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Staging Options: Cassette Staging
Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Updated Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 10:53:00 AST.)
Saturday, January 25, 2020
HO SCALE: North Berwick (End of Branch Line Mill Town)
Back in March of 2018, I was asked by a member of small layout design group to design a layout to fit on a 16" x 80" hollow core door with the setting for the layout being an end of a branch line mill town. The layout would be set in the transition era from the late 40's to early 60's with 40-foot freight cars and small steam...
Views: 3632 | Comments: 0
TAGS: Layout Size: Mini Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: End of Line Station, Theme: Single Station / Town
Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Updated Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 11:36:00 AST.)
Saturday, January 25, 2020
HO SCALE: Central Pacific/Southern Pacific
This design was done back in May of 2017 for a member the Railroad Line Forums. At the time, the owner was trying to come up with a layout to fit in his 30" x 60" space, and he was looking for some suggestions. He wanted to model the Central Pacific/Southern Pacific, and hope to have a design that would be accurate for his late-1800s era.
Views: 1022 | Comments: 0
TAGS: Layout Size: Mini Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: End of Line Station, Theme: Single Station / Town, USA (Regions): Southwest , American Railways: Central Pacific RR, American Railways: Southern Pacific RR
Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Updated Friday, September 23, 2022 at 11:32:01 ADT.)
Friday, September 23, 2022
HO SCALE: Autumn Park Industrial Lead (ISL)
This is the first design I posted as a new member of Micro/Small Model RR Layouts back in March 2018. The design is based on a fictional industrial park, and I was able to shoe-horn a lot of modern operations into the 14" x 96" space. I really like the unusually track work with the crossing, and the track entering the fertilizer and...
Views: 2973 | Comments: 3
TAGS: Layout Size: Mini Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: Industrial Park / District, Theme: Switching Operations
Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Updated Thursday, May 27, 2021 at 16:42:19 ADT.)
Thursday, May 27, 2021
HO SCALE: Walnut Grove (End of Line Station)
I just completed this design for a client today (Saturday, February 8, 2020). The 2x8-foot HO-scale layout depicts an end of line station during the transition era. The owner wanted a small service area for locomotives that included an engine shed, an overhead crane, a sand house and a coaling tower. Although he doesn't plan to run steam on the layout...
Views: 4252 | Comments: 0
TAGS: Layout Size: Compact Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Staging Options: Drop Down, Theme: End of Line Station, Theme: Single Station / Town
Posted in Articles by Rob Chant. (Updated Thursday, May 19, 2022 at 1:04:27 ADT.)
Thursday, May 19, 2022
ARTICLE: Designing the HO-Scale Pennsylvania Shortline Terminal for Robert (Robin) Mountenay
Introduction by Robert (Robin) Mountenay: As a Lutheran pastor I've lived my adult life in parsonages-church-owned homes. When I retire in the near future, I'll suddenly be responsible for my own housing. In anticipation of that day, my wife and I recently bought a house in south-central Pennsylvania, a three hour drive from our current home...
Views: 26384 | Comments: 8
TAGS: Layout Size: Compact Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: End of Line Station, Theme: Single Station / Town, USA (States): Pennsylvania, American Railways: Pennsylvania Railroad, American Railways: Reading Company
Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Updated Saturday, February 29, 2020 at 10:21:00 AST.)
Saturday, February 29, 2020
HO SCALE: Hawthorn Industrial Sidings
Back in 2016, I was contacted by a member of a railway forum that wanted me to help design a modern switching district that would fit into a 18"x16' space on his existing layout. The design was to portray a 1990's era industrial district with some big online industries, and had to fit in an 18"x16' space. My client was very specific...
Views: 1810 | Comments: 0
TAGS: Layout Size: Compact Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: Industrial Park / District, Theme: Single Station / Town, Theme: Switching Operations
Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Updated Friday, January 21, 2022 at 23:15:55 AST.)
Friday, January 21, 2022
HO SCALE: Weston (End of Prairie Branch Line)
This started as a simple Inglenook plan, but as I added more structures, I could see that I needed more track to get the industries I wanted in the design. I was hoping to include as many car types as possible to make operations a bit more varied. As it is now, there are options for grain cars, box cars, flats, gondolas, tank, hoppers, reefers, and...
Views: 3385 | Comments: 11
TAGS: Layout Size: Mini Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: Canadian Prairies, Theme: End of Line Station, Theme: Single Station / Town, Type: 3 Turnout Layout, Type: Inglenook, Type: No Run-Around Track, Canada (Provinces): Alberta, Canadian Railways: Canadian National Ry
Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Updated Monday, March 29, 2021 at 12:31:55 ADT.)
Monday, March 29, 2021
HO SCALE: Railcar / Loco Maintenance Centre
I offered to help a member of a railway forum design a HO-scale locomotive and railcar maintenance centre since I haven't done one before, and I thought it would be something a little different. I knew the layout owner's space would be a good match for the design, and I could really include a great deal of detail and some support structures in the...
Views: 3840 | Comments: 4
TAGS: Layout Size: Compact Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: Single Industry, Theme: Switching Operations, Type: No Run-Around Track, Types of Industries: Railcar / Locomotive Maintenance Centre
Posted in Articles by Rob Chant. (Updated Thursday, September 23, 2021 at 17:27:30 ADT.)
Thursday, September 23, 2021
ARTICLE: The Sissiboo Pulp & Paper Mill (Getting the most out of your small space)
This article is more about getting the most out of the space you have available than it is about modeling a pulp and paper mill. I just used a paper mill as an example of how an industry that covers a great deal of real estate in the 1:1 world can be shoe-horned into a reasonably sized footprint. However, to attain my goals for this project I had...
Views: 6159 | Comments: 9
TAGS: Design Feature: Train Elevator, Layout Size: Mini Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: Industrial Railway, Theme: Single Industry, Type: Inglenook, Type: No Run-Around Track, Types of Industries: Pulp and Paper Mills
Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Updated Monday, July 11, 2022 at 6:41:43 ADT.)
Monday, July 11, 2022
HO SCALE: Nova Scotia Railway ( Sydport Industrial Park )
Back in August of 2018, I was looking at building a small HO layout for myself based on an Inglenook design that would keep me occupied switching a few cars around. The layout was only 1' x 6' and would use a hollow core door as the base sitting on a few metal shelf brackets. I planned to put the layout in my spare room, but that changed. (For those that...
Views: 7967 | Comments: 1
TAGS: Layout Size: Mini Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: Industrial Park / District, Theme: Switching Operations, Type: 2 Turnout Layout, Type: Based on Actual Location(s), Type: Inglenook, Type: No Run-Around Track, Canada (Provinces): Nova Scotia, My Projects: Nova Scotia Railway
Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Updated Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 9:13:49 AST.)
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
HO SCALE: Ingramport (Port City on the Pacific Coast)
Back in March of 2018, I wanted to do a port city with a small piggy back service yard since it was something I didn't see very often on a small layout. I kept the design fairly simple, and it would be pretty straight forward to switch. There is a provision for a connection to staging on the right hand side, and it is pretty much almost require to...
Views: 4792 | Comments: 7
TAGS: Layout Size: Compact Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: Waterfront, USA (Regions): Northwest, Types of Industries: Wharves
Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Updated Sunday, March 08, 2020 at 11:12:00 ADT.)
Sunday, March 08, 2020
HO SCALE: International Pulp and Paper Company
This design was done for a client back in March of 2019 that liked the paper mill I used on my Great Lakes & New England Ry design which was actually taken from another layout that was in progress for yet another client and his Brownville & Ashland Ry (Yes, I do like to recycle my pixels.) This latest client was looking for a single...
Views: 3100 | Comments: 0
TAGS: Layout Size: Mini Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: Single Industry, Type: 3 Turnout Layout, Type: No Run-Around Track, Types of Industries: Pulp and Paper Mills
Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Updated Sunday, March 08, 2020 at 13:23:00 ADT.)
Sunday, March 08, 2020
I was asked by a member of the Micro/Small Model RR Layouts group to design a layout for a western US mining railroad with lots of switching in On30, and this is the result. The owner of the layout is actually a very accomplished layout designer, and he just wanted a fresh pair of eyes to see what could be done with the theme in his space. Since I...
Views: 1955 | Comments: 0
TAGS: Layout Size: Compact Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: End of Line Station, Theme: Mining, Theme: Single Station / Town, USA (States): Arizona
Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Updated Sunday, October 03, 2021 at 11:36:55 ADT.)
Sunday, October 03, 2021
This design was done for a client back in February 2017, and was originally done in an 24" x 96" space with a staging yard added to the left end. The owner wanted to depict a small New England railroad branch line set in the transition era, using smaller diesels as motive power. He wanted smaller, mostly wood foreground structures, two to...
Views: 3278 | Comments: 0
TAGS: Layout Size: Mini Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: Single Station / Town, Theme: Switching Operations, USA (Regions): New England
Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Updated Monday, July 19, 2021 at 21:08:05 ADT.)
Monday, July 19, 2021
HO SCALE: Rearden Metal Products, Inc
Back in October of 2019, a new member of the Micro/Small Model RR Layouts Facebook group shared his first post outlining his plans to enhance his programming track module by including an electric arc furnace steel mill within the 24x72-inch space. I felt member could use the space much better than his concept drawing depicted, so I decided to mock up...
Views: 2272 | Comments: 2
TAGS: Layout Size: Mini Layouts, Staging Options: Cassette Staging, Theme: Industrial Railway, Theme: Single Industry, Type: No Run-Around Track, Types of Industries: Steel Mill (Small)