HO Scale Highway Lane Dividers

[khammer]

Hi,

I'm in the process of finishing off some paved roads on my layout and I'm looking for ideas on
how to create the painted lane dividers;
double yellow, single yellow, solid white, etc.
I'm open to anything from tape to paint.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Greetings, I was a traffic painter for over ten years. Real traffic lines are four inches wide. Double yellow is four inch yellow with three inch in between,either black or unpainted and another four inch yellow. Broken lane lines are passing areas,and solid lane lines are no passing zones. The white line at left turn bays are eight inches in width. Glass beads that are sprinkled onto the wet paint to give it reflective qualities,which gives the paint a slightly darker color. These beads are perfectly round and is about the size of fine sand. Solid yellow is on the fast lane or left side of highway when divided,and white solid line on the right or shoulder. These are three to four inches. No passing signs are on the left side of highway in the direction you are traveling. These are shaped like an elongated triangle turned sideways with the point turned toward highway. This is just a sample of rules traffic painters use,which is nationwide. I would recommend using masking tape,and get your curves with string started with an oversize arc and slowly pulled in from one lane line to the other. We used rope when pulling in curves. The real sizes of the lane lines I gave you can be figured in ho scale. HO concrete barriers can be purchased to divide the highway if a more modern time period is used. Colored ceramic buttons are sometimes used in areas that don`t use snowplows,unless they are installed below surface which is expensive and a fairly new practice. If I haven`t touched on what you need,just tell me what you want to do and I`ll give you more info. I can also answer any questions about traffic signs. Gerald

[khammer]

Thank you Gerald, that was very helpful indeed!
Do you know of any tape that could be used in
the applications you discribed? I'm not against
painting per se, I just think that if I could
find some sort of tape, I could do a better
job.

Thanks again!

[HuskyHoops]

I'm in the process of putting lane markings on my layout. I've been using E-Z Stripes, which I think are manufactured by Scale Scenics, and I've been pretty happy with the results so far. Various types of markings (double solid yellow, solid/broken double yellow, broken yellow, and solid white) are available. There was an article here on trains.com that covered roadmaking and had a useful section on pavement markings.

Stencils are also available to paint legends such as "Railroad Crossing" and "Stop Ahead", you might also want to look at using some of those.

Gerald covered a lot about standard pavement marking widths and styles, but I'd also like to add that it you have an intersection with a stop control, you should probably also use a white stop bar. Not sure where you are, but here in Connecticut the standard width is 24 inches. Stop bars are to be placed 4 feet behind crosswalks.

I haven't modeled any crosswalks yet, but if you're doing that there are many different styles, depending on the location you're modeling. For example, state roadways here crosswalks have an alternating bar pattern, with each bar being 24 inches by 10 feet, with 24 inches spacing between each bar.

[Anonymous]

I'm in N, but the method I use works in any scale. I mask the line markings & drybru***hem onto the road surface. It is a little time consuming, but I've always been hapy with the results I get.

[Anonymous]

I used "Chartpak" tape for my road striping. After applying it I gave the street a quick light coat of "Dullcote" to kill the shine and seal the tape edges. The Chartpak tape is available in any good office supply store in a wide variety of colors and widths suitable for all scales. I used yellow for the center lines and white for crosswalks and parking slots. I used the width closest to 4 scale inches wide. Depending on your modeling era, you may want to check some photos from your era and area, since markings common today may not have been in use yet if you are modeling an earlier time period. For example, the right edge "Fog lines" were not common in my area until the early 1960's. Also, the on-the-pavement "School Ahead", "RXR", "Stop Ahead", "Left Turn Only" etc. warnings were not used in my area since they were covered with snow a good part of the year. I believe many of the current markings are the result of good ol' Federal regulations in an effort to standardize markings nationwide. Some local variations may still exist. Hope this helps. Ron H.

[gerryleone]

Where do the RXR painted highway markings go -- at the point where cars are supposed to stop, or somewhere earlier down the highway? I've got an etched stencil that I'm dying to use, but don't know where to use it!

-Gerry

[HuskyHoops]

According to the Millenium Edition of the FHWA Manual on Uniform Traffic Control devices, the lower edge of the R X R legend is in line with the circuluar R X R sign. The sign should be placed anywhere from 100 feet (30mph approach speed) to 450 feet (55mph approach speed)

Approach speed is the 85th percentile speed, and not the posted speed limit.