Road Construction

[pengc]

maybe, take a look at this

[Southwest Chief]

 

For a dirt road use...dirt

I use a piece of wood 8 5/8" wide and simply scrape the ground to form the roads.  Easy to do, looks good, and not permanent if you change things up.  After heavy rains I have to "re-pave" with the piece of wood, but not hard to do.

[ttrigg]

Asphalt shingles have one drawback. Dogs and chickens like to "file their nails" on it. If no dogs or chickens you are good to go.

[Ray Dunakin]

Are you saying you want your road to actually be made of dirt/gravel, or just that you would like it to look like a dirt/gravel road?

If the latter, I'd recommend high strength mortar, colored with concrete pigments and textured appropriately. On my road I made a reinforced concrete foundation about 1.5"-2" thick, then added the mortar on top of that.

 

 

[Rex in Pinetop]

I built mine out of asphalt patch mix laid in between lawn edging material and tamped smooth.

Rex 

[mjburk]

I am planning on using asphalt roofing shingles. I cut one out to see how it looked, and it looks like a gravel road. plus, they are really weather proof.

[rpc7271]

It's very hard for me to believe that tar paper looks like a dirt road.

[piercedan]

Tar paper!!  looks real!!

[IRB Souther Engineer]

Maybe take a look at this: http://grw.trains.com/en/sitecore/content/Home/How%20To/Construction%20and%20Landscaping/2006/04/Realistic%20roads.aspx 

[rpc7271]

I make mine out of concrete, about 1" thick. Then I use dirt colored exterier paint as glue and paint the road dirt brown, then apply a good coat of sifted dirt on top of the wet paint. Wait 24 hours and then vaccuum it off.  Looks good for a couple of years. If you want ruts in the dirt road use a popcycle stick to carve them in the wet concrete. You can also use mortar. My roads are usually made out of left over concrete after I have poured some concrete roadbed. Sometimes I get a couple of feet, sometimes 6" of road at a time.

[BobHuddleston]

What do people recommend for road -- vehicle not train! -- construction? I am especially interested in dirt, gravel, etc. rather than hard surface. Thanks!