We agreed to open the club to a group of alumni attending a party at the Museum. The party was held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Smoot marks on the Harvard Bridge, and Mr Oliver Reed Smoot himself honored the club with his presence. David added some Smoot marks of our own.
	Andy Miller installed a gorgeous handrail beside the upper-level tracks overlooking Middle Heights. But how long can it last in the TMRC environment?
	Precision machining to exacting tolerances...
	...by skilled native craftsmen with pride in their work.
	Some work on the power supply was done, to try and fix one circuit breaker that keeps popping. That voltmeter is a historical relic, still in service.

		Tonight TMRC had a rare opportunity to tour the Ringling Brothers, Barnum, and Bailey circus train! Our guide was Forrest, a railroad mechanic who lives on and works under the train cars every day. Twenty people joined us for the tour, so we had to go through in groups in order to not disturb the train's population of 350 performers and maintenance crew.
Our tour was of the circus' "Pie Car," an old Union Pacific baggage combine refitted with a galley and dining area.
		We got a chance to talk to the circus' very own on-train tatoo artist!
Forrest told us all about life as a railroad mechanic and traveling with the circus, and of course he answered lots of questions about the train! The circus train travels in a single 7500 foot long consist, from the acrobats in the front to the zebras in the back, and carries almost every person and creature that works for or on the show. The circus has a tight schedule, but that doesn't concern the railroads whose locomotives and track they borrow. Forrest had plenty of tales to tell about riding the rails with a lower priority even than Amtrak.
After dinner we held our first official club meeting of the fall semester, mainly to discuss open projects and schedule the next operating sessions. Our newest member Christian Ternus helped us meet quorum and expressed interest in creating a new TMRC track cleaning car!