I am designing a passenger yard and wondered what everyone thought of the diiference in operation for the #8 vs. #6 turnout. I plan to use all sizes of locomotived and passenger cars and was curious whether the operational performance is worth the additonal room required for the larger turnout.
In a word, no. A #6 turnout has a substitution radius of about 44", give or take, which is well above anything you are going to run on your layout, unless you happen to be the proud owner of a brass UP 4-12-2. About all a #8 will do is allow you to keep your parallel tracks closer to each other, but they take longer to get to parallel again after the diversion. You trade off smoothness and looks, and not a whole lot, for room....or length of classification tracks. I run all my engines, including a 2-10-4, through my #6 Code 83 Peco Streamlines in my yard without incident. I even have a handlaid #3 curved wye turnout that works just fine. I also haul both Bachmann HO and Walthers HO heavyweight passenger cars through my yard with its #6 turnouts and a handlaid #6 double slip. I do use handlaid #8 turnouts on my main, and have gotten to be very fond of them.
If you have the space, the #8's would look better. That's what it comes down to for me. For my planned layout re-do I'm thinking of using #8's for mainline passing sidings #6's everywhere else as before. Operationally the #6's work fine.
