Old post, but I thought this would be helpful.
Some pages back there was the discussion of using 3M pinstripe tape for road stripes.
I used this material and it works great. Easy to apply, and sticks very well.
Here is what it looks like.
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website
i use the edges of index cards and paint in between the cards to obtain strips on roads...It comes out very realastic and it has that faded look to it. i go about 1/16 of inch. I tried color pencils and that did not work...
Rich,
Whoa, that's too funny...
Were you driving the illegal 'red' car, or pushing the norm with the 'blue' car ?
(My name is Neo, & I want the 'red' one) hah hah....
Steven Otte richhotrain: As for Steven Otte, while I agree that it is wonderful to hear from the staff and also to get great suggestions, I get nervous every time I see that he has replied to a post.
richhotrain: As for Steven Otte, while I agree that it is wonderful to hear from the staff and also to get great suggestions, I get nervous every time I see that he has replied to a post.
As for Steven Otte, while I agree that it is wonderful to hear from the staff and also to get great suggestions, I get nervous every time I see that he has replied to a post.
My palms were sweaty as I opened that reply.
Rich
Alton Junction
richhotrain As for Steven Otte, while I agree that it is wonderful to hear from the staff and also to get great suggestions, I get nervous every time I see that he has replied to a post.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
ChadLRyan SteveO, thanks for contributing so much on this, it is not only wonderful to hear from staff, but also get great suggestons too! Thanks Steve! Again, Great work Motley, & thanks Steve!
SteveO, thanks for contributing so much on this, it is not only wonderful to hear from staff, but also get great suggestons too! Thanks Steve!
Again, Great work Motley, & thanks Steve!
I'll second that on Motley's work - - - first class.
Steven Otte That color and the weathering look really good. With a road that rough I'd definitely go for the faded, worn look paint stripes would give, rather than pinstripe tape.
That color and the weathering look really good. With a road that rough I'd definitely go for the faded, worn look paint stripes would give, rather than pinstripe tape.
Of course, he could still use the pinstripe tape on the rationale that the highway department just restriped the payment after patching the cracks and potholes.
Sweet man!!! Thanks for 'enertaining' my silliness too.. You're layout just keeps getting cooler every day! Something to shoot for!
Thanks Chad, I appreciate the great comments.
I just added some potholes, cracks, and patching.
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
Actually, all kidding around aside, I know what it takes to put in a highway like that into a layout &; (as I said) Motley, that is an excellent effort & result, great modeling..
My early scale pic shows the cars in an illegal fasion, the red car is breaking the law, by passing over the lines. My section is painted that way because it will be under a RR bridge & it will also have a 'Scenic Siding', so I painted it that way to discurage any (speedy) passing were there may be slowing, turning, & yielding traffic. It will all make sense as I make more progress on the project.
Motley,
Looks pretty nice, it also looks like I paid you a visit, or perhaps Jeremy or Hammond did!!!
Nice work! (roads are/can be a pain!)
Thanks Steve for the great suggestions.
Here in Colorado we have rough roads due to the snow and ice.
I'll post some more photos once I get the potholes and patches done.
It doesn't seem to like uploading a photo directly. Oh well. You can see most of the photo I was trying to post in the photo at the top of page 40 of the May 2011 MR.
That color and the weathering look really good. With a road that rough I'd definitely go for the faded, worn look paint stripes would give, rather than pinstripe tape. Also consider adding patches and potholes to the road... just paint in some darker blotches or wiggly lines for tar patches, and for potholes, paint in some of the deeper divots with darker paint speckled with white to represent loose gravel.
When I did the roads for the Bay Junction project, I simulated past utility work by painting a broad stripe of concrete across the blacktop road, and bordered it with black to represent tar sealant. Then I continued the powdered pastel weathering across the patch. Let's see if I can add a photo directly...
I think I got the color right?
I just finished painting and weathering the road. Now I just need to do the striping!
richhotrain Black??? LOL I wonder how that worked?
Black???
LOL I wonder how that worked?
In my area, black is commonly used as a background/surround for lane markings on concrete roads. Styles have varied over time. From the 70s, I remember narrow solid black lines used between lanes, with dashed white lines of the same width added on top of them. A typical use today has a black rectangle surrounding the white dashes on all sides. The black is big safety enhancement when driving at night in the rain, as white often "disappears" into the concrete color.
Rob Spangler
Not very well. (rimshot)
But seriously, folks... I'd guess they used black for concrete roads, or re-striping blacktop that had faded.
In Florida I've seen concrete roads with alternating white and black stripes, because the white is hard to see against the concrete, but when it rains and the concrete darkens, the black is hard to see. Edit: Found an example photo. This faded blacktop road is in Virginia.
Makes me think we model railroaders make all our roads too dark. I've also seen white stripes with black contrast borders, probably for the same reason. Here's a photo from a vendor who sells them in tape form.
Steven Otte Road striping of various colors, including white, yellow, and black, was used prior to 1971. What the 1971 MUTCD did was to mandate yellow for between opposing lanes and white for all other lines. So if you had a pre-1971 layout and used yellow lines, you still wouldn't be wrong. It just wasn't standardized before then.
Road striping of various colors, including white, yellow, and black, was used prior to 1971. What the 1971 MUTCD did was to mandate yellow for between opposing lanes and white for all other lines. So if you had a pre-1971 layout and used yellow lines, you still wouldn't be wrong. It just wasn't standardized before then.
Thanks for all of that additional info guys on the changing colors and patterns of road striping from era to era. I recalled when first reading this thread that changes did occur. I just couldn't remember when and how the road striping protocols changed.
richotrain:
According to wikipedia white to yellow lines state wide in 1971. I don't expect it was done over night.
Bob
Photobucket Albums:NPBL - 2008 The BeginningNPBL - 2009 Phase INPBL - 2010 Downtown
richhotrain I need to be educated here. Did the colors of the stripes change (from yellow to white or white to yellow) over time from era to era? Why and when were some roads marked with single and double striping versus single dashed striping? How should shoulder striping differ from center of the road striping in terms of color and solid versus dash? Thanks. Rich
I need to be educated here.
Did the colors of the stripes change (from yellow to white or white to yellow) over time from era to era?
Why and when were some roads marked with single and double striping versus single dashed striping?
How should shoulder striping differ from center of the road striping in terms of color and solid versus dash?
Thanks.
I was just watching the movie "Vanishing Point," which came out in 1970. The dashed lines on the road were white but the solid yellow.
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
One more thing... A reprint of the 1930 Manual on Street Traffic Signals, Signs, and Markings, which governed such items nationwide until the first MUTCD was issued in 1935, is available on Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Manual-street-traffic-signals-markings/dp/B002WN2Z9M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320265877&sr=1-1
A history of the MUTCD gives dates of major revisions, such as the standardization of the three-color traffic signal (1935); reflectorized beads on pavement markings (1942); rounded-letter alphabet for all road signs (1948); stop signs changed from yellow to red (1954); yellow striping between oncoming traffic (1971); and revised markings for highway-rail grade crossings (1978). See more here:
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/kno-history.htm
In my searching, I also found an unsupported anecdote that striping along the road shoulder wasn't adopted until the mid-60s.
I get it now. From Wikipedia:
"In the United States, two states claim to be the first to have developed center lines. According to the state of Michigan, painted white center lines were developed by Edward N. Hines, the chairman of the Wayne County, Michigan, Board of Roads in 1911. The first highway centerline was painted along M-15 (later a section of US Highway 41 or M-28) in 1917, by Kenneth Ingalls Sawyer, a claim supported by the Federal Highway Administration. According to the state of California, Dr. June McCarroll was the first to develop center lines, in 1917. In 2002, a portion of Interstate 10 was designated and signed as "The Doctor June McCarroll Memorial Freeway" in her honor.
"White center lines were used in the United States until the 1971 edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which mandated yellow as the standard color of center lines nationwide (after several decades of debate on the issue and some states already offering the double and single solid yellow center line). The changeover to the 1971 MUTCD standards took place between 1971 and 1975 with most done by the end of 1973, so for two years drivers still had to use the old and new. Yellow was adopted because it was already the standard color of warning signs, and because it was easy to teach drivers to associate yellow lines with dividing opposing traffic and white lines with dividing traffic in the same direction. In turn, this greatly reduced head-on collisions and improved road traffic safety."
Steven,
Thanks for that info, but what i was referring to was changes in color and pattern of the stripes from say the 1940s and 1950s to the present. It seems to be that the center lines used to be different in color than today.
richhotrain Did the colors of the stripes change (from yellow to white or white to yellow) over time from era to era? Why and when were some roads marked with single and double striping versus single dashed striping? How should shoulder striping differ from center of the road striping in terms of color and solid versus dash?
Solid stripes indicate lines you aren't supposed to cross. You're allowed to cross dashed lines. You'll find single dashed lines down the middle of two-lane, two-way roads, where it's safe to pass, or between lanes of a multi-lane road. Double solid lines go down the middle of two-lane, two-way roads where it's not safe to pass in either direction, such as on a curve or a hill that limits visibility. Double-solid lines also go down the middle of two-way multi-lane roads, since you can use other lanes to move around traffic and therefore shouldn't use oncoming lanes to pass. On a two-way, two-lane road where it might be safe to pass in one direction but not the other (such as where one direction is approaching a hill and the other has already passed it), you'll have a double line dashed on the side where it's safe to pass and solid on the other. Merge lanes and off-ramps are separated from traffic lanes by dashes that are shorter and closer together than those between traffic lanes. Lines that separate the roadway from the shoulder are solid. Dashed lines become solid for a short distance before an intersection, but may resume being dashed immediately after. There are generally no lines in an intersection, unless the intersection is big enough to have multiple left-turn lanes, in which case short dashes may be used to guide those turning alongside each other.
Lines that separate lanes of traffic going opposite directions (those in the middle of the road) are yellow, and almost always double. Almost all other lines (those separating lanes of traffic going in the same direction, on the shoulder, crosswalks, stop lines, etc.), whether dashed or solid, are white. I don't know when this became the standard; research may be needed.
You can find all the information you'd ever want about traffic markings (plus far too much more) in the federal Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, or MUTCD. It's online at http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/kno_2009.htm in PDF form. A useful bonus is you can zoom in on a picture of a street sign in the MUTCD using Adobe Reader, select and copy the image, paste it in a Photoshop document, size it to your scale, and have it printed out on decal paper or self-stick labels on a color laser printer. Cheap, easy, and accurate street signs!
I have tried various tape from various vendors over the years and after about 5 years or so(in some cases 1 year) the adhesive started breaking down. When we cleaned the layout, the stripes would come loose a little and then more and more. Attempts to reglue were messy and so we would restripe. IMHO painting is best. It also doesn't have nearly as much thickness as the tape and so looks more natural.
Richard