Building Roads

[Anonymous]

I'm building a layout in N scale and I'm wondering about how wide should make my roads. I went out and measured the width of the residential-area street I live on (this is the kind of road that I would like to model) and discovered that this was about 30 feet wide. This comes out to slightly more than 3 inches in N scale. However, the Woodland Scenics Incline Starters that I am planning to use on the road are 2 1/2 inches wide. Would it be okay to use a width of 2 1/2 inches for my road to make it easier to build?

[chateauricher]

Many of us have learned to "selectively compress" certain elements of our layouts in order to make them fit. Roads and streets are often "compressed" to make them fit; and to reduce the space they take up. Since they are not the focal point of the layout, whether they are "true to prototype" is of little importance, as long as they "look" right.

So, the answer to your question would be : Yes, a 2½" wide road would be acceptable provided the cars in the neighbourhood can still pass on it.

Residential street widths vary from city to city; and even within the same city (depending on when they were built). You'll find streets in the city center will often be narrower than those in the suburbs. However, I have noticed streets in some brand new suburban developments that are barely wide enough for a single car to pass with cars parked on both sides.

[Seamonster]

A scale 12' per lane still looks good. As Timothy said, we usually have to compress things a bit.