What is Persimmon Crossing? Persimmon Crossing is the name of my prototype layout set in the fall of 1947 in Southern Indiana. I was born near Mitchell, Indiana, where the Baltimore & Ohio crosses the Monon route. Mitchell is very proud of its persimmon crop and holds a Persimmon Festival in the fall. My layout will ultimately include: 1. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Washington, Indiana. 2. The Southern Railroad from Cuzco, Indiana, to French Lick, Indiana. 3. The Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railroad from French Lick, Indiana, to Bloomington, Indiana. 4. The Illinois Central from Linton, Indiana, to Bloomington, Indiana. History The Ohio & Mississippi Railroad drove the last spike completing the first rail route between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River in 1857 at a spot where the railroad ran through the section of land homesteaded by my Great Grandfather. The farm is still in the family and I have fond memories of spending weekends and summers there as a child. There was a station in that spot, Rivervale, until 1947. The town has never had more than three houses, and until the early 1960’s, was still named on Indiana road maps. Why 1947? It was the last year that the Rivervale Station existed. It was the first year of the Persimmon Festival. Lehigh Cement built a new plant in Mitchell in 1947; it was the largest cement plant in the world when it was built. Finally, the Cincinnati Limited, a streamlined steam train debuted for passenger service between Cincinnati and Dayton. And no, I wasn’t born in 1947. I was born in 1945. The Monon Route My starting point for the Monon was obviously Mitchell. I decided to include the branch that went to French Lick because of the beautiful resorts there and the Pluto Bottling Works, and the refrigerator cars bearing the Pluto logo, and it was where my Father was born. The Monon was known as a stone hauling line, so I had to go through Bedford and the quarries. The Baltimore & Ohio The B&O was basically a single tracked main line in the St. Louis Division. But there was one hill, Lawrenceburg to Milan, that required helper engines, and was double tracked. I wanted to run articulated helpers, therefore I had to include Lawrenceburg, and Cincinnati isn’t that much further, so we start at the Cincinnati yards and the beautiful Art Deco Cincinnati Union Station. The western end of my B&O is the shops at Washington, and the gypsum plant in Loogootee just east of Washington. This allows plenty of coal traffic, stone traffic, interchange with the Monon, and some through passenger trains. The Southern Railroad. Cuzco is a little village south of French Lick and is my staging area for traffic from the Southern Railroad north to French Lick. This lets me run a little Southern and have an active interchange. I love the green! The Illinois Central The longest trestle in North America is on the Illinois Central in a little burg called Tulip. It is approximately a half mile long and 170 feet high, and due to the terrain, you do not see any of it until you are almost upon it, and then you see it all in all its grandeur. When I first saw it, I knew I had to include it on my layout. The Illinois Central hauls anthracite coal from Linton, Indiana, which it mixes with the bituminous from the Powder River Basin, and delivers it to Indianapolis Power and Light. They run one coal train in the morning and return with the empties in the evening. The Illinois Central shares the McDoel yard in Bloomington with the Monon. Therefore, on my layout, the IC runs from Linton to Bloomington. The Construction I bought two 10 ft wide by 60 ft long office trailers and had them built on to the house. We created a 2 car workshop underneath and then lifted the trailers atop, bolted them together and created a 20 X 60 train room. The trailers contained office carrels, so there was 6 months of careful demolition, retaining almost all of the materials for reuse. The backdrop was installed and painted. Benchwork was installed, 2’ X 5’ L Girder tables. Roadbed was cut and installed. Micro Engineering flextrack and Peco and Micro Engineering turnouts were used. I tried to fabricate Fast Track turnouts, but gave up. It took me too long. I installed the NCE DCC system. I made a few wiring blunders, so the system did not run for several months. But once debugged, I have been going full steam ahead to scenic the railroad. I have started the helix which will be used to make two level changes. One between Washington – Loogootee and Mitchell and the other between North Vernon and Seymour. The layout will have 4 areas. The south wall is the Monon and Southern Railroad from Cuzco to Orleans. The center island, south facing side, will have two levels. The lower level is Cincinnati to North Vernon. The upper level is Tunnelton to Mitchell. The center island, north facing side will likewise have two levels. The lower level is Cincinnati yard. The upper level is Seymour to Tunnelton. At the far end of the center island is the helix. From the top of the helix, (Linton) slanting toward the north wall, will be the Tulip Trestle going to Bloomington. The north wall will have two levels. The lower level will be Logootee to Washington. The upper level will be Bedford to Bloomington. I intend to start operations sessions in the fall. We will NOT be prototypical. The B&O was under CTC in 1947. We will operate with Train Orders and Timetables. Comments and Suggestions I am continually doing research to try to make my model more realistic. I may not be a very adept modeler, but I am still learning and trying. If you have any comments or suggestions, please contact me by email at: wthomascompton@Yahoo.com or phone at (860) 267-4578. Thanks for visiting. Tom, Kim, Heidi, Carlton, John and Pete Notes for Operation Wiring: Each section of track is wired to a bus. Mainline track busses do not include turnouts. Each turnout and associated diverging route trackage is on a short circuit detector controlled by a bulb. If a short occurs, the bulb lights and the associated trackage goes dead, not the entire layout. Turnouts: Each turnout is wired individually to a bus. Diverging route trackage is likewise wired to a bus. Electricity is not routed through the points. It is therefore possible to run from the frog to the points with the turnout set against you, and derail. Pay attention to the indicators. Turnout Controls: Each turnout is controlled by a manual knob which is either in or out. My convention is: IN is for maIN lINe, which is straight OUT is for diverging rOUTe Turnout Indicators: Each is a numbered white pole with a bicolor LED on top. The number on the pole matches the number on the turnout control, which is located nearby on the fascia. Green LED glowing means the turnout is set for straight = main line. Red LED glowing means the turnout is set for diverging route. Note: currently all turnout controls and indicators are non operational while I replace my homemade turnout machines with the new FastTraxx Frog manual turnout machines. Signals: There are no signals on my layout. I intend to install prototypical semaphore signals on the Monon route. There will be no signals on the Southern nor the Illinois Central. The Baltimore and Ohio was controlled by CTC during the era I am modeling, but I am going back in time and will install ABS signals, at least on the stretch between Cincinnati and North Vernon. Towns: All towns on the layout are in prototype order east to west and north to south. Refer to the track diagram.