Building Paxinos

 Well, I am continuing along the branch line heading for Weigh Scales and the next town is Paxinos. Here is how we left it when we built the line through here some years ago. The station I have selected is the Magnison model. I also have a big furniture factory from the legendary John Young's layout. It was built by Ben Brown. It looks quite impressive up here along the branch.

 I have also included a Berkshire Models freight house to round out the scene. The line is rising up the hill so as I will not be able to leave any freight cars on the main track, this town will be switched from Weigh Scales. I am trying to get a good position for the models before I build the tracks.

 This is looking back west towards Reed around the corner. I am trying to place the sidings so I can squeeze the station between them and the main track.

 It is beginning to look too close but I will move the rear turnout back to give me the best shot.

 This area, where the boxes are is where I will place another factory or industry. I have to do something to hide that wall space - maybe a brick wall of the factory.

 The panel will go here after I get the track work done. I will have to move some supports to fit in the switch machines.

 Okay, we are now building the first turnout that switches back to the area where I will put the factory behind my right shoulder.

 I have laid the track along the furniture factory to see the clearances I need for the cars.

 This is the layout that seems to work best. The station is beyond the siding and we have a crossing shanty to protect the people going to the platform for the passenger cars. The turnout to the freight house is in the middle of the freight platform at the factory but that will just add to the switching interest.the factory siding will hold about 4 cars, the freight house about 3.

 This is a view back around where the next industry will go. The track off to Weigh Scales is the one to the right going over the bridge.

 Another view showing the crossover that I built.

This is a closer view of the factory and the freight house layout. I have to trim the ties in the turnout area. I think it has a nice feel that will be enhanced when I add some trees and a road. I plan for a team track area for that open space in the Vee between the factory and the freight  house track.

Install Crowl Panel

 Well, Reed is a very long siding and at the east end, we have the Crowl control point and turnout. The Shamrock water tank is just beyond the turnout. You can see the prototype picture of the location on the wall.  So, I decided to put the control for the turnout and the block that leads to Paxinos at Crowl. Thus, I need a small panel here. You can see I have placed a terminal strip on the right upright of the roadbed. Now I need to wire up to it, joining into the buses that are the red cables.,

 This is the basic temporary panel I made as I have run out of Plexiglas. I will insert a Plexiglas panel into the fascia when I get it installed up to this point. I can control the turnout and the block beyond that leads to Paxinos. That is beyond the curve to the right. I have to drive to Richmond to buy more Plexiglas so that will have to wait until after the holidays.

I had a devil of a time getting the blocks to work in conjunction with the earlier panel at Reed until I found the crossed wire that gave me two days of fits. The passing track leading to the rear is about 30 feet from Reed so the siding will hold about 35 cars.

Wiring Reed

 With the addition of Mount Carmel, we need to have a place we can run around the train so it can go back up the hill to the top of the room. So, I need to make Reed functional. It is the first town we hit outside of Northumberland so it is a logical place to start. In this picture, you can see we have not done any wiring to speak of.  The terminal strips are in and now  I have to wire up to them.

 The switch motors are hanging in place and I have just added the miocro switches to power the frogs. Now I have to connect these yellow and grey wires to the heavier wires below.

 Well, we are making progress and the terminal strip is getting populated. I have also painted the panel and mounted the switches on it. The panel frame has been built and painted black. This is what I will bring the fascia up to when I install that to hide the wiring.

 A side view of where the vertical panel will go. The track is covered with tools used for all the wiring.

Eureka!! The panel is in place. The actual color is not a bright a green as it is Hunter Green, a dark green shade. We can now run around several cars at a time and even have a main line train on the lowest  track. This worked fine when I tested it.