Would I Have Room For A Turnout Here?

On straight parallel track 3.5" spacing will clear anything.

Curves are a different story.  The best advice is this:  Put your curves in place.  Take your longest two cars and see if they pass prior to installing the curves. 

4 inches is plenty of clearance for side by side cars.   It works on curves too if the radius is not too tight.    I basically allow 4 inches width for any track as a starting point.    sometimes I modify slightly.    4 inches for adjacent yard tracks allows for big fingers to get in and rerail or remove if necessary.

A #5 switch will be perfect for creating such a siding. I've used them, and they fit nicely for the application your questioning.

Good luck.

Bob

THANKS EVERYONE!

Aaaaaaah...I'm so relieved that it will work!

Since I use Atlas Flex Track, I can provide even more clearance in the corner turns.

I'll put the first turnout on the straight outside Main, then extend the siding around the corner curve and rejoin it to the other straight outside Main using another turnout! 

It's OK if my extra loco and cars stand on a curved siding, isn't it?

Thanks a lot for your assurance!

BAD ORDER

HEY JOHN C,

I don't install any curves...I put 40" sections of straight Flex Track in place and bend them into curves, spiking the track down as I create the curve.

I always align my Flex Track over a pre-drawn route on the roadbed that I make from a straightedge and a constant-radius trammel beam.

Cheers,

BAD ORDER (Here are my Trammel Beams...I don't use the 36" radius anymore)

You may have missed the point that John C was making about placing your longest car on the siding, then see if another one of your other long cars strikes the adjacent car.  Try not to get caught up in semantics of exactly HOW you lay your track, but the importance of resulting clearances on curves.

HEY HOT WATER,

I knew exactly what John C. was talking about, and it is indeed an important consideration when planning track laying!  I know this from the track I have laid on my railroad!

I simply wanted him to know that I don't install fixed curves! All 123.5 feet of my main line consists of Flex track.

That's all.....

BAD ORDER

Thank you for the comment, John C.!

Bad Order Hal

Whoever "liked" my post was absolutely justified in doing so!

BAD ORDER

A likely story, coming from the likes of you! 

bad order harold

HEY TOM,

My longest freight car is a 1930's era 40-foot boxcar.  I have no articulated locomotives, only 4-axle diesel units.

BAD ORDER

Are you certain that you will not buy any longer rolling stock or locos in the future?

My tastes change occasionally and other folks' do too.

HEY ROYBOY,

My tastes may change, but my layout's physical constraints limit my curves to no larger than a 43" radius.  Even if I had the room for 96" radius curves, I probably still wouldn't go for the bigger stuff.

In model railroads, I never did entertain the possibility of running a Big Boy or a Challenger, and certainly not 90-foot Pullman coaches!

Early-era short rolling stock (40 ft & shorter) and small locos...that's my style!

Railroads look bigger when they run smaller equipment, and this is why I'm selling my barely used GP-60 and will be running my SW-9 Switcher as a road engine, because it's nice and small!

Even my recently-purchased Atlas GP-35 seems too big!

BAD ORDER HAL