The layout's DCC bus wires and the 12-volt accessories wires were installed after drilling holes into the 3/4" plywood that held up the roadbed. By feeding the wires through the supports like this I was virtually assured that none would touch each other in the future.

The DCC command station was hooked into the DCC bus wires. I positioned the unit such that it would eventually be hidden under the layout. However, there was access to the unit from under the layout, if you knew where to reach.

I installed the Digitrax PM4 to handle the auto-reverse need of the turntable on the layout.

I have never been a big fan of throwing countless switches to run a layout. I decided to install one big, heavy-duty switch in the front fascia of the layout that acts as the ON/OFF button for the entire layout. The DCC and accessories lines were controlled via this one switch. The switch was actually spliced into an extension cord, which provided the power to the layout. I used it for the entire duration of the layout, and I really liked it.

I decided that a section of track on the industrial area needed to act as a programming track for the decoders in my engines. I installed a DPDT switch into the top of the layout, so that I could flip the switch between normal track power and the programming track.

A removable freight station took care of hiding the switch. All I had to do was move the structure, flip the switch, do the programming, and flip the switch back. It worked great.

By January 24th, 2008 I had rebuilt the center section. This next photo shows the bus wires installed in this new section. As before, one is for DCC and the other for accessories. I had experimented with this idea under part of the right-hand section of the layout, but I decided to completely strip the bus wires of their insulation. This makes attaching feeder wires so much easier later on. This is the way I am going to do it from now on. The key, though, is to make sure that those wires never touch each other. By feeding them through the benchwork you avoid that problem.

Above I showed a photo of how I installed the layout's ON/OFF switch on the front panel of the center section. I am really a big fan of clean, smooth front panels. I don't even like Digitrax' panels to plug in throttles. So, I decided for the new center section to place the ON/OFF switch upside down underneath the layout. That way I knew where it was, but you couldn't see it when you first walked into the layout room.