Pepper is where the Sixth Sub-Division diverges from the Third Sub-Division and heads for Danville. The Third Sub (left) follows Stroubles Creek upstream, toward the mountains and Roanoke. The Sixth Sub track crosses the creek over a short bridge and into Eggleston. The Danville staging yard can be seen low in the background, but eventually this will be hidden by scenery.
The tracks on either side of the junction are setout or storage tracks, not passing sidings. The eastward Radford Turn often drops hoppers for the Klotz limestone quarry, and picks them up on the return trip, because Klotz is easier to switch westward. Also, the tracks can be used to store overflow cars for the Celanese plant at Celco, just west of here.
This is the Pepper fascia panel, showing turnout toggle switches, paperwork boxes, and telephone. The small box with the Pepper station sign serves as a town identifier (every town has one) as well as a place for blank bad order forms and off-spot cards. The two larger boxs hold train orders for the Third and Fifth Subdivisions.
Beneath the fascia is a sloped shelf to hold throttles and paperwork, and one of the 10 fast clocks on the layout.
To the right of the shelf you can see the Roanoke panel. This holds the controls to operate the staging yard controller used when entering or leaving the yard. Since Roanoke is a register station, there's a box to hold the train register card. This panel is mounted on a drawer that pulls out to reveal compartments for each track in the staging yard.