Not a stupid question, but a whole lot of variables.
For tight single lane, to the likker still, 8-9 feet minimum. A two lane country road, about 18-20 feet, minimum.
I used to have a link to road dimensions, but don't find it now.
Rotor
Jake: How often does the train go by? Elwood: So often you won't even notice ...
NSlover92 wrote:Hey guys, about how many scale feet would a 1960's single lane dirt/stone road be across? Also I know these are stupid to ask, about how many scale feet would a creek be small stream, about 10? 15? I was just wondering for my layout, Thanks ya'll, Mike
Two-lane dirt roads typically run 18-22 feet, depending on ditches and intended traffic. Busy loggiing road with big rigs running 40-50 mph....maybe a tad more? Roadside shrubbery will be dusty, remember.
Streams vs. creeks. How big is either, and who says? Creeks run 4-10 feet maybe, with streams covering much of that range and into rivers. In dry season, a river can be a small creek or reduced to stagnant puddles in bad droughts. In June run-off it can be 100 yards across, 200 in many cases, or if flowing over its banks up to several miles inland. Not trying to make fun or anything, but something between 1/4" and 3" in HO scale should be close to what you want for a "stream".
Wow! That's like asking, "How long is a string?"
I have seen 'ad hoc' dirt roads just barely wider than the tread width of the Jeeps that made them, and unpaved but otherwise fully configured freeways.
I have also seen 'creeks' wide enough to dock good-size watercraft at their downstream ends - and narrow enough to spit across farther up into the hills.
I'm afraid this hasn't been very helpful - but life's like that.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - where most roads resembled deer trails)
I won't be helpful either but will just observe that when you see a road or street on a layout that looks like it is way too wide, it usually proves to be scale width. Roads, like buildings and trees, tend to look surprisingly large if true scale size for some reason.
This website of historic San Diego area photographs
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt187015sv/?docId=kt187015sv&brand=oac&layout=printable-details
has this shot of an old car on a dirt road. Get a Jordan model car (HO) and note the width and you'd see that this dirt road was actually pretty wide.
By contrast this dirt road is hardly wider than the car itself
http://www.explorehistoricalif.com/april06.html
Dave Nelson
"Creeks" in Pennsylvania can be larger than "rivers" in Texas. Time of year also matters. A "creek" in June might be 50 ft wide and a foot wide in August. If the area around it is green, then it can be wider. If the area around it has more yellow/brown grass, then make it narrower.
Dave H.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
It might be 15 feet it might be 100 feet. Figure a 45% angle down from the track at minimum (unless there is a retaining wall).
The track could be right in the creek.
Some railroads, mostly logging and mining lines, forded creeks. Steam engines could run through higher water than diesel-electrics because of the need to keep water out of the traction motors.
The Spring 2007 issue of the NRHS BULLETIN has a nice article and pictures of a 1979 fan trip on the Beech Mountain Railroad in West Virginia. The trip had to be cut short because water at one of the fords was too high for the diesel.