I would like to have a cobblestone street in my industrial area, but I don’t know if these kind of pavement was common in USA
Guillermo ( Argentina)
Cobblestone streets were very common in the Norteast part of the USA especially in the cities of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. During the 1960’s many streets were paved over with asphalt (blacktop). Hope this helps you.
Doc
Yes, cobblestone streets were common in the cities of the Eastern US in the first part of the 20th century. Trolley tracks frequently ran in the streets, too, between the cobbles. Gradually, the trolley lines were either torn up or paved over, and asphalt eventually replaced almost all of the cobblestones. Today, cobblestones are used mostly for pedestrian areas, and are considered a “decorative” touch.
I’ve got two cobbled areas on my layout. The first is “Farmers’ Market” with Woodland Scenics figures"
This is the trolley stop, where I did put cobbles between the rails:
I had to make my own cobblestones, by the way. I ordered a piece of “plastic beehive” from beekeeping place in Maryland. I took modelling clay and made an impression of the plastic surface, and then used Woodland Scenics latex rubber to make a mold from the clay image. I used the mold to make Hydrocal castings, finally painting them with a speckled Rustoleum spray paint from a hardware store.
Your cobblestones look great.
I tried using dried lental beans, gluing them down individually. I filled the gaps with light weight spackle and finished by a light spray of blue-gray. It looked good but the cobblestones were a little big for HO.
BTW The tank being crushed is HO scale Sherman.
The problem occurred when an air conditioner duct leaked water on the cobblestones and they sprouted…
Something else you will see all over the US and quite common here in the Mid West even today is the brick street. I just purchased some of this product from Kancali and am planning to use it in my city street scene. http://www.kancali.com/rrhomepage.html I have not yet tried it, but have seen some really excellent results on another layout.
I recall the cobblestones. Best thing since sliced bread. Never a water issue.
When they paved it over with that fancy blacktop… we didnt know if they would hold up.
I betcha scrape a little of that blacktop off, them cobblestones will STILL be there.
It would be nice if someone took the trouble to make syrene sheets with random cobblestones instead of stamped patterns.
Dont forget brick, alot of that also.
They do Wills scenics a UK company do cobble stone, crazy paving and york stone paving that I know about in sheets if you can live with using 4mm scale sheet instead of 3.5mm scale sheet.
regards John
I live in a small town in Missouri and there is a really old cobblestone street on the same stree as town hall.
Cobblestone streets, moreover pre-fabricated stone streets, are making a big comeback in the States, especially in downtowns. Our company installs them all the time. They are a central design element of “urban village” streetscape design, and towns that are trying to revive or spiff up their downtowns to create live-able city centers are using frequently.
Cobblestone streets as seen in most of these photgraphs was actually not a common pattern in the US. What was common was Belgian Block, which is similar to cobblestone but looks more like rough brick. Even cobblestone paving was much more irregular than the finely cut patterns than are common in Europe. Take a look at:
http://www.btco.net/ghosts/streets/paving/paving.html
to see what I mean.
I remember more red brick streets than cobble stone, but I’m only 42.
UP2CSX indicates Belgian Block. This is true of Philadelphia and Camden, towns well known for this type of paving. Delaware Ave was paved over decades ago using asphalt right over the Belgian Block.
Drawings of the team tracks and frieght houses for Reading and Pennsy show the surfaces surrounding the team tracks as Belgian Block. In the “Plastruck” section of the hobby shop you can find a close substitute, it looks like brick but it is not as crisp in detail, it is tan in color. Painted grays and tans it is a good stand in for Belgian Block and comes in large 6 x 12 inch sheets.
You can combine elements of Belgian Block re paved with concrete, asphalt and even regular brick thrown in to make a very diverse street in an industrial area.
Chris
In Alexandria, Louisiana, some of the streets are cobblestone and some others are red brick. Almost all the newer streets are asphalt. Guess which two of the three types need hardly any maintenance. Here’s a hint. It ain’t the asphalt!