Siding Capacity: Does My Train Fit?

A siding only holds what’s left after fouling-point clearance at both ends — not the raw rail length. Pick the car you run and how many, enter the siding, and get a straight FITS or TOO LONG answer with the margin to spare.

Using the mixed consist from the engineering panel below. Clear those rows to go back to the simple car picker.

Usable length = overall − (2 × end clearance) − safety margin. Lengths are model measurements over the couplers — that’s what actually consumes the siding; confirm a tight fit on the real track. Train too heavy for the grade once it fits? Check the Grade Pull calculator.