February 3John McNamara did some painting experiments in preparation for painting the new sections of the roundhouse rear wall. He discovered that Floquil makes two versions of “Tuscan Red” (110025 and 110184). John Purbrick continued work on his slip switch in P-yard. Alvar did some design work on a highway bridge that will cross the tracks near the 105th street station. February 10Alvar began the steelwork for the bridge over the tracks at 105th St. He has also purchased a good supply of styrene sheets and shapes for this and future construction projects, and some new tools. John continued work on the slip switch which gives access to the “top end” of the Amtrak Freight/Railway Express Agency siding. Although the switch is still unfinished, the main line route through it (block 13) is now usable again. February 13John Shriver finalized the location of the carbarn, and draw the final schematic for the ladder into the carbarn. It appears that we will be able to fix the last part of plywood for Phase one, since John S. decided it will be easy enough to work directly in it. John Purbrick continued the work on the single throw double switch for the Amtrak Freight/Railway Express Agency siding. He is done with the layout of the track now, and the part missing is to add the Tortoise switch machines and the electronics. John McNamara worked on an Amtrak passenger locmotive that someday will pull the TMRC Amtrak Amfleet along the layout. Then he helped Ben Frantzdale, who installed the last section of masonite required for the retention wall in the Gifford City loop. He also glued in the first section of stone material, and had to stop there because we ran out of painted stone. Bill Onorato worked on the pavement for the bridge next to the vegetable oil facility in the far east of Gifford City. He brought in a nice package of Paris Plaster, which made the task much easier. Andy Miller first fixed the platform for the third track of Gifford Station, which had a small clearance problem. Later on he began to work on the concrete retention wall for Gifford City Station. He supplied the club with a nice sheet of ribeted styrene. Alvar Saenz Otero continued his work on the 105th station bridge, where the ribeted styrene came very helpfull. The structure of the Truss section is now complete, only missing the painting and pedestrian handrail. He even had time and material to build the stair case, so (if the safety office allowed it), pedestrians would be able to go to the 105th platform now. Jeff Birkner came in, yeah! We were all happy because he was able to help out with System 2, which had been a little flaky lately. The major section of the layout is now working, with just a few things to change due to the addition of the new track for the package services. After that James Knight and James joined forces to start the design of a microprocessor board which will take control of the TMRC Coke Machine, and therefore will allow it to be operated over the internet, and other neat things! February 17After finally obtaining the correct tone of red paint for the walls of the roundhouse, John M began the work on the walls. Tonight he masked and painted the first section of the roundhouse rear wall. John P continued the work on the P-yard slip switch, which is very near completion, pending just a few details. February 20Bill Onorato is finished the pavement on the far east bridge next to his Vegetable Oil facility. The bridge is almost ready for the detail work, like handrails, and such. Alvar Saenz Otero put down the pier that separates the two types of bridges in 105th street (a through girder over the siding, and a pony truss over mainline). He then left the bridge and began to put together one (actually two kits) of the city-classics buildings which will go in the front side of Gifford City. Andy Miller worked on the support structure for the ‘last’ street bridge of East Gifford City, which will cross ‘south,’ perpendicular to Bill’s bridge. He also prepared the concrete handrails for that bridge, and cut a piece of styrene for the pavement. John Shriver came in and penciled in the track plan for the remaining track of the trolley line, until the bridge over the main river at the entrance of the room. The section is now ready for the roadbed, so that John Shriver can then lay down the actual track. James Knight began to work on a new interface for the coke machine, which will let TMRCies stablish an account in the TMRC computers, and be able to get soda directly ‘over the net!’ February 24Andy worked on a new bridge (1930’s cement style) that crosses the tracks near Bill’s factory. John M worked on the roundhouse. John P worked on the produce warehouse. February 27Approaching the new Gifford City, trains will pass under five bridges. The first is being built by Alvar, the second by John Purbrick, the third by Andy, the fourth by Bill, and the fifth (completed) by Andy. John Purbrick worked on bridge #2 and built the loading platform for his produce warehouse. Andy continued work on bridge #3, and Bill continued work on bridge #4 and its approaches. John Shriver performed some experiments on minimum radius for car barn ladder tracks; he found 7 inches too small, but 7.5 inches OK. He added some subroadbed in the area of the car barn. John McNamara masked, and Andy painted, the rear walls for the roundhouse. Andy and James picked up our new high-performance computer at Alvar’s lab. Jeff and James then assembled it, but there is more work to be done.