March 10Andy installed a concrete abutment for the “WPA Bridge” and did alot more painting. John painted the loading platform for the produce distributor, and worked on the adjacent bridge. Alvar’s new building is now installed on Main St, and he and Andy discussed finishing touches for the 105th St Bridge. March 14Bill brought in the windows for his vegetable oil facility, and many more for future buildings. He began to cut out the brick material for the office side of the facility. John Purbrick worked on the bridge next to his produce warehouse. He had to modify the bridge greatly, since he discovered that with the existing height it would not meet NMRA standards! But now the bridge meets the standards and is ready for the structural memebers to be added. Alvar continued work on the bridge to 105th station, adding the center abatement. John McNamara continued hard work on the roundhouse, starting the back wall. John Shriver worked on the setup for the trolley into the Carbarn, making sure that all switches are the correct radii and have the right clearances. James and many of his friends from the area worked on setting up the new TMRC computers. The two new ‘advanced’ computers now have Linux installed, including a neat graphical login screen, internet access, and most importantly: Athena access. Soon it will be possible to update the website directly from the clubroom! March 17Andy worked on the retaining wall between P-yard and the Gifford City station building. While the part distant from the station is large stone blocks, the part near the station platforms is poured concrete. Having completed most of the stone sections, Andy worked on the concrete portion. He also added the entranceways that will permit the passengers to enter the station from the platforms. John McNamara has been working on the roundhouse rear walls out-of-place, adding the mortared appearance to the brick sheets. John Purbrick added non-functional trolley tracks to the bridge he is building. These will run from the Gifford City trolley loop out over the bridge toward the viewer. Alvar Saenz-Otero worked on the bridge he is building. This is a two section bridge, one part over a siding and a longer part over the multi-track mainline. The longer part is now complete, or nearly so, and tonight’s work was concentrated on the shorter section. He also worked the concrete supports beneath the bridge sections. March 20This is the first entry that comes directly from the new TMRC computers! That said, down to business: Andy worked hard on the ‘retaining wall’ for Gifford City station. He finished the top section of it, painted it, and even put it in place! His next job, he says, is the main boulevard that will cross above P-yard north of the station building. Meanwhile Bill, now with the windows for his building on hand, continued to cut the brick material to the shape of his vegetable oil facility. Alvar is now almost finished with his bridge in the entrance to Gifford City, the one that goes to 105th station. With Andy’s help, Alvar got the bridges painted, the pavement almost done (although a small miscalculation put the centerlines about 5 scale feet apart!), and the abutments finished. The only missing parts are to fix the pavement sections and to attach the stairway down to 105th street. Later on at night (or morning :-), Jeff and Alvar worked on the webpage to introduce a neat new feature: for those of you that wondered how many ‘random pictures’ there are in the main page, don’t worry any more! You can now ‘click’ on the picture to see the next one, and the next one, and … you get the idea! March 24John M worked on a sample of an inner wall for the rear of the roundhouse. Plastruct .030 material seems suitable. Andy secured the recently-painted concrete retaining wall that runs along the Gifford City passenger platforms. He also painted some passenger access and freight loading doors that will connect from the platforms to station. There is a possibility that the plaza in front of the station will have to be raised, or alternatively that clearances will have to be very slightly less than Plate C, if a passenger walkway is to be installed under the plaza and across the platforms. John P worked on the bridge that will be next to his produce terminal. He has some very nice Central Valley girders for this purpose. Alvar battled with our Linux-based computer and lost. He also did some additional stripping work on the nifty highway bridge that he built; Andy assisted. March 27Today James dropped by and fixed the computers, so we are back on the net! Therefore, this entry comes, once again, directly from the room. There is one for Wednesday, but that will be updated later on, sorry for that. Anyway… Andy Miller continued working on the retaining wall for Gifford City station. He built the doors that go into the station, and finished the first panel with an entrance, which is at the end of tracks #1 and #2. Bill began to cover the Vegetable Oil facility with painted walls; he began with the loading lock area. John Purbrick continued work on the bridge south of this produce terminal; he also brought in a few updates to the system, which let us program signals into the computers. Alvar finished most of the work in the 105th street bridge. All the streets are fully painted, including nice yellow double lines. Plus, he fixed the staircase to the platform. For the first time in TMRC history both Gifford City Station and 105th St. Station have real access to their platform! Ben visited today, and showed us a bunch of new things that we can play with using the new TMRC computers. Jeff was also here! And it was great, because he helped John P. fix a couple of dust bugs that were lying in the system (specifically, little dust particles preventing contact in several relays of System 2). With these problems out of System 2, it appears that S\&P is all ready to go for the Open House! March 31James did some system updates and other work on our computer systems. John M painted the window sills on the rear wall sections for the roundhouse. John P painted the underside of the bridge next to the produce warehouse and worked on the bridge abutments. Alvar added lots of neat new photos to the web page galleries, located at the New Pictures Gallery.