Minimum wage was $3.35 at that time, but I set my own rates because I worked harder than most of the other neighborhood kids, and people who balked at paying it got to pay somebody else $3.35 to do half the work. Of course, at $1.40/hr your gas was probably only 35 cents, right? :tb-biggrin:
I have tried several techniques and have yet to find "The One". Chart tape, available at art supply stores works well. It is available in white and yellow in various widths. Downside, over the years the glue will fail and the tape curls up. Also, do not try to seal it down with dull-cote. Solvents disolve the glue. White paint pens work ok , but I have not found a yellow that is satisfactory. Taping and painting seems to have the most layout life, but it is very tedious to get two strips of masking tape parallel. I havce not tried the decal route, but it sounds good. Dave G Cache Valley & Northern RR
Nolan $1.00/hour as a guard for the Burns Detective Agency. I was offered a .25/hour raise and they would obtain a carry permit so I could be an armed guard. Since I was guarding the Shaeffer brewery in Brooklyn at the time and felt that I could defend beer bottles from midnight - 8AM assaults by wharf rats adequately with my nightstick, I passed up their generous offer.
I used a paint marker to "paint" a yellow line on the roadway wider than the finished line. Then thin chart tape to mask the line and sprayed the road black. Remove the chart tape and you have a yellow line. Bob.
Here is some more information on highway markings. I couldn't find any information on historical markings. I had a friend say that chart tape was good to use for highway lines. I would think that it would eventually come up, but he says that it will stay there, no problem. Has anyone used chart tape with no problem? Thanks.
My method is similar to Bob's above. I put down plaster and after its dried/sanded, I seal it w/ white primer appropriate for plaster. Then I mask w/ thin strip tape. Then, I spray it "road color", then peel off the tape. Lou Sassi in some edition of MR magazine about 20 years ago, had a small article that mentioned using thin, corrugated cardboard cut to make the road. Then coating IT w/ thin coats of plaster, then finishing as I described above.
I use the Woodland Scenics dry transfer stripes. It's pretty quick on straight roads, and curves aren't too bad but you need to do smaller sections in order to get it to look good. My layout is N scale....
Road Stripes I use Microscale decal stripe in deluxe gold and white for the stripes on my roads. The prototype stripes are four inches wide. I measured the ones in front of the house on the highway. The skip is ten feet between a stripe twenty feet long.
I've used Pactra tape (bought at R/C airplane shop) on my N-Trak modules. One roll has about 6 different widths of one color (ranging from too thin to just right to too thick). Unfortunately, it has become expensive and only has about 6 foot length. So far (2 years) it has held up well as I sealed it with matte medium. I've got to try something else for the home layout as the tape just had another price increase (now over $9 a roll).
Those measurements are good to know. I just used decals to put parking lot stripes on one of my city blocks. Wow! I only did four stripes and that is tedious! A paint pen is certainly faster. I don't know if it is better, but a paint pen is definitely faster. My decal stripes do look nice.
Color of Lines Has the color of lines changed? Not that I've seen. Yellow is frequently used for the solid "Do Not Pass" line and as a color for caution but otherwise, as far as I know, white is still the standard. eagle37
Show another vote for paint pens. These pics are of my old layout but will probably do the same on the new one. Brian
The color of the lines may not have changed, but the location of the yellow or white stripes has changed a lot. You can tell what decade a US highway was painted by the type and location of stripes. As usual, there is a club or group who document this. I can't find it. I have looked and looked to no avail, but I remember reading about this at one time. The history begins with the first paved roads and goes through the highway-stripe-painting period. Then there are reflectors, medians (an attempt to separate traffic), reflective paint, handicap markings and construction, etc. It is not as simple as you might think. Still, for our purposes, we are asking when the center stripe changed from solid to dashed; when did highway edge paint first appear, when were no passing lines added to the center stripe, passing lanes added to hills, etc. But, the bottom line is: I don't know. Maybe someone can google it out for us.
Flash is right, highway markings are complex and evolve considerably over time. I think you need to spend some significant research time to really get this part right, all localities are different governments and hence different markings and signs. My last layout had a lot of highway signs and features, they blend into the background nicely and give scenes depth and a real look. This simple country road was paint pens. Working on poster board, a mistake is NOT an option, unless you replace the road. Next time I'm going to the pencils, that seems to be the best all around medium in my mind.
Great picture Steve! Using poster board, if you 'mess up' with the pen. can't you simply repaint the road and start over? Just curious. Joe
I should have explained better. That road was spray-bombed and dull-coated outside, brought in and glued in place, later the dirt and scenery was applied. Only then did I get around to painting the stripes! Lesson learned, should have striped the roadway piece first, THEN glued it down. If I was an airbrush guy, the order of things would be different.
In 1972 the US govt "mandated" uniform road striping standards for all states, the current solid yellow stripes for no-passing areas, dashed yellow stripes for pass-with-care areas, and dashed white lines for dividing multi-lane roads. This was also when the pictograph road signs began to be used. Before that, every state had different road striping and sign standards.