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Post by Traindiesel! on Mar 8, 2021 0:44:39 GMT
George, how wide are you making your 4 lane highway?
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Post by g3750 on Mar 8, 2021 2:00:26 GMT
George, how wide are you making your 4 lane highway? Market Street (in Steubenville) is a 4 lane city street. It's 9" wide (at least that's the thinking). Crawford's Crossing (the highway overpass in Weirton) is 10.25" wide. I'll probably revisit the widths of Market Street and 4th Street before this is all over.
George
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Post by Traindiesel! on Mar 8, 2021 2:30:36 GMT
Thanks George! I was planning on an 8" wide highway, but it seemed a bit too narrow to me.
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Post by g3750 on Mar 8, 2021 3:16:17 GMT
Thanks George! I was planning on an 8" wide highway, but it seemed a bit too narrow to me. 'diesel, I saw the following on-line somewhere. Might be useful. Keep in mind this is for HO, so use the actual distances (feet):
"A typical traffic lane is 12 feet wide, a parallel parking lane is 8-9 feet wide, city sidewalk widths vary by area and traffic but 10-12 feet is a good figure.
The width of a traffic lane can be reduced to 10 feet wide and a parking lane can be defined as 8 feet wide (even if you're modeling the era of the biggest American cars). So a city street with two traffic lanes and parallel parking on both sides would be a scale 40 feet or about 5.5 inches 10" in O scale. For a main street with two lanes of traffic in either direction, the width grows to about 8.25 inches. Sidewalks can be compressed to 9 feet (1.25 inches), so adding things up, a two-lane street with parking and sidewalks would be about 8 16 inches wide and a main street would be roughly 10.75 21.5 inches wide.
Diagonal parking is going to require about 18 scale feet or about 2.5 inches per side, based on common practices, so parallel parking is probably better if space is an issue. You also need fewer vehicles to fill the spaces.
Going much smaller than 10 feet wide for a lane is going to make things look a bit too compressed, especially if you have trucks in your traffic. While passenger cars and light trucks (pickups, vans, etc.) are generally under 7 feet wide, modern trucks are generally 8.5 feet wide and even older trucks were 8 feet wide. Add mirrors and you really need at least 10 feet."
George
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Post by ptc on Mar 8, 2021 15:58:25 GMT
Highways, parking spaces, and sidewalks, a subject that I am very familiar with.
Space was at a premium for us with our newest layout. There were so many D56 Buildings that had to be incorporated. Not to mention, a large planned GCT complex. It all had to work together. About 5" is a good measurement for 2-way O-Gauge streets. In our case, we planned three streets that would run the length of the layout (for the most part). The top level, a 2-lane roadway (vehicles less visible), the second level and the first level, 4-lane divided highways. Sidewalks, super important as well.
At this point, it would be well to understand just what you want from your street system. For us, we were building a Big City with lots of vehicles that you would typically find in this environment. Also, in terms of sidewalks, the typical small town sidewalks would not work so well for us as well because in big cities, there are very wide sidewalks. So, everybody's requirements are probably different for streets and sidewalks. The cookie cutter approach is not the best way to go.
If possible, I like the divided highway approach. It allows for trees and street lighting.
Parallel parking verses diagonal, for me I like the diagonal approach as it provides for more vehicles on the layout. Again, this is all about personal preference.
Hope this helps.
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Post by g3750 on Mar 9, 2021 2:47:16 GMT
Updated 3/8/2021: Today was a teaching day, so not a whole lot got done. I did evaluate a few HO sidewalk products: - Chooch - rejected these as they are a bit thick. They look good, but I don't know how well they would stick. Nope.
- Plastruct - these are vacuum formed and (to me) look goofy. They looked goofy on-line and having them in my hand didn't clear up anything. Pass.
- Walthers 933-3187 HO Cornerstone Curbs & Sidewalks kit was my choice. This set comes with 4' of sidewalk, manhole covers, fire hydrants and other details.
I'm hoping to see these by the weekend. I will press on with the painting and test-fitting of the HO houses, as well as construction of the hillside. George
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Post by Traindiesel! on Mar 9, 2021 3:10:34 GMT
Thank you George and Brian. Some great information there!
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Post by g3750 on Mar 13, 2021 1:22:53 GMT
Updated 3/12/2021: Made a bit of progress on a number of fronts: - My 933-3187 Walthers Cornerstone - Concrete Curbs and Sidewalks kit arrived today. I think it will be useful.
- I drilled holes in the bench work and ran wires for lighting for several of the houses. I need to get another set of lights for the remainder.
- I painted part of the road sections for Highland Avenue. The HO street section (Leisuretime Products No. 202) got a combination of gray shades (Gray Primer, Deep Gray matte, and Pebble). It has to look a bit distressed - anything except fresh black asphalt. Here's a look at one section in the spray booth.
George
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Post by g3750 on Mar 15, 2021 3:33:34 GMT
Updated 3/14/2021: Yesterday, I acquired a few more lights for the HO houses on the hillside. I also painted some of the HO sidewalks and curbs that arrived yesterday. They also got the lawn treatment (green "grass" (foam) on the sidewalk berms).
So today we played around with the placement of houses, the wires leading to them for lights, and (under the bench work) the position of Just Plug components. I have to be careful not to stick them in the middle of a future access hatch.
Here's an attempt at positioning Superior Street between the two left-most houses (note the black marks on the butcher paper). By the way, that is my friend's grandmother's house on the extreme left.
This is my thinking for four of the houses (first of 3 Albion catalog houses on the extreme right).
I know. It doesn't look like much progress, but a fair amount of planning and thinking got done.
More when I know it.
George
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Post by Country Joe on Mar 15, 2021 15:53:56 GMT
The time you are spending thinking and planning will pay off when you start building this area.
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Post by g3750 on Mar 15, 2021 17:51:53 GMT
The time you are spending thinking and planning will pay off when you start building this area. Thanks Joe. That is definitely the hope. I find that this more deliberate approach yields better results than my old way of doing things ("ready, fire, aim"  ). But the process does take a bit longer, as I have to:
- Come up with an approach or research several different existing approaches.
- Figure out which of the approaches I like.
- If the approach isn't well defined, then I let it "percolate".
- I start accumulating items that will be needed. After awhile, I try the approach.
- If I decide it doesn't work, I will look at another way.
- If it does, we're off to the races.
With a layout of this size, there are a number of moving and related pieces. Maintenance and accessibility are definitely critical factors. Reliability is the other thing that's super important to me. There's nothing more dispiriting than a layout that won't function correctly, at least to me.
Thanks again.
George
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Post by Country Joe on Mar 15, 2021 20:26:55 GMT
The time you are spending thinking and planning will pay off when you start building this area. Thanks Joe. That is definitely the hope. I find that this more deliberate approach yields better results than my old way of doing things ("ready, fire, aim" ). But the process does take a bit longer, as I have to:
- Come up with an approach or research several different existing approaches.
- Figure out which of the approaches I like.
- If the approach isn't well defined, then I let it "percolate".
- I start accumulating items that will be needed. After awhile, I try the approach.
- If I decide it doesn't work, I will look at another way.
- If it does, we're off to the races.
With a layout of this size, there are a number of moving and related pieces. Maintenance and accessibility are definitely critical factors. Reliability is the other thing that's super important to me. There's nothing more dispiriting than a layout that won't function correctly, at least to me.
Thanks again.
George
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Post by ptc on Mar 16, 2021 13:04:23 GMT
I had to clear an area in our City to make room for work on our heating system for the train room. The solution was a brand new unit that was installed last week. So, I am now replacing scenery that had to be removed. While at it, it is now a good time to re-do our City streets. Work is now ongoing.
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Post by Traindiesel! on Mar 17, 2021 6:19:35 GMT
The time you are spending thinking and planning will pay off when you start building this area. Thanks Joe. That is definitely the hope. I find that this more deliberate approach yields better results than my old way of doing things ("ready, fire, aim" ). But the process does take a bit longer, as I have to: 3. If the approach isn't well defined, then I let it "percolate".
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Post by g3750 on Mar 19, 2021 14:15:09 GMT
Thanks Joe. That is definitely the hope. I find that this more deliberate approach yields better results than my old way of doing things ("ready, fire, aim" ). But the process does take a bit longer, as I have to: 3. If the approach isn't well defined, then I let it "percolate".
Yes, we drink a lot of coffee here, too! 
George
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). But the process does take a bit longer, as I have to: