- February 3
John 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 10
Alvar 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 13
John 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 17
After 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 20
Bill 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 24
Andy 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 27
Approaching 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.
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