New York Central Bee Liner

New York Central Bee Liner
RDC-3 #497 calls at Bedford Station

Friday, April 28, 2017

New Roads for Empire City

Greetings All,

"Roads, where we're going we don't need roads" said Doc Brown in one of the 'Back to the Future '' movies. That was true for his journey but for the New York Central Train Layout roads are still required.

Paving roads is not my forte and I'm not comfortable working with the materials involved. Some fellow modelers and friends are artists making roadways and sidewalks for their layouts. Check out Ralph's K.P.D. to see what I'm talking about.
http://kingsportdivision.blogspot.com/

A recent trip to a big box store had me checking the toy vehicle aisle and I saw a product called Road Tape next to the Hot Wheels cars. The Road Tape was available in 2'' and 4'' widths and a roll is about 15' in length. I purchased a 4'' role which looked good for HO scale vehicles.

Here's an opened role of Play Tape. Made by Inroad Toys reportedly manufactured in the USA.www.inroadtoys.com 
When I got home I gave it a try and a project was born. Let's take a look;

Before: A Bedford overpass
After using the Road Tape
 Hohman Ave a much photographed area in a before shot.
The after shot looks pretty good. A sharp razor, a straight edge and some patience and Hohman is done.
 The road to Ralph's Grocery Warehouse.
 The newly repaved road.
I carried the roadway over to the other side of the layout. Not too bad!
Blah! The road between the REA and NYC Freight House leading towards the City View apartments
 Not so blah! I ran out of Road Tape at this point. But I did get some more and taped the roadway all the way to the parking garage
A new roll and the blahs are gone!
The newly taped / paved upper level
The west side is paved.
 The road in front of Neal's Lumber and Hardware.
Main Street received a road makeover. 
And the paving of Market and Water Streets completed the project.
In summary working with the rolls of Road Tape was pretty simple. It was very easy to position and re-position as necessary. A good razor blade and straight edge were essential to getting clean cuts.
Thanks for reading!

7 comments:

  1. Ralph, the tape is a great find and the roads on the N.Y.C.T.L. look incredible! I'm sure with some help of the magic marker, you can rid the roads of the wording they put on it. It would look prototypical as road lines always get painted over for various reasons. Based on your earlier reporting, we've place an order for one roll. I hope to have it tonight and possibly start to test it on the layout. LOOKIN' GOOD!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Agree, the road tape really looks good in and around Empire City. I've seen the same product for the wooden trains to roll on. I'll have to look for the road tape. Nice find and application!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a great product! The tape enhances your streets very nicely. If I had anymore streets to create on my layout
    I'd defintley use it!

    ReplyDelete