October 7 More ties were cut, installed, sanded, stained, and ballasted. Rail installation on the new P-yard loop began. October 14 James Knight and John McNamara re-installed the buildings that used to surround the Gifford City trolley loop. They have been installed in a fashion that will be convenient for removal during wire work. It’s great to see buildings appearing in Gifford City again! Bill Onorato and Joe Onorato resolved some issues about future routing of the trolley line. Bill installed a plywood base and lattice stock for extending P-yard track 3 as an additional through track rather than the stub it used to be. Joe Onorato and John Purbrick installed additional rail and the beginnings of a switch on the new track at the East end of P-yard. James Knight created some additional ties for this area. Alvar Saenz-Otero did additional ballasting on the gap created by the 18-inch expansion in the center of P-yard. About half the P-yard through tracks are complete and the rest are now ready for rail. Jon Reed and John McNamara constructed lattice stock roadbed for some of the tracks at the West end of P-yard. October 21 John Purbrick worked on some new switches on the “East End” of P-yard where it formerly connected with F-yard. Trackage is being re-arranged there to provide a slightly different “freight bypass” track to go around P-yard. James Knight and John McNamara laid additional ties. As our new Treasurer, James also serviced the Coke machine, which seems to be gaining customers in its location just outside the clubroom door. Many thanks to Alvar Saenz-Otero for securing the permissions necessary to re-establish this important source of revenue. October 22 This picture is similar to the picture taken August 19, 1997, except that * the Gifford City buildings have returned to their position within the trolley loop * ties, ballast, and some rail have appeared in the foreground * plywood has been added at the far end of the picture. October 28Last Saturday, a J-shaped piece of 3/4 inch plywood was added to the West end of the layout and supported by saw horses. This piece will carry the mainline across a canal and into a tunnel which will run under the roundhouse. At tonight’s work session, work began on a permanent support structure for this portion. A 48-inch long, 32-inch high wodden panel of 2x4 and 3/8-inch plywood construction was bolted to the floor underneath the J-shaped section. As with other parts of the layout, this will support a 1x4 construction above which small 1x2 uprights of adjustable height will support the layout. The section of old F-yard that contained the turntable and roundhouse was severed to retain only the portion containing the turntable and roundhouse. This section was mounted on temporary stilts at placed at approxiamately its new location in accordance with the Onorato/Onorato/Miller plan. John Purbrick continued work on a new switch at the East end of the passenger yard. Alvar and Jon worked on a new change box.