Garden Railway Forum

How do people build roads in their gardens? I have a crossing and it sort of needs roads to make it plausible, I've tried concrete but it always cracks up after a while. Is there a better way?

If you're willing to accept slightly overscale stuff, look at http://www.richardstacey.com/welcome.html who does cobbles and paving stones, but be warned - he's expensive!

I use roofing felt cut to size...

I used a rowlands mix with a bit more concrete in for my car park

You do have the option of bagged "cold roll" tarmac, sold for drive repairs. The aggregate component will naturally be well overscale, but texture and colour will be spot-on and fade resistant.

Mr. Bond of the DVLR:94776 wrote:How do people build roads in their gardens?  I've tried concrete but it always cracks up after a while. Is there a better way?

I have put a roadway on my garden railway and being aware of the potential for concrete to crack in freezing weather I have tried to prevent (or delay) this by firstly mixing with a flexible additive which is also waterproof when set.  I mixed in a powder which makes the concrete black when dry and laid the mix about 1.5 inches thick.
As this is the first winter for the railway I can't say whether or not it works but I have tried!

good looking road

Reinforced mine with chicken wire does'nt crack.

That looks really good! I particularly like the stop lines. The surface texture looks spot on to me. Using chicken wire is just like putting in the re-bar that you find in 12 " to the foot concrete roads, great idea.

At the risk of wandering of topic (sorry!) what make track do you use please, because that's also some of the nicest track I've seen!

All the best,

Andrew

The track is custom built using white metal chairs and semi flat bottom rail of peco variety pinned to treated ramin sleepers. The road surface is a bitumen paint with pva mix and slate dust and reinforced.

Thanks Methssniffer. That's labour intensive but well worth while. One last question and I promise to shut up! Who's whitemetal chairs have you used? They are very good.

I'll remember the road construction technique when I reach that stage of construction myself.

Fortunately I was given tins full of these chairs from a dismantled O gauge garden railway. They were produced by Mills Brothers of Sheffield. Now a rarity to find. Slaters and Cliff Barker produce them nowadays.

Thanks Methssniffer. I hope I can produce some equally good looking track when the time comes.

METHSSNIFFER:95532 wrote:The road surface is a bitumen paint  with pva mix and slate dust and reinforced.

I like the look of your road surface. I've got some spare SBR and I would probably be able to source some slate dust or similar and some bitumen paint. Briefly, what did you do to get the finish seen in the photo?

Thank you