Progress Update #1 Kettle Falls

Sorry for the delay in posts. Anyway, progress has been slow, but things have been getting done. I've been extremely busy the last few months, but school's going to be out soon and my business will be thinned. So, in the post I'll go over the things I have done in the last month. Enjoy!

First off, I did some work with my wiring. I have quite a bit of locomotives that are not DCC equipped, but I like running them every once in a while. I've seen modelers put a switch on their layout and with a flip of that switch, you could run trains with DC power or DCC. So, I dug right in and I  found that it is extremely easy to do. I can't stress this enough, IT IS EASY! Anyway, to do this, I just used a DPDT slide switch with a center off and wired the DCC system to the two tabs on one slide and DC to the other. In the middle, track bus. Here's pics. I also added a simple track diagram to the side of the layout. This is temporary so don't criticize me for the ugliness of it because it will be removed. :)

Next, I added all the filler ties for the turnouts, painted the track, and started ballasting. Before I started ballasting, I made sure that trains ran flawlessly. When everything was tuned for smooth operation, I felt I was ready for ballasting. I did the Loco facility and The main line because they were the furthest from the edge of the layout. The ballast is all natural. The engine facility is just dirt and grey gravel. The main line was sand from a river by Mt. Rainier, WA. The rest of the yard ballasting will come later.

Lastly, I installed a Meyers Street in Kettle Falls. This road was made of Plaster and joint compound. The road looks fairly good, but needs some more work to get rid of some pot holes.