Looking at MR's Beer Line layout they used Walthers Cornerstone series modular street sections in brick. In the article it has two dimensions, both around 3 inches. Has anyone else used these? I will have a rather unique situation on my HO layout, as the main road will be a 2-lane road with parking on only one side for the begining of the down town area. Is 9 foot wide lanes (about 1.25 inch in HO) too narrow for 1950's era? On a side note, typically how wide were side walks in the same era?
Most cities haven't moved their buildings, so the distance between them is the same. Some have changed the type of parking to make the travel lanes wider, either by going from angle parking to parallel or by eliminating parking on one side. There are cases where sidewalks have been narrowed to help the traffic lanes too. As I remember the sidewalks of the 50's they were at least 6' wide. In modeling that is one place you can gain a little space by compressing the width of the sidewalks.
Good luck,
If theres any one thing in this hobby that you can eyeball, its road width. Either it looks right or it doesn't. Even if its exactly the size of an actual road, it might not LOOK right.
Plus roads are rather huge. There are a lot of layouts out there that have an interstate pass over or under the tracks, but I am willing to bet few people feature a rural interstate with the minimum requirements for lane width, shoulders, etc and devote the 98.25 inches this translates to in HO. Well, 16 inches if you omit the 300 feet of right-of-way on either side of the actual roadway. Putting two HO trailers next to each other until they looked right yielded two lanes that were 3.75 inches wide total. Double that and add 4.5 for the median, and I got a 12 inch wide interstate that looked just fine to my eyes.
This is a 3-inch road, running foreground to background, with wide sidewalks:
This is a 2 1/2 inch road, running foreground to background, with narrow sidewalks:
I used the narrower road mostly because I was tight for space, but I'm happy with the result. Since this is an "urban" scene, the narrower road enhances the "brick canyon" effect I was looking for, even though the buildings are only 2, 3 and 4 stories tall.
Out in the boonies, this is also a 3-inch road:
This is the same width as the RIX Highway Bridge which is just out of the picture. I figured that was as good a reason as any to make the roadways 3 inches wide.
I planned my roadways along with my track, incidentally. If you lay all your track and then put in roads as an afterthought, you may have trouble getting your cars and trucks to your structures. If you include them in your planning, though, things should work out better for you.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasley This is a 3-inch road, running foreground to background, with wide sidewalks: This is a 2 1/2 inch road, running foreground to background, with narrow sidewalks: I used the narrower road mostly because I was tight for space, but I'm happy with the result. Since this is an "urban" scene, the narrower road enhances the "brick canyon" effect I was looking for, even though the buildings are only 2, 3 and 4 stories tall. Out in the boonies, this is also a 3-inch road: This is the same width as the RIX Highway Bridge which is just out of the picture. I figured that was as good a reason as any to make the roadways 3 inches wide. I planned my roadways along with my track, incidentally. If you lay all your track and then put in roads as an afterthought, you may have trouble getting your cars and trucks to your structures. If you include them in your planning, though, things should work out better for you.
Who ever said anything about a highway? Don't want one, don't need one, won't even have room for one. I planned on using DaveInTheHat's method of road making since it looks so real, thought maybe it could work for sidewalks too so when I make the roads they will be extra wide (the road plus sidewalk ontop of that). I'm trying to imagine the narrower street roads which I think would look ok my layout, I won't be having a "brick canyon" so it would look more spaced out and wider. I think I might go with the narrower road size (1 1/4 inch lane) on the non-parking side of my street and then use the wider road size (1 1/2 inch lane) for the parking side of the street. Give drivers a little more room for opening doors and such. Back where I grew up there was a town that had a very old downtown area with a two lane road and street parking, I always liked the look but it was nasty. Imagine your 2 1/2 inch wide road doubled for street parking. If someone parked on the street in a pick up they practically had to crawl out the back window into the bed and then hop out of there. Nothing but a compact had space, and even then it was tight, and you can all see where I'm going with this. Compact cars were not exactly the most popular type of vehicle owned. But then again the main cruising route for this town was right down this street that also aimed right at the cop shop. That's sort of the beauty of living in an area filled with small towns. Cruising wasn't just driving up and down the same street and maybe across town, it was practically a road trip. A number of times our usual 'cruise' route would take up half a tank of gas. The one time I got in big trouble from my parents because I put on 110 miles in one evening. I think we went around about half the state.
Here is my 3 inch roads with 1/2 inch shouders on each side.
Surprisingly, road widths and lane widths haven't changed all that much over the years. The Interstate Highway lane width is 12'. Urban lane widths are often 11', sometimes 10' on 4-lane roads, but that's tight. A typical 2-way residential access road is 20' (without parking).
In the 40s 10ft was common, but quickly became 11ft. So you are likely looking 11 to12ft lanes if you want to be true to reality; though using a narrower width can help compress the scenery.
Sidewalk widths vary by location. Our local town put in some adjacent to a 2 lane road, the walk width is only about 4 ft but then there are no adjacent buildings. Towns and municipalities have wider widths to allow for two way foot traffic and to accommodate doors, plantings, displays, etc. with 6ft to 9ft typical widths.
8' = 1 1/8" 10' = 1 3/8" 12' = 1 5/8 20' = 2 3/46" in HO scale
Co-owner of the proposed CT River Valley RR (HO scale) http://home.comcast.net/~docinct/CTRiverValleyRR/
I happen to be using 3" wide slot car track as the base for my two way traffic of Faller battery operated HO scale cars, buses, and trucks.These vehicles are steered with a magnet attached to the vehicle, that is magneticallydirected by a wire imbedded in the roadway. I fill in the slot with Hydrocal plaster to a depth that will hold a heavy iron wire just below the surface then fill in to the surface with Hydrocal, with the wire in place. by attaching the right side to the left side of the track,(at a hidden location), one can obtain two way traffic. with dogbone loops at both ends. The bus drives off the main road and stops at the bus depot, and then procedes on it's way, back on the main roadway. Just an idea for a realistic HO layout. Following, is the link to the Vidoe of the Hamburg Germany layout. The largest model railroad in the World. Be sure to view the additional videos. Bob Hahn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN_oDdGmKyA
This street is 24' scale feet wide. The parking lane is 10' wide and the sidewalk is 8' wide.
Note that the striping (1/16" or almost 6 scale inches) reduces the usable lane width to about 10'.
One way engineers get around the too narrow for safety is to make it a one way street with the next street over going the other way. When this is done in modeling it can fool the eyes enough to make it look good. Rather than having an obviously too narrow two way road. It really helps if you paint arrows on the pavement and have one way street signs.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
BATMAN One way engineers get around the too narrow for safety is to make it a one way street with the next street over going the other way. When this is done in modeling it can fool the eyes enough to make it look good. Rather than having an obviously too narrow two way road. It really helps if you paint arrows on the pavement and have one way street signs. Brent
Hmmm, somewheres down the line I was told they were narrower back in the day. Not much I'm only talking like 9 foot wide for lanes. Sidewalks I decided on 7/8 inch, works out to a tick over 6 1/4 feet. 1 inch works out to 7 1/4 feet so I might play around a bit. The one way street idea is neat, but I don't know if I will have the room for it. But of course now that it's up I would love to have one little scene that copies a local avenue in town here. It's basically a 4 lane road split up by a pair of tracks, but it works like a 2 lane one-way street set on each side of a track.
AlreadyInUse
A bit off-topic, but this scene is just superb modelling. If you haven't already, expand the picture to full size and look at it closely.