Cumberland Railroad is Operational

Here is my new Louisville and Nashville EMD SW7 switcher. I bought it last week at the Tennessee Central RR Museum. That gave me incentive to finish the wiring of the layout.



This is the first operational run of the Cumberland RR. The train is en route to Galville with raw materials for the local industries

This picture shows the control panel for operating the layout. The actual layout is shown at the top with the turnouts (switches in real RRs). I painted the control panel white, then marked out the layout using 1/4 inch tape, then painted the panel black. When the tape was removed you get the layout . The lower left shows the 8 switches for controlling the turnouts. Note that two switches are not wired yet because I ran out of the proper wire. The center switch with the two red buttons control the power and direction to the track because of the two reversing loops. The power pack is to the right. The green light indicates I have power and no short circuits in the layout. WHOOPEE!!! The power pack provides AC power to operate the turnout switches and DC power to operate the train. Everything is pretty calm on this side of the panel.

This is the backside of the control panel and drawer. Its not so calm here. A real rats nest. I will be working to solder and tape all the connections and neaten the wire runs. It really does work, though.