First Train On Wood River Branch

First Train on the Wood River Branch.

Well the first big milestone for the railroad was reached last night – the first train was run on the Wood River Branch layout.  With the first display only a few weeks away at the Railroad Hobby Show, I’ve been getting into high gear to complete as much as possible on the layout before the show.  The first step was to test run the layout.  As can be seen in the photo, I set up the 8′ x 16′ version of the railroad which uses most of the modules (there are two more not shown – Ellis Flats and the Wood River Stone Arch Bridge).   The wiring was all hooked up and a small train set up on the main.  The power pack was fired up and amazingly the train went around the layout without a hitch.

As can be seen in the photo, the layout is nowhere near complete.  However, in just a few weeks, the layout should look more finished – which means I will be spending a lot of time working on the layout over the next month and not much time writing about it on the blog for the next couple of weeks.  I plan to update the blog after the show with more articles of the work I’ve done over the last couple of weeks and will do this month.  In the meantime, check out the Twitter feed for up to date photos and progress reports.

If you are going to be at the Springfield show (www.railroadhobbyshow.com)  on Jan. 28 and 29 in West Springfield, MA, I encourage you to stop by, see the layout, and say hi.  It will be located in the Young Building next to the large HO scale Mohegan Pequot Model Railroad Club layout in the middle of the building.  Hope to see you at the show!