Layout design 072, 10 x 13

Your plan includes some long reaches, especially if you don't have access from all sides.  Re turntable vs. industry, it depends on what you want to showcase - if you have a lot of impressive locomotives, especially steamers, then a roundhouse is a great way to display them.

I don't car for turntables as they take up way too much space.  If you want to display larger engines put them on shelves on the wall.

+1 vote for ditching the turntable in favor of industry or scenery.

If you're determined to make the main part of the layout no more than 10x13 your plan isn't bad.  But I have to ask, what else is in the room toward the bottom part of your design that prevents extending the main line into that area?

A couple more thoughts... I would NOT use what looks like a double-slip switch on your yard lead.  Search the Forum.  Ross makes great switches, but plenty of folks have had issues with the double-slip that are hard to solve.  Even real railroads routinely replace them with sequential standard crossovers.  Also: if the track at the right edge is intended to be a yard lead, it's probably too short.  Make ALL of your yard tracks shorter and start the yard lead closer to the bottom of your sketch.  You'll lose capacity, but for the yard lead to be fully functional, it should be able to double a cut from any track to any other track.

The reality is that O gauge trains take up a lot of room.  Particularly if you're determined to stick with "scale" sized trains and O72 curves.  My $.02.

Thanks for the input everyone. It is really helpful to hear.

What had me excited about the turntable was having dedicated engine storage on the layout (leaving more room for cars in the yard) and the idea of an operating accessory like the turntable sounded fun. I'm going to test swapping the location of the turntable to the other side. Still undecided on it either way. It does take up quite a bit of space.

My intention is to first get benchwork and install the two main loops and the yard. I think then I will be able to feel it out a little bit more before I commit to a particular design for the center.

The left and top sides of the layout are meant to be flush with the basement wall. This is why I need a cut out to be able to reach those areas. The right side of the main layout is how you will approach.

@Ted S to the left of the peninsula for the yard is an air handler unit that is mounted against the wall. There is a bit of room to approach the yard from the left and full access from the bottom. To the right of the yard are racks for storage bins.

I live in a small house in an urban environment and feel lucky to even have this space to run O gauge trains. I need to use the other side of the basement for storage since we don't have a lot of other storage room in the main part of the house. O just seems more fun and tactile and I hope to share with my kid as they get older.

Thanks for noticing the double slip @Ted S. I have seen the somewhat mixed reviews. I was hoping this would work as it saves a little space. I wish you could "rent" this switch and see if it works out before committing to it. As far as a yard lead, (I just looked that up), I sort of added that by accident and realized it could be useful to park a switcher. But I understand your point, there isn't really enough room there to be useful. I was resigned to using the mainline if I needed to do any serious moving of cars.

Interested in any other feedback. Anyone happy with an atlas double slip?

I like to have an area (shown in blue) where I can move the switch engine around so I can back a car into any spur.