I can not seem to find how tall my sidewalk should be. I know the width and how far between my slabs should be a line but not the height. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Well, I suppose I could go out with a tape measure. But suppose it is 8" tall.
8/87 = would make it 0.09" on your HO layout. I suppose 1/8th of an inch is good enough, that way you can paint in your roads, and then set your buildings on a 1/8th" sheet of Masonite (Hardboard if you go to a big box store) You make your entire city block on the hard board, then you can lift the whole thing up.
Actually I made mine on 1/4" hardboard, but then I put roof shingles in the street. The road is far too coarse this way, but I was gong to spread some dirt over that and then paint it.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
From CALTRANS Standard Plans
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/esc/oe/project_plans/HTM/stdplns-US-customary-units-new10.htm
A87aImage1_zpsdcbc520f by Donald Schmitt, on Flickr
Business districts usually have "barrier" curbs with gutters type A2 or B2 or similar. Residential areas built prior to WW2 will usually have "barrier" curbs too. "Travesable" curbs type E or similar are often found in in residential subsivisions built since the 1950's.
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
I have been in places where it seemed the curbs were nearly a foot high. However, if a street has been repaved a few times they can be only an inch or two, barely enough to keep the water off the sidewalk in a hard rain.
Even though engineering plans may show a height, repairs can change things. Try a few different sizes and see what looks good to you.
Good luck,
Richard
cowman I have been in places where it seemed the curbs were nearly a foot high. However, if a street has been repaved a few times they can be only an inch or two, barely enough to keep the water off the sidewalk in a hard rain. Even though engineering plans may show a height, repairs can change things. Try a few different sizes and see what looks good to you. Good luck, Richard
In the 1980's, I was given the task of trying to design curb (wheelchair) ramps on a State highway through several towns east of Los Angeles. It was determined that major reconstruction of the Highway, intersecting streets and drainage would be required. Many of the existing curbs were over 2 feet high because during flash floods (fortunately rare) the steets became overflow drainage channels,
Today, new local street curbs (meaning not freeways or turnpikes, etc) that convey normal rain water to catch basins (and thence into underground storm drains), are generally 6 inches high.
These can be higher if the street is intended to convey significant storm water (where there is no underground storm drain system), or may be higher where large streets converge (and the stormflows are combined) or on the down hill side of a street that has been designed to carry water.
Honestly, this is one of those questions that "just go with what you think looks best" works.
You name a height, you can find it. Heck, one of the little towns I'm familiar with is so old and the roads repaved so many times that the sidewalks are lower than the road by a good three quarters of an inch. But go the next town over and you've got 4" high curbs that were built as 8" but now there's four inches of asphalt piled up on top of the brick that those 8" curbs matched (and now help for the bottom of some of the wickedest potholes anywhere).