Only working a few days over Christmas has given me time to do some further work on the layout.  Getting up at my usual time in the morning (too early) gives me time to do some work on the layout before anyone else in the house is awake.  After getting the staging yard throat to my liking, along with getting the routing set up properly, let me work on some other needed things.  

I have had a rope light kicking around for years, and I finally have put it to some use lighting the staging yard.  I hung it from the overhead benchwork, and used my tallest TOFC car to check clearances.  It adds some much needed light to what would otherwise be a dark area of the layout.  

I also got my smelter yard wired so it is now operational.  Switch controls (a mix of Bluepoint and Precision Design switch controls) are also being installed, and I have decided that I need to make the smelter yard removable so that the staging yard can be accessed for maintenance and other work.  Hopefully it won't be necessary, but if I install it so it isn't removable we all know what would happen then.  Switch machine controls are attached to the plywood under the smelter yard, and notches were cut into the benchwork to allow them to come out with the plywood.  I have also used wire nuts to connect the power to the various tracks so they can be easily disconnected if need be.  

My wife works for a computer and security hardware company, and I was gifted an obsolete security camera to use in my staging yard.  I still need to hook it up to power and a screen, but this will make keeping an eye on staging much easier.  Now to get the remainder of the switch controls installed and working correctly.  More photos in a follow up post. 

Marc Simpson