streets

[scoutersama]

Anyone know how to make quality streets at a relatively low price.

[jonathan]

I cut cereal boxes to size; white glue it to the benchwork, paint it grey or greyish-black.  Done and cheap.  A little more work is involved if you want striping.




My olde towne area is all glued-down cereal boxes and paint.



Gotta do it on the cheap so I can afford cool locomotives.

Regards,

Jonathan

[jbsmith]

Cereal Boxes?
I would have NEVER thought of that!
Jonathon, you photos speak for themselves! Great results!
As a bonus,,you even get something to snack on while you work or run trains

[Doneldon]

jb-

Jonathan's idea is a good one.  Sometimes you can even use the inside surface for older concrete without even painting it.  Just draw on expansion joints, some cracks here and there, a few black-top repair patches, oil smears down the lane centers and some striping and you're all set. 

You can also use cardboard for sidewalks.  Just glue two or (better) three layers together, let it dry and then cut and glue it right to the streets.  You can add a whitish wash if you want to brighten the color a bit.
                                                                                                          -- D

[J3a-614]

Everything old is new again . . .

Cardboard is one othe the oldest modeling materials around.  Many a magazine article from the 30s through the 50s features a sructure or scenic effect, such as roads or streets, made from this material.  I recall at least two articles, one in HO, the other in O, in which the authors built models with cardboard strips to represent individual boards on a wooden building!  This was partially about economy, and partially because scribed siding wasn't always available, and what was available at the time looked too good, i.e., like a brand new building, when the builder wanted to simulate something with age.

The O scale project mentioned above (an old-time country store) was in a compilation of structure articles reprinted in the book, "Bridges and Buildings for Model Railroads" by Kalmbach.

One of John Allen's later Gorre & Daphetid structure articles was for an interlocking tower at Port that was on steel legs.  The legs were channels with lattice bracing between them.  The lattice bracing was heavy paper cut with pinking shears (serrated blade scissors).

Some people here have suggested these really old and musty (my wife's term) magazines aren't of too much use today, but I do beg to differ.  If nothing else, they show how things used to be, help you appreciate what you have now, and give you great admiration for the craftsmen who did so much scratch-building work in the old days.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Some people here have suggested these really old and musty (my wife's term) magazines aren't of too much use today, but I do beg to differ.  If nothing else, they show how things used to be, help you appreciate what you have now, and give you great admiration for the craftsmen who did so much scratch-building work in the old days.

I agree with you. 

And I think Jonathan's streets are awesome! 

[jonathan]

I blush.  Thanks.

One thing I considered was raising the middle slightly with a thin strip of card stock under the cardboard.  Thought it was more trouble than it was worth.  That's just me.  Real roads do have a bit of a bow shape.

Scoutersama,

I have seen folks do nice roads by pouring plaster-like products.  Then you can shape it any way you wish.  Don't know how expensive that would be.

Regards,

Jonathan

[ebtnut]

I just got back from the NMRA bash, and one of the clinics was on making streets and roads using a material called sintra.  It is a closed-cell PVC foam board, generally used by sign-makers for semi-temporary signs.  It comes in a variety of thicknesses, beginning at 1mm.  The advantage is that it cuts easily, can be glued with yellow glue, and won't warp over time.  Your local quicky sign shop should have some, and may give you scraps for free. 

[jonathan]

I can't remember if I shared this or not, but here's the same area lit up at night:





Ran a bus wire under the town, drilled little holes in the "pavement" to feed the light wires, et viola...

I'm using the DC side of an old power pack to control the brightness.

Regards,

Jonathan

P.S.  Structures don't have interiors...   yet.

[ebtbob]

Jonathan,

      How do you hide the seems between pieces of cardboard?

[jonathan]

I use a very small amount of spackle or DAP (the pink stuff that turns white).  If you use too much the carboard will swell up from the moisture.  I sand it with fine sandpaper and brush paint.

I should also mention that I use weights all over the cardboard while it's drying.  I find the big bottles of Apple Barrel Paints, all over the top of the cardboard, keeps everything nice and flat while the glue dries.

I've been looking for an early contruction photo to demonstrate, but it looks like I never took one.  Here's one where you can see a visible seem, if the picture is clear enough.  Occasionally I had to redo the spackle and paint.  However, on this one, the structure covered the visible seem.

[ac_catenary]

hello everybody
I make my streets using fine grit black sandpaper with sidewalks made of 1/16" styrene sheets.  The black sandpaper was available in the Dollar store.  In some local hardware stores, the sandpaper also comes in grey simulating concrete. Pedestrian crossing stripes are printed paper
Downtown

North Philly



I also build some of my earlier buildings out of cardboard. The station below is made out of museum board and the apartment buildings are made from storage boxes then painted.   The catenary is Live. The trains are controlled by DCC dynamis and the trolleys by EZ-command
30th street station

[jonathan]

Neat.  In my head, I can hear the hustle and bustle of the city streets.

Must be fun on track cleaning day.    Or perhaps cleaning is not necessary with the live overhead wires?

Thanks for sharing your hard work.

Regards,

Jonathan

[Bill Baker]

Wonderful pictures guys.  I used styrene sheets from Evergreen which I cut and sanded to fit along side and in between the rails.  It took quite a bit of time to get the appropriate dimensions, but the effort was worth it.  I, too, used DAP for my joints and painted them after taping my rails.

My layout is in a shed in my back yard and even though I have heat and airconditioning in it, I have no way to control the humidity.  My question is this:  will humidity affect cardboard or sand paper over a period of time?

[jonathan]

I have been building my layout for almost 4 years now.  It's in my 2-car garage, where is no heat or air-conditioning.  So far, nothing has curled up or shriveled on me.  Between the glue and the paint, I think it would take a direct liquid spill to affect the cardboard.  However, I am constantly clearing out cobwebs, spider webs, and bug death.  There's nothing like running a train, after a long break, only to have your locomotive emerge from a tunnel covered in webbing.  Joy.

Regards,

Jonathan