Curved Grade Crossing Help

[Anonymous]

I just created a grade crossing across a 2 track main line on my layout. Due to space issues I needed to put the crossing on a curve, radius about 28". I know its not the most realistic but will need to do. I built plaster road right up to outside of rails and between tracks, but was hesitant to use plaster between rails. Wanted a more realistic looking crossing boards look. But how do I get that look on a curve? Welcome any suggestions. Thanks

[leighant]

Grade crossing on a curve not realistic? The real railroads have done it over and over. I can think of several examples here in Corpus Christi, Texas. For a plank crossing, you could keep planks in short segments to fit the alinement of the track as near as possible, and cut off the edges to cut the curve and a decent flangeway. The planks themselves would NOT be curved. On my two present layouts, the street crossings over curved track outnumber the straight track crossings.

[Seamonster]

I made my grade crossings with a piece of styrene between the rails. Cut the sides to match the curvature of your rails, allowing for flangeways, and cut the ends to line up with the road edges. If you want a plank crossing, scribe the styrene with *straight* lines to emulate the planks. The styrene can be painted and weathered to look like wood, asphalt or concrete. I made mine look like wood planks and they look pretty good--to my eye anyway, and that's the only eye that matters.
...Bob

[Anonymous]

I have put a piece of thin cardboard and then glued stripwood to it after it was cut to the right size and then just cut the wood, it worked very well.

[Anonymous]

I took a very similar approach, except instead of a single piece of styrene cut to the proper curvature, I used 5 pieces of strip stryene bonded together. I can't recall whether it was 0.100" square strip or 0.080" square strip but I'm pretty sure it was one of those. I cut 5 pieces a bit longer than the width of the roadway making up the grade crossing. I scribed lines across the strips at random locations to emulate individual planks. Then I bonded them together with the usual styrene solvent, but before they set hard, I pushed them into the HO track just where they needed to be. The 5 pieces could slide by each other enough to 'take' the curve from the track. I did have to shave off some thickness to get the 5 pieces to fit between the molded in spikes of the track and ensure adequate flangeways, but this wasn't too awful a task. After a 'while' holding the pieces down, they set hard and I could remove them from the track without losing the curvature. Then I cut each end of the set of planks, to be flush with the edge of the roadway. The height of the 'planks' worked out just fine, nearly even with the railheads.

I still haven't weathered the styrene to look like wood but I am confident they'll look OK.

I got this idea from at least two sources: an MR article and from a TV show showing how wood laminates are sometimes used to make curved pieces.

Hope this helps.
Stan