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How To Make Roads and How Wide Should They Be?
Ray asks readers: “I am wanting to know the best method for building roads that’s not too difficult for a beginner like me. I am progressing well with my 4ft x 8ft HO scale layout and have more space to expand it in the future. Also, how do I go about building crossings where the tracks meet the roads?. Also how wide should I make the roads for single lane and two lane roads? Thanks in anticipation.”
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It depends on how scale-specific you are. We found 3M stair tread at Lowe’s. Comes on a roll for about $20-$30. Sounds expensive, but it will cover a lot of ground. Peel & stick for easy application. Looks like fresh-laid asphalt. Somewhat shiny, but can be scuffed up, sprayed with dull cote, left on it’s own and wait for some dust to settle. As far as width, it comes 4″ wide. Just set 2 vehicles side-by-side, like they were passing on a road, and make your own determination. We found 2 1/2 – 3″ worked well, depending upon the location. We limit our roads to 2 lanes, as we don’t want to waste table space, but to each his own.
Take some copy paper (multiple sheets), and lay them down on your table. Pencil draw your road with curves, turnouts, whatever. Cut them out. Lay the stair tread face down and trace your pattern as needed. Cut with regular, sharp scissors. Peel off the back and secure it down. Transitions to rail tracks are easy by sloping the ballast from the track to the road. I have pics, but don’t know where to post on this page.
Most highway lanes are 12 feet wide. In HO scale that is 1.65 inches for each lane you want, plus add about 4 feet for the shoulder on both sides of road. HO scale is .55 inches.
Basically 1/8″ is 1 foot. A typical asphalt 2-lane road is from 24 to 32 feet wide or more. You can’t make your roads to that scale. They’d look huge. A road 3 to 4 inches wide for HO just doesn’t look right to me. I use 4 inches for O-scale roads actually. I’d suggest around 2 1/2 inches for HO, whatever looks right with the vehicles you place on it. Toy cars don’t match HO scale or O-scale very well at all. The firetrucks are way smaller than the compact cars in proportion but both are usually way bigger than they should be in proportion to the rolling stock. You can’t win. Just do what looks good to you.
One more quick thought. For my O27 layout I use black roofing felt paper (or grey if hooking up to my Kenner roads). Cuts easy and you can draw the lines with white or yellow chalk. I also sometime use the rolled roofing itself turned upside down, but that would be too thick for HO I think.
Or if your roads are directly on the plywood, just paint the roads in with flat paint. I’m not a detail person obviously. 80% of my ground is painted on the plywood and not too neatly at that. I want to run the trains – don’t really care about the scenery that much. When it comes to scenery, “The easy way is the only way.”
Cutting thin strips of leftover tar paper with a linoleum knife and then cutting them into small confetti squares with pruning shears makes a great lightweight material for coal loads too. Certainly as realistic as the ones you buy for $6 each.