Hello! I’m in the midst of building my second HO layout. I’ve been out of the hobby for five years (Well, except for working on models). Unfortuantely, my former “empire” that my dad and I started when I was eight (I’m 33 now) was never built to be moved to another house! Anyway, I am looking for the following two things:
Does anyone make a street system that either has HO track built into it, or somehow accomodates HO track? The look/effect I am going for is a trolley tracke that’s built into the roadway. Brick, blacktop, concrete, cobble will all work for me. OR, does anyone have ideas to make such a system? Obviously, code 83 track atop the street for a trolley won’t look too nice…
Problem: I have a bunch of buildings from different manufactures, so either the sidewalks that are part of their bases do not match, or have no sidewlaks at all! Any ideas to make a uniform sidewalk for my city?
Thanks, as always, for the comments and help!
Matt
From the Hinterlands of New Jersey (as if there is such a place!)
For sidewalks, I cut down sheet styrene to the desired width, score its for expansion joints and curbs. Round off for corners. Paint it concrete, weather it, and install.
The Walthers inserts restrict you to certain fixed curve (18" I believe) radius. You could cut them to size or make your own from styrene or balsa or card board.
As far as the sidewalks are concerned, if the buildings already have one I don’t really know what to do either, just try to match with the styrene or cut and instal sheet styrene.
Hope this helps, I have been struggling with the same problems and there is not really a clear cut solution, especially for the street inserts and uniform side walks. I understand everybody has its own favorite way of doing it.
The Kalmbach book is “Building City Scenery for your Model Railroad” and it is invaluable for that task. You’ll learn how to make in-street track, sidewalks, and other urban scenery.
For sidewalks, I generally make my own from Plastruct .040" thick styrene sheets. You can carve the spacings yourself, but I prefer to get mine pre-scored–I prefer 3/8" squares, these work out to about 2-3 feet in HO.
I cut a strip of the styrene, two squares wide and as long as I want to make my sidewalk. I figure out where driveways and walkways will be, and then cut out the squares that will represent “hell strip” (the strip between sidewalk and curb that has grass or landscaping found in many cities.) The hell strip could be excluded if you don’t want to model it. At the curb, I use an emery board and file the curb corner to a suitably round shape. If there are driveways, I file them down with the emery board too. If I want the sidewalk to look old I’ll add cracks, chips, missing chunks, and the occasional set of initials (from kids doodling in wet cement) with an X-Acto knife.
I then take a strip of .060" square styrene of a length slightly more than the sidewalk’s length plus its width. I then use a lighter to slightly soften the plastic where the curb will be, and bend it around the sidewalk plastic. This can be a bit tricky but makes for a nice rounded curb. Once the plastic has cooled I secure it in place with plastic cement. After the cement dries, I run the emery board over the edge of the “curb” to round it slightly. For driveways I either sand the curb to match the profile of the sidewalk or cut the curb out entirely. I primer-coat my sidewalks with gray automotive primer.
The sidewalk is then added to the street, which is typically made from sheet styrene. I have recently been using Woodland Scenics Aged Concrete color to color my stre
Thanks for all the info, especially Jetrock! Interesting you call the strip of grass beteen the sidewalk and street the “hell strip.” I’ve always known to be called the “devil strip.” I believe it originally came from the strip of grass, dirt or what have you, that was found between two sets of trolley tracks in the street. You didn’t want to be caught standing there if two trolleys were going by at the same time, lest you want to meet the devil!
Thanks again, gang! Nice layout, Jet!
Matt
Quote of the Day: “Wow! To get that track up 3” and maintain a 2% grade sure takes up a lot of real estate!"[:p]
2nd Quote of the Day: “Man! Those 30” radius curve sure does take up a lot of real estate!"
3rd Quote of the Day: “1/2” plywood ain’t what it used to be. Maybe we should go out and get 3/4?" (Mind you, this is after we took the saw to the 1/2" stuff for the cookie-cutter roadbed!)
Can you tell my friends and I have been spending a lot of time in the basement???
for your streets I would use AMI instant roadbed because it can look like a street and can be formed and carved but if you want to paint it at all use Sheetrock lightweight all pourpose joint compound you can get it at a store like Menards or Home Dopot etc. that is what im using and it can be formed easily it is fairly thick DO NOT STIR IT it will make it thiner and will be harder to work withand if you get any on your tracks dont worry take your finger and wipe it off ------------------i hope ive helped[^]
Many years ago, PBS ran a series about MR hosted by Linn Westcott. He demonstrated a technique for building an asphalt grade crossing that you might try for street trackage. He used plaster to pave the road directly across the track and while the plaster was still wet, he ran a freight car truck through it to create the grooves. I tried this once and it worked fairly well although I had to expand the grooves with a knife after the plaster had set up. It should be fairly easy to expierement with this technique on a small scale before you do it on your layout.
Jetrock,
Out of curiosity, have you tried using a heat gun with a cone shaped tip, or doesn’t that get warm enough ? Might be safer.
Everyone,
For those of you modeling older cities, don’t forget that Bar Mills Scale Model Works : http://www.barmillsmodels.com
offers photoetched sidewalk freight elevators in O, HO and N scale. First one to animate their street elevator, complete with ringing bell sound effects, should write an article.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543
Prototype sidewalks, especially in older cities, tend to be something of a hodgepodge of widths, expansion joint locations and such. About the only limits are that the curb lines have to be the same and there should be no ‘steps’ for pedestrians to trip over. Within those limits, every builder and remodeler seems to have gone their own way. Cutting the sidewalks to a uniform curb line and ‘adjusting’ height mismatches with painted or stained spackling compound will give a realistic result with very little work.
As for street trackage, I once belonged to a club which put track (with continuous guard rails) in a ‘street,’ then paved the rest of it (including between the guardrails) with Portland cement. It looked surprisingly good, and it worked (single-point turnouts and all.)
I believe Smalltown makes sidewalks - while I have yet to order any it appears that the the package comes with several lenghls of 10 foot wide walkways (that can be cut into two 5 foot wide sections) and has the curved edge found at intersections.
Evergreen also has styrene sheet scribed in various sizes that they market as “sidewalks.”