Model Railroading on the Cheap

   The community of Middleburg is a passing siding and interchange connection on the mainline. Its primary purpose is a passing siding, but in a crowded train room, I hate to miss a chance to have an industrial spur. So I have one at each end of this passing track. Now this presents location-naming challenges. I call the upper end of the passing siding Middleburg, which is where the Lake Wobegon Milling Co. makes their Powder Milk Biscuits. Garrison Keillor and his Prairie Home Companion radio program have made them famous. It is not uncommon to see one of the company’s blue box cars at this spur.

   Middleburg is physically the most difficult to operate because most of its track is hidden beneath the town of Hillton, and it lies on a slope. One needs to be both inside the pit for uncoupling and outside at the same time for holding the train on the grade. In my train room, because there is no room to walk around the outside of the layout, you must reach over the Hillton Big Bridge to tend to the industry at the upper end of Middleburg.  Servicing this industry is best done by an eastbound train heading down hill. When you cut a car out of the train to spot at the upper industry, you must hold your train on the grade by sticking an uncoupling pick (bamboo skewer) into the cork roadbed.  That may sound a bit crude, but it works.