Hello, I want to put a passing siding on my small layout and I want people's advice on which number of switch to use. My layout currently is an oval using Altas 21st Cent. track. I am using O-45s for the mainline. I want an inside passing siding using O-42 radius track. I plan on the track being approximately 4 inches apart (from center rail to center rail). I want to know which number of switch will be best suited for getting the tracks that close together. Obviously O36 switches are not going to work. Would an O72 switch work? Or maybe a Ross #5 switch? Other suggestions? Thank you.
Cary, I would suggest comparing the switch with a section of O42 track. When I was building layouts in O27 I was using Lionel Post War manual switches. A friend of mine went so far as to cut half of the curve section out to make it possible to put them closer together. By the time we were continplating bigger switches we moved to HO. As an aside, you didn't mention who's track you are using. Greg
Thank you for the information Greg. I am using Atlas track. However, I may have found an answer to my quandry. On the Atlas page for 3-rail track, if I scroll down far enough, I found switch dimensions and the parrallel track spacing.
