Recommend turnout size for yard.....help

[forge1]

I am planning a 7 or 8 track double ended yard and would like to know what size Peco turnouts I should use, large radius or medium radius? I have never made a yard before and any help would be apprecaited.

[forge1]

Sorry, I forgot to mention I'm in N scale

[ericsp]

How much space do you have and what is the size of the largest car that you will be running? By the way, I do not model N scale, so I doubt I can answer your question.

[Eriediamond]

forge1, I'm not in N scale either, but the same basic answer would apply to any scale I would think. Anyway, space available for the yard, train length anticipated, type of equipment operated, amount of rolling stock and is the yard going to be a main focal point of the layout. My immediate answer would be to go with medium turnouts and large radius for the main line. Even though large radius turnouts look better, you would be amazed at how much usable space they take up when building ladder tracks in yards. Ken

[darth9x9]

It think it ruly depends on the length of the equipment you have. If you run long cars (89' auto racks, 89' flats, 89' hi cubes, 70+' passenger cars, etc) then large radius turrn outs will let your rolling stock perform better. If you primarily run 60' or shorter cars, you should be able to use the medium radius turn outs with little or no problems.

[johncolley]

I don't know the comparative sizes of Peco, but I use Walthers # 10's for all passenger and mainline work except industrial. All ladder tracks are #8's and service and industrials are #6's. Some industries with multiple tracks I will use a #4 on the site. I am doing GN in 1947/48 and all my freight cars are 40'rs. I just like big curves and turnouts for the trains to flow through instead of whiplashing. That's just me, Happy Railroading New Year!

[BRAKIE]

Well,if you have a king size layout then go with king size switches..If not then you can use #5s in yards regradless of the length of your cars with no problems..The problems come from backing to FAST while switching cars or entering the yard..

[Anonymous]

#8 for long passenger cars an 6 for freight.

[Anonymous]

I'm not in "N" but all of my yard switches are Walthers code 83 #5. I can back a train of 24 cars through all of the switches, or what ever length the spur will handle

Bob

[Wdlgln005]

Peco does make good Nscale turnouts and their track does match well with Atlas flextrak. Size of turnouts depends on the location & type of equipment. #6 should be standard for mainline & crossovers. #4 or smaller can go into the ladder tracks. Shinohara used to produce a #4 ladder track that had 3 turnouts & placed the switch stand on the same side of the track. If you go to the Peco website, you should be able to get prints of their track.

To better answer your question, you could use large radius as mainline connections & crossovers. Use smaller radius in the body, you may get better use of available space, then use small radius to add little stub tracks.