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!