HO Scale:

The track across my turntable is 14 inches (101.5 scale feet) so as to accommodate the longest locomotive in my fleet.

I have Canadian National heavy weight coach cars of the 1940's / 1950's era that are 10" (72.5 scale feet) long leaving 4" (29 scale feet) for a yard switcher to fit on the turntable, with a coach car, so I can park the coach car beside the roundhouse.

I would feel more comfortable with a yard switcher less than 4", say... 3.75".

I am working on the design of a staging yard for my N scale Indiana Railroad West End Division layout and need some help determining the best way to do it.  The attached drawing does not have all of the yard tracks, but only the few that I think are needed to illustrate the question(s).

Dear MRHers,

OK, here's one for the BrainsTrust.

I'm seeking at creating a layout scene which will feature mainline mid-train loco ops. As part of this, I'm looking for "typical" trains which make use of such distributed power systems. Grain and Coal come to mind, but are there others?
(visualise sitting at a grade crossing in your car, crossbucks flashing, 
and watching a loco splicing 2x strings of autoracks or container-stackers roll past?)

FWIW, I'm focussing on BNSF and UP ops in the Grain states...

hey guys. this  is my first attempt at weathering. so i want to know what yall think.