My era is transition, mid to late 40’s. I was born in 1947 but I can’t remember what roads were surface with, I think the highways where I lived (Long Island, N.Y.) were concrete and the street I grew up on was asphalt. Can anyone tell me if I’m right, I’m getting ready to put down some primary and secondary roads. Thanks
What you think was asphalt was probably macadam. My grandparents lived along a section of highway over in Texas that was constructed at about that time. When the new highway went in in the 60’s their section of the old highway was left behind to be used as an access road by the residents in that area. It was most certainly macadam.
I can’t say what they might have been on Long Island, but practically all of the Illinois State Highways were built by the WPA during World War II and were concrete.
In my home town in southern Illinois the numbered State Highways were concrete but city streets that were paved had oil sprayed on them and were then given a topping of gravel or sawdust. I remember the street in front of our house being scarafied, graded, and rolled. Heated oil was then sprayed on it and a coating of gravel or sawdust was applied and it was rolled again, every summer. You then couldn’t drive on it for two days. When the road was opened to traffic, the rock or sawdust was picked up by the tires and thrown against the bottoms of cars, making quite a racket and really creating a mess on the sides of the vehicles.
I was born in 1942 in Brooklyn, and lived there untill 1947! The road I lived on dead ended at Marine Park, and was cinders - I still have a few in my knees from falling off my three wheeler!! Most of the main roads were black top - either McCaddam or asphalt - it makes no difference for HO modeling!! The main roasds were concrete. Remember that at that time roads were striped in white - not yellow!! Even the traffic signs we see for school & rr crossings were black & white. Most traffic lights were red & green - no amber. I moved to the northern NJ suburbs in Dec 47 - and we had a giant snow storm - 24+". In NJ we lived on a dead end street that was gravel, and yes these were oiled every summer to keep down the dust (used motor oil?) My [2c]
Born in 1942, in northern Ohio. We had red brick streets in the city,which were asphalted over in the 50’s and 60’s. Asphalt paved streets received a tar coating with gray stones applied over it. This was referred to as tar and chip.
In New York there was a lot of concrete used for the primary roads back then. Secondary roads and city streets were asphalt. For some reason, cost I assume, concrete isn’t used any more, it’s all asphalt.
I’m thinking of making asphalt roads from silicon carbide sandpaper, it’s black and has a gritty look to it. I never thought about how to model a concrete road. Thin styrene sheet painted concrete color?
Born in Brooklyn in 1947 - we moved out to Long Island a couple of years later.
I remember that the major roads were mostly concrete. It wasn’t a great material - one time we were driving along the Southern State Parkway, and there was a big tie-up because one lane had buckled in the summer heat. The concrete slabs had expanded enough that they filled their space, and then they expanded just a little bit more.
I use Durhams Water Putty as a surface for my roads. It takes paint very well, it’s pretty easy to work with, and it’s not expensive. I paint mine gray with cheap acrylics for asphalt roads, but concrete colored paint should work, too.
I grew up in northern NJ, in the country, morris, passaic, and sussex counties, born in '44 and even into the 70’s we still had a few dirt roads, most side and country roads were oil and stone (gravel), macadom in the towns and the main highway rt 23, back then was concrete. Most these days are blacktop.
LOL, now I’m retired and live in West Virginia and except for the beautiful highways, some back roads are dirt and some are oil and stone, even some that are just gravel or stone.
The roads on my home layout are asphalt . I used roll roofing with the back side up. After cutting the road to shape it was cemented down over cork roadbed with contact cement. The road was painted a very dark(almost black)grey colour. After the paint was dry Testors Glosscote from a rattle can was applied and allowed to dry. The lines and speed numbers were applied using decals. Testors Dullcote again from a rattle can was used to seal everything. Fine ballast was used for the gravel along the edge of the road.
On the kid’s layout “Plastruct” sheet plastic was used. The seam lines were scored in the centre and every 30 scale feet across the road. once all the pieces had been cut and fitted the road was sanded with 600 grit sand paper and painted with Floquil Concrete followed by Testors Glosscote. Lines were decal as on my layout. The finish was Testors Dullcote. The road was cemented with contact cement over cork roadbed…
Hope this helps you out.
Born in Manhattan, raised (mostly) in Da Bronx, had lotsa family on LonGuyland - and then I moved to more civilized places and dumped the accent…[;)]
IIRC, main roads were concrete - cast in place as large slabs about 20 x 20, no interconnections and no rebar in the castings. The spaces between were filled with tar, which worked out in hot weather and formed ridges, smeared away from the joint on the down-traffic side. Since each slab was an independent entity, having their heights mis-matched by an inch or more was not uncommon.
Secondary roads and streets could be asphalt (great for skating!) or MacAdam’s delightful design. I recall a road somewhere north of Yonkers that had been MacAdamized with rock bigger than ballast. Riding over it made the old '42 Chevy feel as if it had square wheels. Stone 3/4 > 1 inch was more common. One street (Middletown Road) had been surfaced with, I think, crushed brick. Streets with trolley tracks were Belgian block. Later they were paved with asphalt over everything.
That did bring back memories!
Oh! Don’t forget the potholes - with those black spherical road flares and the oversize sawhorse safety barriers. (No cones and solar-powered yellow flashers in the late '40s.)
Chuck (native New Yorker modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I recall that in Woodstock Ontario in the early 60’s we still had our streets covered with black oil then a combination of dirt/sand and small stones. And boy did we get heck for going thru the stuff with the bikes, even if it was the ONLY WAY thru!!!
I grew up in Kansas and Oklahoma and roads were made of 4 general materials from the late 40’s on:
Concrete
Asphalt
Sand &/or Gravel
And in town, brick, lots of brick, especially I suppose in the trolley days. Later, the brick roads were covered with a couple of inches of Asphalt.
A quick google of brick pavers suggests the use of brick pavers was pretty universal all over the world.
Of course the yellow brick road was in Kansas, right? 
My layout will feature some asphalt streets with patches of brick showing through. I use 3/16 foam core board with the backing stripped off as paving materials. Takes paint really well and it is very easy to scribe lines with a #11. Using the foam board was learned from Doug from my club.
Joe