I had wanted to add more road surface to my layout but didn’t want to take up space that I needed for my structures so I came up with this, hope it’s not too dumb of an idea?
As you can see there is this space between the back drop and the tracks, originally I was going to add a lot of trees to blend this blank space but instead I thought I could do something better with the space.
I scratch built some wood supports for my raised road way, here they are sitting on the layout upside down, I did this to measure the proper spacing I would need, I would take 11 hand made supports to lift the road way above the layout.
I then used 1/4" foam board to build the road surface, the elevated road way runs the whole 8’ length of the layout, the total height is 3.5" and the width of the road is 5" this gives me a side walk and a land scaping strip on either side of the road.
I than cut off the bases of the telephone poles and set them into the road edge, this side will be grassed and have foliage installed.
Here I added stick on letters, once the road is surfaced in the right shade of gray the text stickers will be removed to expose the white under surface, this will look as though the lettering was painted on the street surface.
I like it Jess, a lot. And I for one always enjoy your creativity. I may have to hit you up for help on an idea I’m having trouble bringing to life. Have a great weekend.
I was just saying to myself yesterday, " I wonder where Jesse Redhorse is?" Not even 24 hours later, here you are! I think the elevated roadway is coming right along. I’ll be sure to remember the idea of sticking letters on before the road is “paved” in order to peel them and have white lettered road markings. Looking forward to seeing the scenery details in place. Thanks for all the pictures. Keep us posted Jess! [tup]
Lookin’ good![8D] It does an excellent job of hiding the bare backdrop. I may need some elevated roadways [as view separators] on my own pike, since the region I’m modeling doesn’t have any tunnels.
I’ve not been on this site as much as I’d like too, I’m in the middle of writing a book and chapter 15 was a bear, I wish I knew enough to write one on this hobby, maybe some day I will have collected enough knowledge too do so.
The book I’ve been asked too write is on over coming addictions for young people.
I’m being careful that the book writing thing doesn’t consume all my free time because I NEED my train hobby time in order too live a happy life.
I have some other pics to post today of 3 built kits that I have found in real bad shape at a hobby shop for $1.00 each, after I spent a full day with these buildings they look like they could now sell for $1.24 LOL!, no really they are looking good, I just need to find the right material to rebuild the broken window cross frames in the windows, I can’t seem to find something small enough that don’t break or sag when I attempt too install them.
Thanks for checking out my progress it does matter what others in the hobby think and I figure if I give it my all then I’ve given it an honest attempt because I wouldn’t want to insult the folks here that take this hobby seriously.
