Essex Jct. on the Green Mountain Division....Part 1

Here we see Essex Jct. in its very early stage

Creating a Junction scene ....by Don Janes

          On my Green Mountain Division layout I have been using names of actual railroad locations but for the most part they are not actual replicas of the prototype.  One such location is Essex Jct.  On the real Central Vermont Essex Jct. was where the line to Burlington Vt. split off from the mainline.  On my layout it is where a hidden staging yard and a branch line to Wells River converge on the mainline.  I bought the Monster Model Works kit of the B&M East Deerfield yard tower with the intent on using it as the interlocking tower at this busy junction.  I also wanted to include a water tower and a small area for storing track materials.  The third kit, the Monster Modelwaork Rutland pump house was an after thought. This kit was a lot larger than I thought it would be so I was having trouble figuring out where to put it since most available real estate on the layout had already been spoken for.  Since it was a pump house and I wanted a water tower I figured why not use it to pump water from a man made canal to the water tank. With those three elements figured out I set out to build the scene.

The completed pump house

     The foreground scenery was roughed in and as can be seen from the photo, I built the stone lined canal that the pump house would draw water from.  I built up the background hills out of cardboard webbing and plaster cloth then painted some distant hills on the backdrop to give a sense of distance.  I used the same stone material to that lined the canal to build retaining walls behind the pump house and tower.  Once the background scenery was done I started playing around with the structures to figure out their final location.

Here we see the structures in place along with the signals and water stand pipe

 

Here is a shot showing the canal and pump house.

   I wanted the tower right at the two turnouts with power switches and since the water tank had to sit against the backdrop I decided to remove the water spout and install a standpipe between the main lines so engines could take water from either track. I added block signals that were made from Oregon Rail Supply parts to each end of the junction.  These simply show the turnout position rather than indicate the actual routing.  It is a simple set up and not really that prototypical but does give the impression of a signaled interlocking.
     While I was at it I decided to add lights to the tower and a couple of lights on poles to help crews see when taking water at night or looking for track materials by the tower.  The pole lights were scratchbuilt using dowels, brass tube, Tichy light shades and LED lights. They really look quite good when lit up.

The interior of the tower is detailed and lighted.  The towerman must have a lull in traffic and is taking in the scenery.

Here are a few shots showing the placement of the lights. The light pole is scratchbuilt.

The section gang seems to have a lot of supplies on hand at the junction.

A view from the cab of the Wells River wayfreight. By the looks of the red signal they might be here a while waiting for a mainline train to clear. The building at the junction can be seen behind the old wooden bridge.

   At this point the structure and background scenery are pretty much complete and in the next installment we will take a look at the finished scene and maybe catch a few trains passing the junction.