Phase II continued its expansion. The first walls of the turning loop of Staging went up with lots of work by Alvar, Ben, Ed, and Bill. This section is relatively complex because of its several turns, therefore the resulting wall was a 'zig-zag' piece.

Ed also continued work on the pavement of the Coca Bubblie area. Bill worked on his Vegetable oil facility. Andy began the construction of the hill behind the TV repari shop he finished last week. Jeff got power to the tower (which we noticed was missing during the Open House, oops!), including the first installation of a 'blue' outlet - for computers only. He also labeled the dimmers for the track lights, an action that was later enhanced by James with not only track numbers, but even descriptive labels!

This evening's work session was devoted to scenic improvements. Andy Miller constructed a sloping bank between the back of his newly constructed "TV repair shop" and the nearby TNP tracks. John Purbrick added grass and ground foam bushes at the base of the large curving retaining wall at the two-track end of P-yard. John McNamara did some painting on the roundhouse trim.

Phase II continues its growth every weekend. Tonight the main work for Phase II was dedicated to the 'paint booth' corner, in order to make enough space for the turn at the back of the room. The large metal cabinet with painting materials was given a new location right next to the bookshelfs; it was placed on a brand new shelf built by Alvar, Jeff, James, and Ben. Following Bill's idea, this shelf was places at 36", which created a great space for the compressor to hide under! All the necessary plumbing and electrical changes were made. Also, all the boxes in that corner were recompressed into fewer boxes, and now 80% of the painting table can actually be used for painting!

On the other side of the room we saw more improvements: Ed finsihed the pavement around all three buildings in the Coca Bubblie area. Bill installed the last wall of the vegetable oil facility, now only missing the installation of several windows and roof details. JP continued work on the Coke Machie in order to make it net-accessible!

Alvar Saenz-Otero, assisted by John McNamara and Ed Drozd, moved the "tower drawers" a foot or so in preparation for the contruction of the helixes that are part of Phase II. This was a multi-step process that involved getting rid of a small cabinet next to the tower drawers, and replacing it with a new full sized file cabinet in the back of the room (now TMRC can keep all of its records in one place!). Also, the tool board had to be modified to accomplish the move. Meanwhile, John Purbrick demo-ed the layout for some visitors, including a new undergraduate member, Jared Jonas. Ed Drozd continued his work on the road system in the area of the Coca-Bubblie plant.

Everybody continued to work on Phase II, among other projects. Phase II work included the addition of the last walls that will support the helix, and substantial work on the frame that will soon (as soon as next Saturday) hold all of the plywood for the staging yard. The lead actors were Jared and Alvar, with input help from Bill and Howard.

Bill also continued to detail the vegetable oil facility. Ed worked on the 'greens' for the Coca-Bubblie area, both around the pavement and around mainline. Alvar began the construction of a fence for the Railway Express parking lot, but ran out of materials, oops!

Andy began to paint the stone work of the slope behind the TV repair shop, and did some work on several cars. Ed 'browned' the grass behind the Coca Bublie area, to make it look less perfect (since the real world isn't perfect, oh well). Jared completed his 10 hours of work needed to obtain a key, with almost 3 hours of operation! He is now fully knowledgeable (well, kinda) on System 2 and can call on all by himself :-) Alvar attempted to be the System 2 teacher, an almost succesful attempt. Ed also did some operation with a new 'Bachman China' that he just aquired; it runs quite smoothly! Meanwhile Alvar worked on his own rolling stock (the German ICE) for its first service in seven years, since he was feeling powerless to the many new rolling stock on the layout.

Jared, Alvar, Howard, and Bill worked hard on Phase II again. The structure is now basically ready (its just missing 12 screws total!). Jared and Alvar also took a trip to HomeDepot in order to re-supply our lumber stock, which was needed to complete all the work done today.

Meanwhile Ed and Andy tested a lot of equipment that Ed brought in, in order to ensure that the Graduation Open House has working equipment throughout the day. Andy also worked on painting more rolling stock, and 'greened' the slope behind the TV repair shop. Ed continued his work on the painting of one of the last buildings in the front section of Gifford City. Bill continued work on the vegetable oil facility.

John Shriver finished all the roadbed work for the trolley lines past the river. This even included laying down all of the sidwalk latice stock too, which now clearly defines how the block inside the trolley turning loop will look like. A couple of weeks ago John changed his plans for the trolley lines: instead of finishing the carbarn switches, a very time consumming process, he is now working hard on finishing the trolley mainline so that trolleys can run around sooner. The carbarn ladder work will be resumed immediately afterwards.

Ed, Andy, and Jared discussed the posibility of having a TMRC-made 'Cabs-eye-view' camera operational by the Open House. Jared will look into it soon. Alvar will then, if the camera appears to be a reality, work on having a net-drop available at the Activities Midway.