Maiden Run
The Golden Spike naturally led right to the maiden run. But not without some effort first. Each rail joint was sanded and polished; all of the rails were thoroughly cleaned; and all of the track was rinsed with solvent to remove all traces of dust, abrasives, flux and any other residues. Then it was time to temporarily jumper the track power feeds to a DC source, and test the locomotive.
Now you can sit back and enjoy the Bumble Bee as she tows a short mixed train up and down and around the Gorre & Daphetid.
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The track is not without some minor flaws. There are a few joints that could use some improvement, as evidenced by the locomotive's slight hops here and there, and my little 55mm switch, while performing surprisingly well for never having been tested before now, still needs a little fine-tuning. At least nothing derails on it, which in itself was quite a pleasant surprise.
The rolling stock needed a little help, too. I quickly found out that the passenger coaches don't like 120mm curves—the wheel flanges hit the coupler pocket sides, so some trimming will be needed to correct that. I also learned that things roll more reliably with metal wheels rather than plastic—no surprise to some readers, I'm sure, but it was interesting to see how big a difference they made (although they did make the layout a lot noisier—which should improve with the addition of scenery).
So, about four weeks from breaking ground to running trains. Longer than I'd have preferred, but not too shabby, all the same.