"Tuesday Night Work Sessions" have become "Wednesday Night Work Sessions" in deference to the problem set scheduling of two of our undergraduates.

John M worked on the roundhouse. John P and Alvar worked on the switch control system. John P also worked on his produce warehouse building.

Jeff, James, and Alvar worked on wiring an electronic switch kludge into the layout. Now by pointing and clicking at the computer (although not on a layout diagram), any of eight switches (complicated crossovers, no less) can be operated. John Purbrick worked on a computer screen layout diagram that Jeff requested. The diagram is close to that which Jeff used to wire System 2 to the current layout. John also worked on the produce warehouse roof, awning, and doors. With its new brick walls, it is starting to look really sharp. John McNamara continued his research on duplicating the roundhouse floor covering for the extended stall sections. SP Lark Gray with a wash of black acrylic is close, but a little too blue.

This Wednesday was the first Wednesday Night Session. In order to accommodate student schedules, Tuesday Night Sessions have been moved to Wednesday nights.

Bill continued work on the Vegetable Oil facility located at the far East of Gifford City. The back of the building is now defined, and 'real' walls are going to appear soon.

Jeff and Alvar worked on refurbishing the ping-pong track, in order to support locomotives that may pull a lot of current. Now the ping-pong track does not reset all the time when non-perfect locomotives are used.

The final version of the TMRC Switch Cards came in! So, Jeff, James, John P, and Alvar worked on stuffing them. Within an hour FOUR of them were fully stuffed AND tested. We now have all the boards we need to wire all the switches for the current phase.

John M did additional work on finding the right color to match the roundhouse floor. It appears that Floguil SP Lark Light Gray with a light over-wash of black acrylic is close enough. The acrylic wash should be thinned with water that contains detergent so that the wetting agent effect will cause the black to work into the cracks between the bricks. Next week an actual in-place painting experiment will be attempted.

Andy applied TNP and loco number details to the E8A and E8B acquired a few weeks ago. The loco numbers, 1207 and 1212 are based on the TNP custom of 2/3 the horsepower and also reflect MIT courses 1.207 and 1.212:

• 1.207 = Introduction to Intelligent Transportation Systems
• 1.212 = Modeling Transportation Networks

Andy Miler finished the labeling of the new Aaron Burr locomotives (an A unit and a B unit) so that they can go in a westward direction. In a similar note the Talgo (from Ken Central) made quick appearance this Saturday.

John Purbrick continued his work on the Produce Terminal, installing a structure (made out of track!) that holds up the ceiling. Meanwhile Bill continued work on the Vegetable Oil Facility. Dick Lord worked on some MoW track work to ensure its quality.

James finished adding connectors to the new Switch Cards, and changed #2 to maintain a standard with the rest of them. Alvar cut all the wires needed to install SC #2, which should happen by the end of next week. Alvar also worked on the 'new' main TMRC page. Ben showed us a model of his implementation of the 'never stopping' belt for his model of the Flint&Noble bulding.

Major revamping of the web-page! The main page now has neat java-script enabled image changes and an improved menu.

A new Feedback & Contact page has been created. The 'Visit' page and the 'Contact' page are now separated.

Also, starting with the November meeting, the meetings will be announced in this section of the web-page, as above.

Jeff and John P worked on the design of circuitry that will permit the computer to make the initial assignment of trains to blocks in the existing System 2. When this design has been implemented, these circuits, plus the switch-throwing system now being installed, will completely eliminate the need for the PDP11-based "S-board" used in Building 20. Speaking of the switch-throwing system, Alvar installed "Board #2" providing an additional 7 computer-thrown switches. John M painted a replacement section in the roundhouse floor. Color match was good, but more work remains to be done on seam sealing.

Bill continued more work on the vegetable oil distributor at the east side of Gifford City. John McNamara continued his work on the Round House, by installing another section of floor. He is trying a new technique to make the seam almost invisible.

John Purbrick brought a new version of the 'pcb' test software which now includes an interface to assign trains to cabs - although the actual hardware is missing (soon to come!). Jeff and Alvar installed Circuit Board #3! We are half way there with the switches!