The return of Micro Layouts

What a fasinating site, Carl.

Those shoebox layouts are works of art!

Carl Arendt wrote:

Thanks for the great site. Seems I've gotten obsessed with making things bigger and never even considered microlayouts.

One question. Some of the tracks run off into "cassettes". I'm unfamiliar with this term, but I'm guessing its a plug-in module with your rolling stock. Is that correct?

Thanks

Carl=A0Arendt wrote: It gives me great pleasure to announce the reopening of my website, "Micro Layouts for Model Railroads" at its new home: =A0=A0

------------------------------------------------ An outstanding site, Carl. Full of ideas for any modeler. I really like the creative layouts. Shows what can be done in a very small space.

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

Thanks for the note and congrats on the grand reopening of your very inspirational layout site! ...Bill

Basically that's right. Cassettes are an "offstage" length of track on a plank, holding a loco and some cars (length is up to you). They plug into a linking track on your layout to bring cars on or off the line, and even to reverse them. You can have a collection of layouts, swapping consists in and out with carefree abandon.

There are lots of wrinkles to making effective cassettes. Iain Rice has a good description in his Kalmbach book, "Small, Smart & Practical Track Plans" (starting on page 15). There's also a mini-tutorial in my book, "Creating Micro Layouts" (on page 33).

HTH!

Carl Arendt Micro Layouts for Model Railroads