Yesterday, my “benchwork” became a “layout” with the running of the first locomotive. Of course, trusty F7A 4213 was the first locomotive, and my boys did rock-paper-scissors to determine who would be the first engineer. My oldest won, but all three of us got a chance to run around the half of the staging level with completed wiring.

Half a train, half a level, and no scenery in sight, but it was still a magical moment to see all that planning and work to this point pay off with a moving locomotive. As a bonus, the hand-laid switches performed well (despite not having their mechanisms in place yet), only a couple of protruding track nails on and excess solder in a couple joints (easily fixed) caused any issues.

I’m more motivated than ever to keep building!!!