Liberty Industrial Spur

[Green_Elite_Cab]

hi
yes, just as complicated as connecting a snap-track and plugging in an electrical cord.

There is more to it then just that. You actually have to be able to mount the cassette level and stably. Rail joiners are hardly reliable for connectivity, and dont' really keep tracks aligned that well either. A plug is a reasonable solution, but still.

I can see that Lance Mindheim uses a clamp to attach the cassette, and probably some other bits. If that works, fantastic. still, it adds additional ways things can go wrong, with very little necessity.

The question is different however. If you have a 8x1 layout board you can use just half of it without a cassette;
the Palmetto spur is a great example.
With a cassette the whole length is available.

or you could have several semi-mobile sections, each only a few feet long that can be bolted together when "unpacked". No one is stuck with 8' exactly, its not all that hard to cut lumber to fit! If you had to make a weird 3' section to fill in, it wouldn't be to much trouble.

Arguments like, you can hardly see the engine are weird, unless your tracks are above eye-level.
The engine being on the non-modelled part (the cassette) often is true, adding some facing spurs (and perhaps a runaround) near the cassette and having most of the trailing spurs at the other side could be the solution.

As i understood it, most cassettes had high walls on the side to protect the trains from toppling over the sides. Even if you built the cassette a little wide so that you can see more than the roofs and the upper regions, the bottom line is that its not really an exciting location on the layout. its "behind the curtain", in staging.

I can see where you might think I'm biased, since I prefer taking pictures of my trains at track level, but still, a longer table area would negate these concerns.

Don't get me wrong, if someone like Lance Mindheim uses a cassette on his East Rail layout, a cassette seems something to think about at least. Which does not necessarily mean it is your cup of tea.

Removable staging cassettes are great when they are practical. They offer a high staging volume for a low area, and minimize the actual handling of railcars and locomotives.

However, Is that really the case? Is there a need for lots of staging? Would it be that much of a hassle to set the train on the track by hand? What are you loosing when you use a cassette instead of just continuing the table?

In the case of Lance Mindheim's layout, he only has one industry on the whole track plan that necessitates the locomotives and cars be switched in from the staging cassette. the rest of the time, he has his trains elsewhere on the layout, which is large enough for the whole train to get off the cassette and stay that way while operating the layout. He also has a lot of highly detailed and custom painted cars that he may not want to physically grab all the time. Removable cassettes allow him to store large numbers of cars without ever handling them directly when taking them on and off the layout. these are a great advantage and a fantastic reason to use removable staging cassettes.

However, Justin's layout is much smaller, and it is a matter of preference if he feels he can handle his cars and locomotives. Though removable staging is certainly a viable solution, the question comes in as to whether or not a cassette is 100% necessary. It cuts into the model real-estate, where the lead track area could be sceniced with buildings, road ways, trees, and other items. Since the train on his layout would be mostly on the right hand side of the layout, it makes more sense to me to expand the model railroad in that direction, rather than ending it with a trestle over the edge of the "world".

Without seeing the room or space where the layout is build, not knowing time and financial issues, plans are hard to judge.

Well, in this case, we know he has at least 13'. even so, no one is quite sure where they will end up, so who could say that the layout would fit even with the staging cassette?

One of the posters mentioned building the cassette would take to much of his precious time. If this really is true, building a very small layout could be the answer; the moment you start surrounding the drill track with a brick or concrete canyon, it will cost you many more hours. Beside the engine being not very visible behind the buildings as well.

Or he could build a parking lot, road, or small stand of trees. there is no need to build a crammed industrial park or block the view. However, the extra space would give him the option if he chooses to do that. a larger modeling area allows more freedom. a cassette gives no options. its a stick of track cantilevered on the edge of the layout.

besides, a cassette probably wouldn't take up a whole lot of time to build, depending on how many he made. In this way, he probably could save time and money using the removable cassettes, but at a cost to model real-estate.

It is about finding the balance, you seem to fear the cassette, i do not. The question should be: "what can a cassette do for you?" The answer might differ a lot depending on your or my givens and druthers.
Smile
Paul

Its not a question of fear, but one of necessity. Do the requirements in this instance call for a removable staging cassette? I do not think so. A more complete model railroad scene can be had if the layout is built in two or three short sections that equal the roughly 10' presented in the "cassette plan" on page 4 of the thread.

Given the available space, the cassette takes up a large area (in that it is just a thin stick of track and that the areas surrounding it cannot be used for modeling purposes, unless you get creative, such as modeling a car-float).

There is no large fleet of cars, and so far as i can tell, no major need to be "hands off", but again this is a matter of preference. If he doesn't mind picking the locomotive and four cars up and setting them on the track before the "start" of the session, then the need for a removable cassette begins to evaporate.

Meanwhile, the cassette could be a location of irregularity and change, which could agitate sensitive model railroad equipment and cause reliability issues if the cassette and its mating surfaces are not well built.

besides, it would probably take more work and carpentry to build layout table sections than to build a few cassettes. fear of carpentry or wood working is not part of the equation.