Last Spike (sort of)

Today I installed the last piece of track, soldered the last rail joiners and dropped the final two feeders, so I guess it is a Last Spike moment.    However the track is only finished for the main Fort St. John yard area.  I still need to build benchwork and lay track for a small staging yard under the window.

At present all the feeders have been soldered to the rails and turnouts and dropped through the benchwork where they are just dangling in the air underneath.   I probably went overboard, but I believe every single section of track, no matter how short, should have feeders.  I also dropped feeders from every single turnout, even the ones that were soldered together in yard ladders.    It will make for a period of misery soldering them all to bus wires, but hopefully I will be rewarded with trouble free operation.

I want to get the layout somewhat presentable in the next few months so I will focus on installing and painting fascia, roughing in the basic terrain (spoiler alert.. it’s mostly flat) and painting the basic backdrop.   I also have some locomotive projects I would like to work on. Final wiring and DCC system set up will likely near the end of the year.