Road work

[chadmichaels]

As a general rule how wide should roads be on my layout? Highways inch and half? Streets inch? How wide should sidewalks be and driveways?

 

[UP2CSX]

What scale are you working in? It really helps if you list your scale in your signature line.

 

[Trucklover]

HO Scale:

City Street Prototype = 30' ~~ HO Scale = 4-1/8"
Country Road Prototype = 18' ~~ HO Scale = 2-1/2"
Highway Lanes Prototype = 12-18' ~~ HO Scale 1-5/8-2-1/2"
Sidewalk Prototype = 4' ~~ HO Scale = 1/2"

N Scale:

City Street Prototype = 30' ~~ N Scale = 2-1/4"
Country Road Prototype = 18' ~~ N Scale = 1-3/8"
Highway Lanes Prototype = 12-18' ~~ N Scale 7/8-1-3/8"
Sidewalk Prototype = 4' ~~ HO Scale = 1/4"

This was taken off the back of the WS Paving Tape package
Hope this helps

 

[chadmichaels]

Jim,
Should have posted Im modeling HO scale. My bad. How do I add a signature?

Josh,
Thanks for the info. I think I'll do my roads etc. in the for sale signs like some have mentioned.

 

[chadmichaels]

figured it out Jim.

 

[UP2CSX]

Very good, Chad. I thought you were HO but it's a lot easier for old geezers like me to remember if it's in you sig line.

Those measurement Josh posted from the WS paving tape package are close enough for most roads. The era you're modelign is important since road lanes have steadily increased in size over the decades. It would have been unusual to see a highway with lanes wider than 12' in the 40's and the current standard is a minimum of 16' of federal highways and 18' on interstates. The other thing about roads that almost never gets modeled is right of way. Most highways outside cities have a right of way that's at least the size of the road itself. If you have the room, showing fences and utility poles at the edges of the right of way help to make the road look "right".

 

[chadmichaels]

The era ill be modeling will be present day.

 

[ICG/SOU]

If I may add a question here:

My downtown area will require places for parking cars. Most of the towns I remember as a kid had pull-in parking, as opposed to parallel parking. If I'm going with a small 2 lane state highway as the main street, I'm guessing about 4" wide, then how much wider would I need to put cars into place, at a 45* or 60* angle? 7" total?

Thanks.

 

[Trucklover]

If I may add a question here:

My downtown area will require places for parking cars. Most of the towns I remember as a kid had pull-in parking, as opposed to parallel parking. If I'm going with a small 2 lane state highway as the main street, I'm guessing about 4" wide, then how much wider would I need to put cars into place, at a 45* or 60* angle? 7" total?

Thanks.

I guess this really depends on the era you are modeling. The modern era has cars and SUV's that are much bigger then lets say the 50's or 60's and they require more room to park, both length and width.

It also depends if you want to have parking at an angle on both sides of the street, maybe mix it up a little, do parking at an angle on one side of the street and parallel parking on the other side of the street. this would also save a little room if you have a limited space for this.

I just measured an Atlas HO Scale Ford F-150 Pickup truck i have, which is a pretty modern car/truck, and its about 3-3/4" long. I just did a little rough diagram on my workbench, im not sure what angle i did it at, but i measured it would take about 6-7" like you said for a 4" wide road and parking at an angle along the street.

Now if you want parking on the other side of the street, it depends on weather or not you want parking at an angle or parallel parking. Parallel i would say about 1" more making the total width of the road with parking on both sides about 8" and this is with the parking at an angle on one side and parallel parking on the other. It just all depends on what you want i guess...

 

[UP2CSX]

Josh has it exactly right. Angle parking adds a lot of width to a roadway. If you want angle parking on both sides of the street, you also ideally want four travel lanes, two in each direction. This prevents traffic collisions when people back out. You probably need to compress some space becuase mostdon't have space for everything to be exactly in scale but this is one place you really can't because the vehicles won't look right. You really need a roadway at least 11" wide for angle parking on both sides of the street. It will look really good if you have the room.

 

[ICG/SOU]

Thanks.

I don't have that much room (although I'm currently working on the benchwork) and can adjust the track plan some.

As of right now, I only have room to do a "Front Street" setup, that is, the row of buildings (shops and such) that are usually across a parallel street of a train track. I can do two lane road with parallel parking on the store side of the road, or maybe just angled parking, but not on both sides, without having to put a weird curve in the mainline.