Color choices for 1950's era city streets

Ed, 

From what I recall our city streets were deep red brick, I as told that the WPA employees during the Depression in the 1930's built these streets, state and county highways were concrete yellow striped, if the concrete failed in certain areas these areas were jackhammered to remove the fractured concrete and the new concrete poured or asphalt was used for patching. The interstates built under the Eisenhower Administration were reinforced concrete many later paved over with asphalt. This is my best recollection, you may want to check with the street department were you live or a larger city within you area, they should have records on the street/road construction in the 1940's and 1950's.

Not sure how a "railroad avenue" was different than a street, but the subject of street markings was discussed not too long ago. Here are comments from a couple of our knowledgeable forum members.

Bob Bartizek:  White was definitely the predominant color in the 50's.  According to one source, by late 1954 every state but Oregon (yellow) had adopted white as the official color.  Our current yellow lines were mandated in 1971 and the changeover was complete by 1975.

Jeff Z:  In some states/areas the yellow lines for both the street and the crosswalks were a designate for a school zone.  Most photos from the '50s I recall seeing have white for the crosswalks and street.

Ron

In connection with our renovation project last spring, we used black asphalt shingles for our new roads. You cannot see the seams. Here is a photo of how they look.

Ed,

Did some additional research, do a search on the web for Model Railroading Street Construction and Model Railroading 1950's Street Construction and click on images,different views of roads some black and white and color. If you are considering concrete, Floquil Pollyscale Aged Concrete is work a look for a weathered road.

Presumably in PA, Ed?

Interstates - concrete.  Rest - blacktop.  Floquil Dark Lark Grey might be close, but fresh road would be darker.  Probably greyed out quickly given traffic, etc.

Guys,

What about sewer drains and manhole covers these were stamped with the township! But don"t forget do not include curb cuts at corners as those were added in the 70's when the ADA rules went into effect.

Back in the good old days, the thinking was just asphalt everything, with no regard for weather. After a time, asphalt would buckle with the change of seasons, until rubber spacers were added. The good old days! Often, if a tree came up from a storm or growth would commonly create concrete ramps into thin air or as I liked to call it a "wheelie bump" in the early sixties I used to ride these way before Easy Rider! Until someone thought of suing the township!

Quite bumpy and fun! lots of stuff to do outside those were the days before cable TV and video games...... Etch a Sketch and Creepie Crawlies were the rage!

I remember being out after dark at night any night as a kid! Those were the days of Lego Logs and Erector sets and fireworks!

Makes me want to go back so bad!

Mike Maurice

Depends on the aggregate used in the area.  Limestone is very common and tends to lighten as surface binder material is worn off.  I have seen red aggregate in some areas. A lot of sandstone was also used in PA for secondary roads. More cost effective???    Sandstone aggregate varies in color with red and yellows in the mix.

I experimented a lot with paints: most of my city streets and country roads are 'Streets (Superstreets or E-Z Street) and I painted them to look more realistic (the vehcile wheels never touch the plastic road surface, only the metal rails, so the paint never wears).

I use Rustoleum brush-on oil-based flat paints and mix these colors.  I've made my road paint using pint cans, in all cases flat white as the base. 

I mix in trace amounts of other colors using eyedroppers: I have several to use at one time so I can work with different colors but I clean them out afterwards by running paint thinner through them. 

Newer asphalt: an mixture of white and black, with predominately white - even 80/20 white/black is very dark.  A little black goes a loooong way.  Brand new asphalt is nearly black but it quickly weathers to a sooty charcoal gray and then fades from there.  It takes a lot of white to dent the blackness even a bit.  I'd recommend starting with 1/4 pint white in a mixing container, and carefully adding a tiny bit of black until you get the dark shade you want.  Then, knowing the proportions that work, mix in the rest of the white and add the black proportionally to get the entire batch.  

Aged asphalt (five years old) is not really black, at least not around NC where I live.  I use flat white (half a pint) to which I add: about two to five drops of purple (yes, really - or a maybe one drop each of blue and red if no purple), about ten drops of brown, and four to twenty drops of black: the more black the less aged it is.  

Concrete: I make concrete color with flat white and add a tiny bit of brown and maybe one drop of black per half a pint.  New concrete is nearly white and as it ages it "browns out" more than darkens.

I should weather my roads a lot more for a more realistic look but I can't bring myself to mar them too much.  I do make the sidewalks uneven as for broken concrete in places (near rear axle of the red Healey) and put oil stains in parking places and litter in the gutters, however.  

Im using fun foam from Hobby Lobby

Lee, that was excellent info...your street looks quite realistic.

Bob

I do what Bob does, except I coat the foam with tinted Durhams Water Putty. I paint it a very weathered asphalt look (Mix is close to what Lee describes above). I use that because it seems close to the road color I can find from photos from the 1950s.  To get the photos of just about any type of road, go to a truck enthusiasts site, like Fred Gruins Pictures in Hanks truck Pictures:

http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/gruin.htm

I then let it flex slightly, which causes cracks that look very natural. Because they are

I know that into the 1960's, Philadelphia still had cobblestone streets anywhere there were tracks running through them.  Eventually, the cobblestone was removed from the outer rails and replaced with asphalt.  The cobblestone between the rails remained into the early 70's and was then replaced with concrete where tracks still ran with traffic and traditional tie and ballast where separated from traffic.  This is how Delaware Avenue and the dock area was anyway.

Fred

Thanks for the input guys.  I'm going to try for an aged asphalt and hopefully get something that looks almost as good as John Sethian's

Ed Rappe

I don't remember, did they drive on the left side in the 50's?

Those are very well done roads, John.

Care to elaborate?   Road looks really nice.

Bob

You may want to check out roofing paper (felt).  You can find it at any hardware or home improvement store.  It is almost exactly the right color for asphalt and if you apply dry plaster (dust it on), you can get a very realistic effect.  I did this on a previous layout but it seems I didn't take pictures..  It is fast, cheap, and comes out great.

Alan

I grew up in Western PA in a town that was established originally around 1820.   It grew and the street I lived on was built up around WW I 1910-1920.

We had a lot of cobble stone streets in the older residential sections.   These looked like large bricks but we called them cobble stones.    The newer or rebuilt downtown streets were concrete after they removed and paved over the streetcar tracks.    Pittsburgh still had some cobblestone streets.   

Concrete was very common on the newer stuff but roads were mostly 2 lane.  

Asphault as we see it today was not so common as I remember.   I don't remember it at all.    I remember "Macadam" which was like a tar/asphalt type stuff with a lot of gravel rolled into it.    It was not black but sort of medium gray with the gravel stones very clearly visible.   this was common on country roads and often did not have lines in the center.

Edge lines were pretty rare, I don't remember them either.  

On Dirt roads in SW PA, they were often covered with "Red-dog".   this was mine slag that was very reddish and very mixed pieces from 1/2 inch diamter up to 2-3 inch diameter.    It was rough too, not smooth llike gravel.

I remember them patching holes in concrete or macadam with "Tar".    This was black tar I guess.   It had no stones in it like asphault.    On hot days it would get soft and you could leave prints in it or tire tracks.    It usually did not stick to your shoes unless it was very hot and fairly new.