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Model Railroader magazine’s Steve Otte shows how to add a realistic paved roadway to any model railroad, including Model Railroader magazine’s 3 x 7-foot N scale Red Oak layout. The secret behind Steve’s success is the Woodland Scenics Smooth-It road system, but Steve also demonstrates a quick way to stripe lanes and blend the shoulders into the adjacent scenery.
The straight road markings look great, but how do you lay out the tape for the curves? Do you trim the tape off site from the roadbed with the radius defined or do you "pencil" mark the center for the tape and bend the tape when it is mounted?
I use auto pin stripping for my lines. already the right color & straight.
how do you mask the center lines of curves on your roads?
Steve says that mixing the Smoothit in a 2-1 ratio makes it too thin but then he goes on to say he likes to mix it in a 3-1 ratio. That would make it even thinner. Come on guys whats wrong with this picture?
The project layout is looking great Steve !
Scott, the color switch is a bit more comvoluted than that. Here is a paragraph from Wikipedia on the history of highway line colors:
The question of which color to use for highway center lines in the United States enjoyed considerable debate and changing standards over a period of several decades. By November 1954, 47 states had adopted white as their standard color for highway centerlines, with Oregon being the last holdout to use yellow. In 1958, the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads adopted white as the standard color for the new interstate highway system. The 1971 edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, however, mandated yellow as the standard color of center lines nationwide. The changeover to the 1971 MUTCD standards took place between 1971 and 1975, with most done by the end of 1973, so for two years drivers still had to use the old and new. Yellow was adopted because it was already the standard color of warning signs, and because it was easy to teach drivers to associate yellow lines with dividing opposing traffic and white lines with dividing traffic in the same direction. In turn, this simple mnemonic device greatly reduced head-on collisions and improved road traffic safety.
Larry Puckett
Excellent video Steve, with many helpful demonstrations and tips.
The switch between white and yellow center lines happened in the early 1970s. When I was learning to drive the drivers manual showed white lines but by the time I took the test, it had changed to yellow (they had a sign at the testing station). That puts the change in 1971 or 1972. Standards like this are defined by the Federal Highway Admin, but I am fairly sure that the states can override if they want.
Hi Steve, nice video! I noticed at the end of the video there was a part of the road with white center lines. I was an exchange student in Massachusetts in the late 60s and as far as I remember the center lines were white then. Are white center lines something old or are they state specific?
Steve, I think you need one of the MR aprons.
Nice effect. Thanks, adding roads is another overdue project on my layout. Your tips will help!
Kudos to ANY person who is brave enough to do plastering AND painting while wearing a white shirt.
Very nice presentation of the topic Steve…well done!!