In designing my layout, with 1'= 12". What is the proper width of a 2 lane and 4 lane street in N scale? Thanks, Bernard
Hello Bernard, Welcome to the board! Depending on a lot of things I would use "selective compresion" for your roads. I'd suggest make them wide enough for a lane of trafic in each direction and a litle space on either side.
Welcome, Bernard! We had a thread on Roadway/Sidewalk widths a few months ago: http://www.trainboard.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/ubb/get_topic/f/9/t/004508.html?
In dealing with street width I'll go to prototype here. All states and local jurisdictions have fire codes contained with thier building codes that govern widths of strrets and alleys, and separation of buildings. Typically the minumun width for a street is 18 feet to 25 feet, with no parking on either side. Add 8 to 10 feet per side for parking or other words, a two lane street with one side parking is 28 foot minimum to 38 feet for both side parking. The 18 to 25 feet is the space needed for a ladder truck to extend its' jacks to raise the ladder and the space need for a straight bed type truck to negotiate the corner at the intersection. Or in simple terms right close at 1 and 6/16th of an inch gives you a two lane street with no parking. and about 2 and 2/16th inch street gives you a two lane street with parking on one side.
Hello Bernard, I dont know what era your modeling, but if you have photos of the area that will help you. What I did was to get some seconds foam board (damaged ones) cheap. I laid out the buildings, put some cars and trucks on it. Cut strips of various width for sidewalks. and started playing around with spacing. You can refer to the photos of the area, and time frame to get more accurate. This way you have a 3d representation of the space available. helps if you need to fudge here and there, and certainly alot easier than just using a measurement. Not all the roads need to proto width, and you can selectively compress some things here and there, but In my opinion doing the 3d thing is going to give you the visual end results better than laying out measurements and going with them. They are a good starting point however. Start with them, use a scale rule, draw out some roads using a gray marker, place buildings and sidewalks, place a few cars/trucks on the road way and parking areas and see how it looks. You may find you need more or less room to accomplish what your looking for. Rob
PS as an addendum to the above, when you get the roads and sidewalks done to your liking. then convert the measurements on the 3D to fit the scale of your drawing. Rob
