January 4Ed Drozd worked on the Coca-Bubblie building. He moved one of the support posts to more closely align with its support pad and painted the supporting mechanism that he created a few weeks ago. The supporting mechanism provides support for that part of the building that overhangs the associated siding. Andy Miller created a dramatic painted-on-the-wall sign for the Bassex House. It is five stories high in the fashion of the 1930’s. He also tested the pulling ability of one of his locomotives. John McNamara installed the windows in the office area of the roundhouse. He also painted the interior walls, which are now ready to be glued in place. John Purbrick worked on one of the abutments for the bridge nearest the produce warehouse that he built. January 11Ed Drozd weathered the Coca-Bubblie building, using a somewhat darker color than the “TMRC grunge” that is automatically applied to our buildings*. He also added such weathering details as a smoke smear over the area where a switcher would likely spend time. John McNamara finished the walls in the office area of the roundhouse and permanently secured it to the rest of the roundhouse. John Purbrick painted the concrete atop the abutments for the bridge nearest his produce warehouse and contemplated the addition of an additional girder in the roadway area of the bridge. Alvar Saenz-Otero gave the “grand tour de layout” to Jane Pickering, the new Director of the MIT Museum. The Museum’s “Arnot layout” was also discussed briefly. Alvar and James began arrangments to get our Coke machine funds closer to the bank. James spent substantial time creating “The TMRC Store”, an upcoming addition to our web page that will help our fundraing efforst by selling TNP logo T-shirts, hats, and boxcars. An announcement to the TMRC list will be forthcoming as soon as the pages are ready. * “TMRC grunge” = dust! January 18Ed Drozd continued his work on the Coca-Bubblie plant. He is now making tanks to hold the Bubblie ingredients. These tanks must be extra secure to avoid hazardous spills. John McNamara worked on the roof of the roundhouse and has developed a way to install it in relatively seamless fashion. John Purbrick painted the portions of the roof that are now complete, while also weathering a bridge beam (and protecting concrete) that will appear in the middle of his road bridge. He also made some turntable adjustments, as it had been thrown out of adjustment by the psytons of four visitors. James Knight continued his work on the TMRC Store web page. He has developed not only a web page but a tool for revising and adding to the web page in a convenient fashion. An announcement to the list will be made when the page is ready. January 25Ed continued the construction of a wall between the mainline and the industrial area around Coca Bubblie. John Purbrick painted one of the singal towers for mainline. Alvar tested the system (ok, used the sytem) with his ICE train for the first time in 2000. He then trained himself in CadRAIL, and finally was able to ‘lay down’ the track on the drawing that Jeff made available last Saturday. He then began one design for the staging yard lader - the next section to be built.