I have an exchange between three tracks using crossovers. If I lay the turnouts as drawn by Xtrack Cad, That is with the diverging legs joined, everything will fit by removing a couple of ties, but this sets the track center to center at 1 1/4". Is this enough? There will be trains passing each other in both directions in this area, but there are no curves. If this is not enough, I’ll need to insert short pieces of straight track between the diverging legs to increase the CTC spacing. What should the track spacing be, and low long a piece, if any, needs to be inserted to establish that spacing? Oh… This might help… I’m using Peco medium radius turnouts…
The best place I know to answer this kind of question is here:
http://www.nmra.org/standards/s-8.html
Looks like on the straight, you have no problem.
I’ve always used a minimum spacing of 1 1/4" c to c between parallel straight track (mainline, yards, spurs, etc.) without any problems.
I wouldn’t recommend it for curves however.