how wide for a 2 lane car road and how steep should i have the road to be realistic in the mountains that i am building. am going to have the 2 lane road enter the mountains and then end on the other side.
I don’t know what the grades are here in North America, but back in the mid eighties I was over in England to bury my father. After the funeral, we took a few days for a short sightseeing holiday with relatives who lived there. While driving through the countryside with all its hills and valley’s we came upon a large traffic sign that warned of a steep hill ahead. Just before the hill, there was another sign that warned drivers to “CHECK YOUR BRAKES”, 14 DEGREE GRADE AHEAD. LORRIES (trucks to us) USE LOW GEAR. This was not on a major highway, but it was on a well traveled secondary road. I have driven in Canada and the USA for over 54 years and I have never seen a hill marked with that steep a grade. Even in the Rockies. So I know of at least one president for a grade that steep.
Besides, it’s your railroad, so who are we to say the grade is wrong. Enjoy.
Blue Flamer.
There is a 15 degree warning sign on an Interstate access not far from where I live. I’ve driven on steeper roads. However, there aren’t many such grades and they aren’t long if they are on a commercial highway. I think the Interstate has a building criteria, not sure about other US and state highways.
Good luck,
Well, a good rule of thumb is to make the lanes 12’ wide, 10’ at a minimum. I just completed a highway scene on my layout, and I used 10’.
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As you can see, 10’ is a bit snug, but as a scenic element, and not a part of running trains, I’m willing to compromise. As for steepness, less is always better, but really it boils down to whatever you can get away with visually. My highway is pretty steep, but I’m camouflaging it with trees and other elements.
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Lee
In N scale 10 foot lanes work well and are easy to layout even if you don’t have a scale ruler (3/4"=10’ in N Scale).
Shoulders are also needed. A min 1 foot gavel shoulder is needed to protect the edge of pavement. Paved shoulders vary from 0 foot to 8 foot or more.
In California and probably most other States, highway and road centerlines were white until the mid 1960’s. They were changed to yellow due to Federal requirements. White edge lines also were also required at the same time.
This link is to Chapter 6 of Caltrans Traffic Manual . Figure 6-21 showings striping of No Passing Zones is applicable to mountain roads. The same configuration applies to the white centerline era.
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/traffops/signtech/signdel/pdf/TMChapter6.pdf
However, until about 20 years ago many roads were not striped with No Passing Zones. Just the broken centerline was used. No Passing Zones were usually limited to areas were sight restrictions were not obvious. It might be safe to pass a vehicle gong 10mph but not 20mph and definitely not safe to pass one going 50mph. In those days, the driver was expected to determine if it was safe to pass.
I have also seen some narrow roads with a single solid centerline as in WM3798’s photos