Hours spent burning my fingertips with a soldering iron have finally paid off: Locomotives can finally move under their own power through the switches at the center of the layout.

They can move through two of the switches, anyway. The two that matter. After my fingers heal, I’ll have to wire two more switches to get the locos to go up the outside tracks. Right now they can only go up the middle track under their own power and I have to push them with a finger to the outside tracks. Even so, I’m geeking out watching one locomotive, and then the other make their way almost all the way around the layout as I man the throttle.