Making Roads

I used Gray for concrete, but I don’t see much of gray asphalt so a mixed some brown, gray and black together to get asphalt. You can weather it by lightly wiping it with a rag dabbed with a little gray paint.

 

I like this one.
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/crowley/ashphalt_roads.htm

 

I did a quick check using Google Earth, and most of the roads I'm seeing have a dark center as modeled, NOT dark lines on the tire path. My check area was downtown Seattle, including I-5. Of course, the answer may vary depending on the type of surface and maybe even the era modeled. But I checked a few other locales* as well and saw the same pattern over and over, often subtle.

* random spot-checks:
Kansas City MO
Spokane WA
Arlington MA
Philadelphia PA
Toronto ON

But then! From the grainy images I can get of Berlin, Germany, it does seem to be darker where the tires roll. I don't know if this is a visual artifact or a real difference.

As always, look to the prototype.

 

I use joint compound as well and I mix in a little black paint so the road has color all the way through. You can always paint it if you don't like the exact color or paint sections to look like patches. I use chip board or museum board underneath instead of styrene to get the slightly convex profile of the road.

 

The dark streaks weathered onto my roads are not from tire marks but stains from fluids dripping from vehicles (oil, fuel, etc.). This is common on almost all main roads and highways:



I suspect that the roads where you can actually see tire marks have very little commercial (truck) traffic, like this road here:



Jamie

 

Thnxs Jamie. The roads around here are like the last pic...darker where the tires roll. I suppose either way works...as long as the road looks 'used'...:tb-wink:

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Jamie-

The shot with the clouds is outstanding.

 

Well, George, had you not brought this up I guess I would have just gone through life completely deluded. I read this and thought, "That can't be!" and went to look up some cities I know well on Google. And you were partly right.

Here's what I found: All the roads with major traffic going smoothly at any speed had two dark marks in each lane under the wheels, just like you said. Where traffic was forced to slow down, though (because of big intersections, gridlock problems, etc), these two marks were replaced with one mark at the center of each lane, representing grease and exhaust rather than tire rubber. Where traffic always came to a complete halt--at intersections--there were at least one or two dark black streaks of engine oil: one for the first car at the light, the next one for the second car at the light. Where cars made turns into or out of parking lots, there was one very wide dark mark that took up most of the lane--because each car takes its own path to make the turn. On slow residential streets cars take their own paths as well, leaving either no streaks or multiple parallel streaks.

On the freeways where traffic almost never slows, there are two marks (for the tires). On freeways where congestion or gridlock are a chronic problem, though, there is just one mark at the center of each lane. The lanes that have the worst problems with gridlock have the darkest lines. So while, for example, people traveling from Tacoma to Seattle may often be able to go the speed limit, the gridlock on that section of I-5 is chronic--and so there is just one dark line at the center of each lane.

So really, where you put smudges on your road will depend on several things: how fast cars are going, if it's an intersection, and if there is congestion or gridlock.

What I remember from the steam-diesel "transition era" up into the early 60's (in the West where I grew up) was a complete absence of gridlock/congestion. Cars always moved the speed limit. I don't think that was true in Chicago or New York. I imagine that the type of smudges you use will also depend on your era and your location.

 

Chaya That was a very informative post. Thanks.

I have noticed that wall board plaster or joint compound is used for modelling roads. Is this laid down as a free form or some type of form is used?

 

I totally agree with George. I’ve been thinking about this ever since I first saw this. Today I put on about 150 miles at work driving on all types roads from country roads to freeways and I didn’t see any evidence of liquids dripping on the roads or at least here in Southern Calif. I don’t believe cars are leaking much fluids any more. I only saw one spot all day at an intersection that looked like someone lost a little Coolant, but there wasn’t a trail like you’d expect.

What I did notice was that on the newer paved roads there was more gray from the dirty tires beating down the asphalt and exposing more of the aggregate. And I think that photo of the bridge is not oil in the middle of the road, but it is dirt from the tires compacting on to the pavement. I used to live up near that bridge and there just isn’t must dust settling on that asphalt to turn the center gray like here in the desert where sand and dust is always blowing on the road.

 

Take a look at a fresh paved road or parking lot and then come back every few days. Those dark smudges start off as drips and streaks from all kinds of stuff like fuel, oil, axle grease, hydraulic fluid, bearing grease, brake dust, and on and on. At first you can see all the drips & streaks but after thousands of vehicles, they just appear as dark smudges. This is why you get these same dark smudges on concrete roads as you will on asphalt. For example, next time you are driving on an interstate you will notice the dark smudges down the center of the asphalt lanes continue right across a concrete overpass (like in the photo of the Bay Bridge above). You will also notice that the emergency lanes where there is very little or no traffic have lightened with age but do not have the streaks. Here is a good aerial photo that really shows just how messy cars & trucks really are:



I found a really good article somewhere when I was researching this recently but of course I did not save it. It really helped me figure out how to get the weathering patterns right. By the way, the streaks down the center of travel lanes on busy highways are pretty much the same as the streaks running down the center of busy railroad mainlines. That same stuff drips from locomotives and freight cars just like it does from road vehicles. Jamie

 

Well I have to admit this photo is a lot more convincing than the bay bridge photo. I am curious as to where this is. When I was growing up in Pittsburgh PA I know there was oil on the road because I remember the rainbow colors floating on the roads after it rained.

As far as the Bay Bridge goes, I’m basing my opinion on what I’ve seen today. I drove on some roads that have been repaved within the last year and the road looked very similar to the photo of the bridge. The center is still fresh asphalt color and the sides are tan or gray from the dirt of the tires.

I don’t know when that photo of the bridge was taken, but I drove across that bridge last year and there was a lot of road construction going on. I don’t remember what it was exactly only that lanes were closed with some heavy equipment, but it very well could have been repaving. It seems like every time I’m in that area, which isn’t very often, there is some sort of road work going on.

 

Off topic!
I have to say that i have not seen a sky that blue, perod. I guess I have lived in the Inland Empire to long. Even when I lived in Orange county it was not that blue.

 

Come to Nebraska sometime........on a nice spring day, it's like being under an "upside down" blue bowl. Our weather, however, keeps the "riff-raff" out as my Grandpa used to say.........so we don't see bright blue sky all the time. sometimes, there are twisters in it. lol

 

I still like the darker lines...where the tires roll. :tb-tongue:



Great thing is...everyone can model their roads like they remember em... :thumbs_up:

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Well, like I said, George, that's exactly how the roads look where there is never gridlock. I can't grab photos from the Google satellite views, but you can look it up yourself. Paste 3001 S Saint Francis Dr, Santa Fe, NM into Google Maps, click on "Satellite" and "Show labels" (to remove the labels and graphic road lines) and have a look around. (It's just an example pulled out of a hat).

It's only where traffic is forced to slow down that you get the smudge in the middle. I'm willing to bet that the center smudge is mostly from tailpipe exhaust, which is filled with carbon particles.

At the intersections you get actual oil drips.

 

I took a litlle bit of eveyones advise. I' be using the spackle. I have three tracks to cross. So I began to remove the ballast and road bed. Since I have a foam sub bed. I had to put down a filler base. Once that is hard I can begin on creating the roads and crossings. Thanks everyone for the advice and great pics. I'll be recovering from surgery, so pics may be sometime before I can post.
Thanks agains everyone.

Gary