I just passed a major milestone on the St Charles Branch–the trackwork is complete, and the golden spike is in! The final section was the stub tracks for the Benedict loader, so once the last track was installed and working, I put in a literal golden spike at the end of the line to mark the occasion. Of note, this particular spike, now painted gold, is one that I recycled from my previous layout (the Dorchester and Dixiana Branch), so it’s now pulled duty on both of my layouts. I brought Southern F& 6117 in to witness the final spike as it was doing its test run on the new track. I also commemorated the date on my benchwork like I’ve done for other milestones.

I must say this is a bit bittersweet. It’s exciting because I can now move on to scenery and starting to flesh some scenes out, but it’s sad because I rather enjoy hand-laying track. Maybe there’s a phase 2 in the future, but I hope it’s not so far off that I forget how to do this. In the meantime, here’s a couple overview shots of what the layout currently looks like.