Q) What is the proper width of a roadway in a small HO gauge town (main street and approaches) in the 50's era? I could find nothing on this point on the NMRA web page. Is there one good width, or a span? I am looking for the roadway width in inches - so that I can get close to HO scale in my little 50's small town setting.

Thanks, Ken

A) Around here, each lane was about 12 feet wide. It all depended on the type of roadway (main st., residential or back country road, etc) but most business streets and highways were built at about 12 feet per lane. Earlier, in the twenties, roads were only about 20 feet wide total so if the portion of the town you wish to model was built in that era, a 20 foot roadway is fine.

If each lane were 10 feet wide, that would be 1 and 3/8s inch. So a two lane street would be 2 and 3/4 inches. 10 feet is what I use for my city streets. Modern hiway lanes would be wider. Parking lanes would have been more narrow in the 50s, say 8 or 8 1/2 feet.

Here, little has changed in the city streets since the late 40s. A few sidewalks have been removed to widen the lanes and a few streets have had major work done on them to add additional lanes, but the width still stands at about 10 feet per lane and most side streets are really about three lanes wide total. Small towns would have been this way as well. Some of the main streets in small towns actually had wider streets and also used angle parking.

Country lanes and county roads were much narrower back then, in some cases no more than 12 or 13 feet total. If you met a farm truck you were in trouble.

	
	 8' = 1 1/8
	10' = 1 3/8
	12' = 1 5/8
	15' = 2 1/16
	20' = 2 3/4
	25' = 3 7/16

By the way - Rather than do a lot of calculations, I just used a scale rule and a regular ruler to change the actual scale feet into inches so the figures are not exact, but are very close. I highly recommend a scale rule. The one I have is a 'General' no 1251. well worth the money. :-)

Oh, by the way, sidewalks in the business district were about 8 to 10 feet wide.

Rusty Spike Vol 30 #2 Mar-Apr 2000

My favorite tool for getting ballast or ground cover just where I want it is one of those sno-cone straws that has a kind of spoon on the end, you can blow stuff into crevices and those give away cracks around the base of structures.

During grilling out season, save that lovely dust from the bag of charcoal for use on the RR! - Trevor

A safety tip from Steve Studley. I wouldn't use the dust from any of the charcoals that are impregnated with some kind of flammable substance. Matchlight comes to mind. I'm not sure what the accelerant is, but I'd guess kerosene or regular charcoal lighter fluid. Not only is there a slight fire danger, but the fluid might seep into your scenery causing all sorts of bother. - Steve