Golden Spike
On 26 February 2011, at approximately 11:50 AM EST, the last section of track for the Z Scale Gorre & Daphetid was permanently installed. For layouts where the track is not handlaid, I think the equivalent to the golden spike might perhaps be the last rail joiner connected. In this case, it was for the flex track that will eventually be supported by the truss bridge. In commemoration of this event, I painted that last rail joiner with gold paint. (It will, of course, eventually be painted rail rust along with the rest, when that time comes.)
What made it possible was the completion of the 55mm switch. When it was done, all of the rest of the track—which was ready and waiting—was laid in short order. This even included the addition of three uncoupling ramps. Rokuhan makes no magnetic uncouplers, since the Japanese have standardized on a version of the N Scale Rapido. It was a trivial matter of gluing an uncoupling ramp to the underside of the track roadbed—it didn't even need to be milled out. As a bonus, the ramps can be located at any point along a straight stretch of track, instead of always the middle of a 110mm track section.
The last steps to complete the little switch included the guardrails and the switch motor. The guardrails were made from two pieces of strip styrene laminated together, and inserted into slots carved in the roadbed with a knife.
And finally came the switch machine. Merely to save space, I cut a regular 110mm switch down as far as I could while leaving the mechanism intact. The frog had to be kept as it was an integral part of the electrical switch which directs power. I soldered wires right to the switch contacts so as to feed the new frog. At the other end, I fabricated a link that engages the wire attached to the new points.
It certainly looks like a classic kludge, but it happens to work, which is all that counts. At the end of the day, the layout looked like this—
The next step is to clean all of the track and start running some trains. Stay tuned for a video of the maiden run!