N Scale Roads

[Anonymous]

What concrete and asphalt looks the best? What product provides the "best looking" to "simplest to install" ratio? How are center lines painted? How are curbs installed?

Again, thanks for your help.

[DSchmitt]

jfugate, a member of this Forum, makes excellent asphalt roads from styrene. They are HO but the method is applicable to N. The link below is to an article on his web site telling how he modeled a rural highway.

http://siskiyou.railfan.net/model_rod.html

Styrene can be used to make curbs and sidewalks too. Evergreen makes scribed sheets with retangular grids (in a number of different spacings) that can be used to make sidewalks.

[DonaldAgne]

Woodland Scenics makes a product called Road System, or something like that. Basically, it's a roll of thick (but narrow in width) tape that you use to define the outline of the road, and a box of quick-setting plaster that you trowel in between the tape. You can use a sanding block to sand down the edges and create a crown in the road; and, if you are really careful, you can create realistic cracks in the road surface by pushing on the dried plaster. I used it on my layout and like it a lot.

Center lines are painted very carefully![:)] Actually, you can sometimes find different colored rolls of very narrow tape in hobby shops. That's one way to go.

For curbs, you could use plaster and tape as described above, or styrene would work.

[MAbruce]

There is an outstanding step by step (with pictures) tutorial on the Atlas fourm by a member who recently posted his method. I printed it out and plan to use it someday:

http://forum.atlasrr.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=44372

[Anonymous]

For the first road on my N-scale layout, I took the easy (lazy) way out--I applied flexible raodway from Busch to a painted piece of styrene (of the proper width, length, & thickness), and then glued the styrene down. I'm very new at model railroading, so I hope to try other, more challenging techniques in the future! Good luck!

[mls1621]

I've had good success using AMI Instant Roadbed, HO scale, for N scale roads.

It is self adhering and you only need to place it then roll it down, with a wallpaper edge roller, and it's permanently installed. One important tip, leave the backing paper on when rolling it out.

Once the roadbed is installed, I put a coat of Polly Scale Tarnished Black over the entire surface of the roadbed to simulate new asphalt or Concrete for that surface.

For striping, I use Chart Pak tape. 1/32" mat yellow and mat white. For a double center line, I'll first apply a single strip of tape down the center of the road, then apply a strip on each side for proper spacing. Once the outer two strips of tape are in place, I remove the center piece. Then using the roller again, I press the tape down to insure a good bond to the surface.

I use the yellow tape for the center lane line and white for the road edges.

1/16" tape is perfect for the lines across the lane at intersections.

Once the tape has been installed, you can weather the surface with thin coats of wa***o lighten the surface to simulate wear. By waiting till the lines are in place, the weathering will dull the color to remove the "just painted" look of the tape.

I hope this is of some help and has given you an alternative method. the Instant Roadbed can be layed around curves and stays put once it's pressed down with the roller.

[Eriediamond]

Another method is to use the extra fine grit black sand paper. It's easy to cut and looks realistic. What ever method you use, remember that those yellow center lines did not come into use until the late 60's or early 70's I believe. In other words a 40's era road would have white center lines. Best to ya, Ken