I found some room for a nice road along the tracks. I need to know for n scale what would the width of a modern 2 way asphalt or concrete road. I am thinking 3 inches. Does that sound right? Also need access roads to and from the intermodel yard and the cold storage plant I plan to build.
I do not know what your local bylaws call for in your area that you are modelling, but here in Toronto, Canada, the standard width of our two lane residential streets is a standard 66 feet from curb to curb. In some areas, such as where I live, we have a 10 foot wide (approximately) boulevard between the curb and the sidewalk and then there is about another four feet from the sidewalk to the homeowners property line. I think that if you go with 60 to 70 N Scale feet for the width of your road, you will be in the ballpark. I am sorry, but at the present time I do not have access to my N Scale modelling ruler to give you a more precise measurement. If you have an older style 40 foot boxcar, you could use that plus a half car more minus the couplers it should be close.
Blue Flamer.
Roads are the most overthought thing you can model.
Put two cars side by side.
There. That’s how wide to make the road.
What I’m saying is, is to eyeball roads. You don’t need to stick to standards because they’ll eat up a lot of space. For instance, in HO scale, an interstate would come close to a few feet across once you factor in the ROW, the median, all that. I’m pretty sure the AASHTO isn’t going to come and kick your door in for making it just look right
Welcome to the forums.
There was a recent post on a similar subject, can’t remember if it was N or HO. While there were dementions given, many answers said to set up several vehicles and take a look. Obviously there are differences in local. Old city streets are different than those laid out with vehicular traffic in mind. A rural highway, as Blue Flamer mentioned can vary due to local codes, In modeling, the angle you are looking at something can make a difference. A birdseye view looks different than one where the layout is at chest level.
If you want to see some of the previous answers, go to the right hand column and scroll down to Search our Community. You may find several discussions that will be helpful to you.
Good luck,
Richard
I did some research and found out that US roads are 12 feet each lane, so that would be 24 feet wide and that would equal to about a 1.5 inches wide for a 2 way road.
While 12’ lanes are “standard” many roads have narower lanes. 10’ lanes are common. A standard rural road built today would probably have 12’ wide travel lanes (concrete or asphalt), 8’ wide paved shoulders (asphalt) , 1’ wide shoulder backing (gravel) , and often additional gravel shoulder. Many roads are built with narower paved shoulders (as little as 1’) . 4’ or 6’ paved shoulders are common. While paved shoulders are grnerally the same width on both sides of the road, this is not always the case. Space available (right of way), terrain, and cost all influence what gets built.
A good representation of a “standard’ road in N scale could be made with 3/4” paved lanes (10 scale feet each) and 1/2" paved shoulders (6.7 scale feet each) . Total 2.5 " of pavement.
It is often better to make model roads slightly narrow so they do not overwelm thr trains and scenery.