cole Posey of Manassas, Patrick Quinn of Centreville, and Tom Podlesak of Manassas who joined our group this past month.

Updated rosters are enclosed.

First, I want to thank all the members who participated in the 18/19 September 1999 show at the B&O Museum. I heard nothing but praise from the visitors, the Museum staff and Museum management about our layout and the various displays included.

After a last minute glitch of being told we would not be able to set up on Friday afternoon, as we had been planning, the turnout of members at the Museum starting at 6:00 A.M. Saturday morning and the usual heroic effort by members resulted in the railroad being up and running by the Museum’s 9:00 A.M. opening. This is in spite of another last/last minute glitch, being asked by the volunteer re-enactors to rotate our layout 45 degrees counterclockwise and moving about 4 feet farther from the observation car platform to provide more room for spectators for their Abbot and Costello performances.

A good number of members also turned out Sunday to help with teardown. After the Museum closed at 5:00 P.M. on Sunday we were packed up and off the Museum premises by 6:15 P.M.

During set up on Saturday there were the usual annoying delays trying to connect the Gargraves tracked modules to each other and to the Lionel tracked modules. Interestingly, once the John Zampino’s Hell Gate Bridge modules were in place, set up went quickly. The crossover modules (Potomac Yard) fit together perfectly including Parks Schaefer’s 11.65 inch makeup piece (thanks to the excellent work by Ed Beaver and Rick Hamilton, confirmed by Rich Eudy, in laying out the octagon and sizing the makeup piece). By the way, I don’t know who ended up with it, but the makeup piece should be returned to Parks or me as we will need it if we do a future show on the Museum roundtable. It was also pleasant when the last modules including Frank Hale’s display also fit perfectly.

There was one operating problem with the last Potomac Yard module on the right, there was a section of dead track that was cured by Ed Beaver who used two Lionel track clips and a piece of wire to jumper power to that piece of track. Another annoyance was slow operation of trains on the Pot Yard modules red track and sidings. There were other comments by members on operating foibles of Pot Yard that result from ignorance of the way Pot Yard is designed and built. It is recommended that whoever knows, give a talk at a future Trackers meeting to interested members.

The two 50 foot jumpers seemed to help a lot. The outside track seemed to operate at steady speed without throttle manipulation, the upper inside track (the white track on the crossover) seemed to work that way also. The lower inside track operated around the outside modules at steady speed also, the only problem being the aforementioned slowing inside Pot Yard on the red track. Ed Beaver has one of the 50 foot jumpers for use by the Maryland contingent and Jack Frost has the other one for the Virginians.

Thanks to Keith Webb and Tom Hargis, Pot yard now has provision for plastic protectors on both sides. Keith’s modules still could use Velcro on the inside side to attach the skirting. I also recommend that the wiring of Pot Yard be modified to separate power to the through tracks from the sidings. Maybe this would help with the "slow down" issue as well.

One mistake I made was planning to have the lower inner track controlled from Rich Eudy’s module location. Nothing against Rich, but every time we wanted to change the train operating on that loop meant a 30 foot walk back and forth to the Pot Yard control panel to realign power between tracks and realign switches. Yelling 30 feet to someone else at the transformer didn’t work either. Any future use of Pot Yard should include having the power feed to the loop that is the red track on the Pot Yard modules located real close to the Pot Yard control panel.

Another problem that arose was a short in the outer loop. This happened about 20 minutes before the end of operation on Sunday. After many minutes of looking for a derailment, followed by completely removing the train on the outer loop, the short continued to persist. As it was now closing time, a brief attempt to locate the short by disconnecting modules, which was also unsuccessful, stopped in favor of tearing down. Ah, those electrical Gremlins!

Overall, I think all the Trackers who participated were pleased with the show. Let’s hope we get invited back.

Jack Harper one of our club’s senior members (ED. length of membership not age) is involved in the annual Festival of Trees which is held in Easton, MD. John resides on the Eastern shore in Centreville, ,Maryland. This event is now in its 14^th year. John would like to borrow some modules and Tracker equipment (transformers, skirting, etc.) to equip this event. The event is a charitable event held to benefit the Friends of Hospice. A layout for the event is enclosed. John also needs help in the way of volunteers. He has two guest bedrooms for those who would like to stay overnight.

The schedule is as follows:

Please call John if you can volunteer or loan a module. John can be reached at (xxx) xxx-xxxx.

-------------------------- 1999 ------------------------

Oct. 2, Fall For Fairfax Festival (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Oct. 2-3, Brunswick Railroad Days, Brunswick, MD (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Oct. 15-16, York TCA Meet

Nov. 13-14 – Rockville Lions Club (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Nov. 27-30, Festival of Trees, Easton, MD. (John Harper & Friends participating)

Dec. 4-5, Fairfax Station’s 10th Annual Holiday Train Show (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Dec. 11-12, B&O Railroad Museum, Baltimore (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Dec. 20-23, U.S. Geological Survey Exhibit

Dec. 8-31, National Christmas Tree Railroad

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

Jan. 22-23, Greenberg Show at Capital Expo Center in Chantilly, VA (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Feb. 12-13, Greenberg Show at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Feb. 26-27, GATS Show, Montgomery County Agriculture Center, Gaithersburg (NCT is scheduled to appear)

July 15-15, Greenberg Show at Capital Expo Center in Chantilly, VA (NCT is scheduled to appear)

Apr. 14-15, York TCA Meet

Oct. 20-21, York TCA Meet

The Rockville Lions Club 9^th Annual Model Train Show is on November 13-14, 1999 and the Trackers will be a part of it. The layout and module assignments are enclosed. Bill Buschmeier is acting Trackmaster for this event.

For those needing directions. The event is held at the Senior Center located at 1150 Carnation Drive in Rockville. Take I-270 North from the Beltway to Exit 6-A. Take the exit ramp to the light at Rt. 28 (West Montgomery Ave.) and proceed straight through the light onto Nelson St. Proceed about a half a mile to a three way Stop sign at Crocus Dr. Continue on Crocus to the dead end (Carnation Drive) and turn left. The senior center is at the end of Carnation Drive (about a half a block).

Our Maryland activities focused on our seventh exhibit at the Brunswick Railroad Days on October 2nd and 3rd. A special Tracker Thank You goes to Ms. Geri Reynolds of the City of Brunswick for orchestrating our use of the Fire Hall's first floor and providing a generous $200 donation to the club! The new L-shaped layout was expanded to a 30 foot by 34 foot configuration; Brian Turner's cross-over worked well and provided a mode of operation not seen recently on our layouts. Ed Beaver completed the middle track loop started by Jim Stapleton's, Carl Condon's, and Jack Schmidt's modules to allow operation of four trains. Arleigh Rice's and Rick Hamilton's modules completed the set-up. Just to show-off, Rick Hamilton and Brian Turner operated their pair of Lionel Virginian rectifiers in a coal drag at creeper speeds using Lionel's Command Control system from an MTH Z4000. On Sunday, Mike Fistere shared his new 9 car Lionel Santa-Fe F-3 passenger set.

In November, a South-Side team will be leading the exhibit at the Rockville Lions Show. Look for Trackmaster Bill Buschmeier's plans elsewhere in this issue.

At the TCA York Meet on Otober 15-16, Jack Schmidt lead a contingent of Keith Webb, Dan Danielson, Ed Beaver, Jack Frost, and John Zampino who participated with tables in the Blue Hall. We had several nice experiences selling items to other TCA members from Pennsylvania and New York and sharing their train interests. Ed Beaver's Dad found a unique Custom Baggage Car for Lionel's Reproduction Standard Guage State Set; according to Carl Condon, this set was produced by a man in Califonia. In the Black Hall, 3 beautiful, mint Lionel Prewar O Gauge Brass Corner Tunnels (about 2 foot by 3 foot) with landscaping and houses were offered for a mere $2500 each (I have never before seen them). Lionel's, Weaver's, K-Line's, Williams', and MTH's exhibits showcased all of their new products. QSI had a new controllers, programmers (for older transformers with MTH stuff), surge protection units, and sound units.

TRAIN TRIVIA: Joshua Lionel Cohen was focused on accuracy in his models. Because he did not like Ives' inattention to accuracy, he destroyed the Ives dies when he took-over the company in 1933. (R.Sassman, Invention & Technology Magazine, Winter 1995)

The annual train exhibit produced by Jim & JoAnn Stapleton at the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston will take place on Monday, December 20^th through Thursday December 23^rd. The hours are 10:00 a.m. until 05:oo p.m. each day except for Community Night on Tuesday, December 21^st when the exhibit will stay open until 09:oo p.m. The operating exhibit includes modular layouts in HO, O/S, G, N, and Z scales. The exhibit is held in the main auditorium at the USGS headquarters building located at 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive in Reston. Sunrise Valley Drive is one block south of the Dulles Access Road; the USGS is midway between Reston Parkway and the Fairfax County Parkway.

We are now into our busy time of the season and we have a number of events coming up. Members either signed up for these at our October meeting or called me with requests. If I missed you, please call me and we will try to work you in.

December finds us back at Fairfax Station. This is a small setup due to space. Tom McKinney will be acting Trackmaster for this event.

January we will be back at the Greenberg show at the Capital Expo Center in Chantilly while February finds us at another Greenberg show in Upper Marlboro. We should be back in the "Tack Room" again. Also in February, we will be at a GATS show in Gaithersburg. Layouts for all these events are enclosed.

There are three train shows coming up in Frederick Maryland. The date are November 7, December 26, and February 6. They will all be held at the Independent Fire and Hose Co. Take US 15 which bypasses Frederick to exit 14 (Rosemont Ave.) Go north on Rosemont (towards mountains) and make a left at the second traffic light (Baughman’s Lane). The Fire house is 100 yards on your left. Admission is $3.00 and the hours are 09:30 a.m. until 02:30 p.m. For further information contact Rich DeLong at 41 Greenvale Road, Westminster, MD 21157 (410) 848-5458.