My goal for the layout this holiday break was to get the mainline loop completed so that I could run trains out of staging, do a complete loop around the layout and then back into staging. I am happy to report that yesterday, under the watchful eye of fellow model railroaders Sheldon Frankel and Marek Karwowski, we held a golden spike ceremony to celebrate the completion of that goal.
The good news is that I can now run continuously and had a 16 car manifest freight running trouble-free for a couple of hours today. That feels like progress.
The bad news is that by running the mainline I have found a few areas that need a little bit more work, and one area that will probably get a rebuild in the next few weeks. As always for every three steps forward there is a step or two back, but that too feels like progress.
Happy New Year and wishing your 2017 be filled with health, happiness, model trains and trouble-free running.
Progress indeed! A good way to start a new year.
Congrats on achieving this milestone, Bernard! And I love your positive attitude – that finding those places where you need to go back and make adjustments would only happen because you’d made progress. Even the three-steps-forward-and-two-steps-back reality of most of what we do in the hobby still boils down to one-step-forward.
Cheers!
– Trevor (Port Rowan in 1:64)