Making Curbs for Roadway

[LakeErieExpress]

Anyone have any tips on this? I want the road to have curbs on my railroad and be very prototypical in that the land gets raised up. I know I can do this with adding sidewalks but I want to have curbs that lead to green spaces as well. I attached a picture as well of what I want. Let me know.!

[Aralai]

I am planning on using square Styrene for curbs on my layout.

[Grampys Trains]

Yep, square styrene is what I used. DJ.

[wp8thsub]

That curb and gutter looks just like what's on my street, so I'll assume the dimensions are similar.  I'd recommend styrene strip for the gutter, with maybe .080" square styrene for the curb if modeling in HO.  Round off the top edge of the curb with a file or sanding block.  I know the bottom of the curb rounds into the gutter, but the lack of this detail isn't too noticeable in small scales.

Build up behind the curb with some more styrene, say .060" if in HO, which leaves some vertical space to add ground foam or whatever for grass without making it look like the grass sits too much higher than the curb.  If you carry the same material under the sidewalk, you can easily add the sidewalk from .020" styrene, maintaining it above the base ground cover level as well.  Note that you could use a single sheet of styrene for the base of the whole assembly, from the curb all the way under the sidewalk.  Start with more "normal" scenery techniques once you get beyond the sidewalk.

[BroadwayLion]

If you want a nice curb like that... The LION paints the table top black where the roads will be, and then takes an 1/8" sheet of Masonite (hardboard for stores that sell it under the generic name) to be the whole block. Paint it a concrete color, and apply your grass strips as needed, and put your buildings on top of that. Here are two pictures of what I did, front yard and back yard. Obviously this is a city scene rather than a suburban scene, and clearly you can do a better job than I can, but that layout is long gone, but the buildings and the entire block including the tree are intact and waiting to be anchored on Pitkin Avenue on my Broadway LION layout.