Andy began the design of the vertical lift bridge that crosses the east side of the large river in Gifford City. Bill continued his work. Alvar got more material for the green building, and has 'shaped' about 90% of it.

John Shriver installed two more complex tracks in the heavily populated carbarn ladder (for the trolleys of Gifford City). Plus, he fully figured out the '5 point' frog on one of the switches (frogs usually have 4 points, not 5). Bill installed some windows in his building. Alvar routed the last sections of the basswood for the Green Building, setting it ready for the structure, which is still to come.

Today TMRC members, and several guests from the Center for Transportation Studies, the Norshore Club, and new students, went to a very special tour of South Station. We went first to the new South Station dispatch center, and then had a private tour of the Amtrak Maintenance facilities.

Back at the clubroom Ed, a new member to the club, began to lay down track for the 'Coca-Bubblie' building. He also prepared the other sections around the builidng in order to lay down the street all around that area. Andy Miller continued to work on the concrete building that goes in the front area of Gifford City. Alvar did precise measurements of the current Green Building parts, and using the plans for the building, came up with the correct sizes for the main structure of the building.

James installed a new version of linux in our local computers, which will let us use them directly on the web. Then James, Alvar, and Jeff discussed the desing of a TMRC Store where we will soon be able to sell club souvenirs (like the famous TMRC t-shirts, and the new TMRC Engineer Caps) via mail order. Look for the TMRC Store comming soon...

John P continued work on the parking lot between the produce warehouse and the newspaper plant; a 15:1 ratio of wood putty to carbon black, screeded smooth with a piece of styrene, appears to be the right formula. John M continued on splicing new material to old in the roundhouse. Alvar and James constructed a poster for the weekend's new-member Open House. Also, a discussion occurred regarding the microprocessor to use for System 3 if we pursue the "8 blocks per processor" scheme. One of the PIC series from Microchip Inc is favored. Input from the membership is solicited on this issue.

Today we had the new member Open House, both old and new members, as well as visitors, had lots of pizza!

But work still went on. Bill continued the walls of the vegetable oil facility. Meanwhile Andy painted a new locomotive for the 50th annyversary train; he then began the work on another weird shapped building which goes right accross the street from Gifford City station. Amitha, a new member, started another building, which will be adjecent to the one Andy is working on. Ed, who was here last week too, continued to work on the track for CocaBubblie, which is now fully ballasted. John Purbrick finished the pavement next to the produce terminal. John Shriver continued the hard job of the carbarn ladder, which is looking really incredible! Alvar made the structure for the green building! Now we have one big coarse structure, and lots of small detailed parts, all separate; they will come together.

James, Jeff, John, and Alvar then continued the design of the new block cards. John got a datasheed for a PIC 16C74B processor, which is getting close to being the central part of each 8-block board; ie, each processor will control 8 blocks, which will be incorporated into one single card. The main design will follow the same modularity of the switch-cards: everthing should be fully exangable within a few minutes, and all of them will be the same.