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Hello to everyone, whoever can help me I would apreciate it.
After 3 years of gutting and remodeling my basement I am finaly to the point of track planning, this is going to be the largest layout I ever built 44 1/2 X 26 1/2 feet in HO scale. It has been many years since I had built one and I forgot what the clearance between 2 tracks, both strait and curved. To tell a little of my layout it has the minimum radius of 34 inches I plan on running steam big boys and long passenger cars on it so I needed to know the width between the tracks for good clearence.
If you want to email me or PM me that would be fine too. (zartan74@sbcglobal.net)
I usually use 2" between track centers and then widen it out to 2.5" on curves. Set up some track and take a look at it with cars parked on it. It's all up to you and what you think looks right.
I use 2 1/2 between tracks on the straights, and a bit more on the curves. It's a bit wider than prototype, but I'm ham-handed, and if it's too narrow, my hand will knock over adjacent cars trying to rerail them. And, it's guaranteed you'll have to rerail cars.
On the curves, it's basically by eye, when using your longest car. This would either be passenger, or an 89' boxcar.
That's center to center. Remember the cars stick out further. Then, you have to picture your hand going in there, to rerail. You're grasping the derailed truck. That will cause your knuckle, possibly the middle finger knuckle, to stick out. Alternately, it'd be the thumb. Most likely the meaty part on the base of the thumb that sticks out....
Nice to see another UP modeler! Big BOys eh? Cool! From the likes of those dimensions of your layout those Big Boys will earn their keep on your layout! As for track width placement I think the guys pretty much answered your questions. Keep posting here of your progress with pics. We look forward to those! Best of luck to ya! You will find these guys are really awesome on this site...
Welcome aboard!