I spent the day leveling / shimming the outside passing, outside main, inside main, and the inside passing tracks by the refinery. Mike Rehling mentioned that the longer cars would uncouple when going over this area. It took a substantial amount of shimming, but it is better now. Let me know if you have any problems in this area, before we apply the ballast to this area.

I suggest moving the control switch and direction indicators for the track leading out of the west end of the yard to the control panel for the west end of the yard. There have been several instances when I have been working the West yard and inadvertently entered the outside main after I was told the switch was set for inside passing. Originally I thought just adding indicator lights would be sufficient but the why just add lights when actual control of the track should be in the yard in the first place? I have no idea as to what would be involved in just moving one three way switch and the leds from the current panel to the West Yard panel, but I would think the cost would be minimal.

Attached is the proposal sheet for adding working crossing signals to the Tulsa area of the layout. (Phase one)
The crossing location is between the movie theaters and the grain elevator. This is next to the pillar on the front left of the layout (Visible from the mall).

This addition will follow the standards set by the speedometers.

Phase one:
A track detector will be installed on each of the track drops to the left and right of the crossing location. When a train (or power draw such as lit caboose) enters any of the 4 blocks, the crossing sequence will trigger and the lights will flash. After a set time of all blocks being empty, the lights will go dark.

Phase two:
Crossing sounds will play while the lights are flashing.

Phase three:
Crossing gates will lower as the lights start flashing.
When the lights go dark, the gates raise to resting location.

I had a lot of trouble connecting my Motorola Moto-X Android phone to the club's WiFi but I think I have now figured it out. My solution works for me but may or may not work for you if you have even a slightly different phone.

The problem I had was the phone appearing to connect but not being able to "talk" to JMRI. The root cause, I've decided, is that the phone lies when it claims to have saved connection information. I think this is because the club's WiFi has no internet connection and the phone, in spite of what it claims, doesn't save connection information until it has an internet connection.

My solution is to:
1. Go to Settings and WiFi on my phone.
2. Recycle WiFi (turn it off and back on).
3. Tap TNMRC and then tap "Forget" to remove the connection.
4. Recycle WiFi again.
5. Select TNMRC and enter the password (1234567890) when requested.
6. Leave Settings and wait (a few seconds) for the warning that there is no internet connection. Respond by selecting "Connect anyway".
7. Start EngineDriver. It "should" connect automatically and go to the "Select" screen after a second or two.

This has been 90% reliable for me. Maybe it will help others solve connection problems.

Chuck

Attached is the Project Proposal Template to be used for any club layout change proposal. Please complete all applicable fields and submit the to the Layout Management Team for review.

Club Bylaws, final, approved by vote of membership January 4, 2018 are attached. Click on the attachment below to view.

Thank you to Larry and all that helped with the Holiday Party. My wife commented on how nice it was to see the decorations. She and I both enjoyed meeting some of the other spouses and guest.
Oliver

This past Sunday, I had an opportunity to visit the Elmhurst Model Railroad Club located in Elmhurst, IL. It was good to see another Club. The EMRRC has a large permanent layout and about 300 members. It appears to be a good club, offering elements to attract and cater to the varying interests of their members. While I saw several things that I liked, the visit reinforced for me... just how great our location, layout and club is!

Some specifics;
- You can visit their website at www.emrrc.org
- The club has 3 separate layouts (HO, HOn3 and N)
- Their HO layout includes a long winding mainline, lots of industry switching and more than enough yard trackage; including separate Passenger, Freight Classification, multiple Industry yards and under-layout Staging).
- The HO layout supports both DC and DCC. They use a different (more complex electrical scheme than we do). We really owe a Mike Cook gratitude for the simplicity of his design.
- The aisle space however is very cramped. While multiple operators can run trains simultaneously - the winding nature of the mainline and cramped aisle make it seem very congested.
- The Club is located in the basement of a commercial building; ceilings are 10 foot and add to the feeling of being cramped.
- Their old layout featured a double mainline. The current layout has several single mainline areas. If few trains are running, they can accommodate long (100+ car trains) but if multiple trains are running, the single mainline portions cause bottle-necks.
- The layout is ballasted and has detailed scenery almost everywhere except the Freight Classification Yards.
- Many areas, have isolated tracks that are for scenery only. They run at an angles to the mainline with crossing or over-passes. They dead-end on aisle facia and/or back-wall. It looks good but serves no layout purpose beyond scenery.
- Their clubs host open houses every Friday and Sunday. They only have minimal areas protected by Plexiglas. They acknowledge a big issue with kids flipping switches on the control panel and touching the layout.
- I observed a couple of members placing Soda cans directly on the layout while they attended to something else. I didn't see any evidence of spills but I like our guidelines of not putting drinks on the layout.
- The wiring under layout is a spaghetti -bowl. Again, we owe Mike gratitude for how clean the wiring is on our layout.
- I believe they said they have multiple operating sessions per week.
- The Club has 1 day per week, where no trains are run and layout work is scheduled.

Well, I can share more if anyone is interested. I'll add some pictures to a subsequent post. Overall, I think we have a great location, layout and club.

Oliver Bowe

Here's the link to the FINAL draft (as of 12/29/2017) proposal for club bylaws changes:

http://texasnorthern.org/images/TNMRC - ...0-2017.pdf

Bob Johnson
Posted on behalf of Larry Breedlove

The Layout Management Team maintains a web based worksheet available to all members to view the progress and status updates of work done and/or directed by the Team.

Link to worksheet: https://tinyurl.com/y95ggz25