Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone could help, I am at the stage in my layout where I have to map out where the roads are going to go, Is there a size or width the road should be? I plan on having a main street and some dirt roads. Thanks, Mike
Hi Mike! I generally go by the width of the real road I want to model - if it is say, 16' wide, multiply 16 x 12" to get total inches of width - divide this by 160 (N scale), and you have an accurate road width.
Just wanted to clarify something about your post on the width of the roadway.. The 16' width is for a two lane road... 8' wide in each direction.
Mike, The roads are necessary but I always dislike the amount of real estate they take up. Just a residental street can use up a lot of room so I try to "compress" the width of the road if I can in much the same way we selectivlely compress buildings. Cars parked on the street can be staggered on each side so they don't seem to take as much room. Cut out a road from paper and lay it down to see how it looks in relation to the rest of the scene. After a few different widths are tried you'll get a feel for what you think looks right. John W
Fortunately we are modeling in N scale... so a two lane road is exactly 1.2" wide. Just imagine how much space you'd have to "waste...???" if you were doing a city scene in HO or worse...O scale.
I had to compress my streets somewhat in a few places to get everything I wanted in. Glad I am not in HO or I would have to build narrow autos.
I agree with Russell. I have a lot of industrial area with several streets. I use two inches wide for a two lane road. That is 13 feet per lane for a USA road. That does not include parallel parking and is really sort of narrow for driving. But, I have found that, if I allow this as a minimum for planning, I will get by. Better to scale out and cut the planned roadbeds from paper as previously suggested, but in a pinch, use two inches as a minimun. (5.08 cm).
One way to "reduce" the width of the roads is to make a number of them one-way; in this way, you only really need to make them around the 1.2" wide that Grandpa Joe noted. I have found that in many industrial areas, one way roads are not all that uncommon, so it is worth considering...
