I have seen folks use different techniques effectively. But perhaps the finest example in my opinion is Vic Smith's City Edge layout. It was featured in the 2010 Great Model Railroads from Kalmbach Publishing. He pours his streets with hydrocal in sections and then carves out the flangeways. Seems like quite a bit of work, but he achieves very impressive results. You can see the results in this YouTube video.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgzMcgGqnr0

Go here everything you need.

http://www.proto87.com/ho-exhibition-layout.html

DC Snr

At leats for modern diesels Vic's layout really is cutting edge visually.  Funny thing is, if you read the GMR 2010 Article, his track plan is all about train watching, with minimal switching opportunities.

As I recall there are some French modules in HO that are equally as good . . . wish I could remember the link . . .

Has anyone come up witha good way to clean the rails in street track?  I have had some pretty good success with pouring PoP to make the street track, but when it comes time to clean the rails it is a real pain.  Scrapes the paint, gouges the  street etc... I am working in N-Scale.

It seems that people in the real world forget that roads with road rails are not Lilly white and un-scaved. For the most part they are gritty dirty with oil, grime, dust & dirt not to mention scraps , chips and scratches. Unless your modeling Disneyland or some other fantasy world that gets re-painted every other week I wouldn't worry about scratching the paint. Besides If the product your using to clean tracks will scratch the outer surfaces it shouldn't be used to clean the rails. You should be using much less abrasive cleaners like pink pencil erasers cut and shaped to clean one rail at a time and used with care.

The rails on the white brick looks Toy like and until you weather it and scrape & scratch it up, no mater how perfect the track system is it will still look like a toy or someplace on a fantasy world.

Once it's weathered and made to look more realistic then cleaning won't be a problem if it's scratched while cleaning.

Dan

I use some type of plaster and a special formed tool.

More at my site.

Wolfgang

This maybe obvious but sheet styrene is also a good choice for pavement and way less messy.  1/16" thick material from a plastics supplier works for me me.  With my track laid on cork roadbed, I fill the areas between tracks with 3/16" or 1/4" plywood or even masonite.  I'll first make a paper pattern by by rubbing a pencil over the paper on the track. Once the styrene is cut and fitted, I sand it using  a 60 grit disc in a random obital sander to give it a bit of texture.  I have also seen where the styrene has been sprayed with texture paint to give it a gravelly like surface (this still needs a finished color overcoat).  The pavement can then be painted of the layout and when dry installed with hot melt glue.  The idea is to end up with paved surfaces a hair below  on the outside of the rail with the pavement inside the rail a little lower than that.

Random points:

The success or failure of this method boils down to the painting and weathering.

Walthers at one time offered styrene inserts for their track system.

Streetcars ran (maybe they still do) on something called girder rail. Some modelers simulate this by attaching a rail on edge to thier track rails.

Top notch craftsmen probably get better results with cast in place pavements.

Seanm,

What I would do in that case is precolor your PoP with tempra or other pigment to something close to the color of the finish pavement. Then if you should chip, scratch or scrap, it won't show up as an ugly white scar. I do that with my scenery to prevent the same thing when doing things like punching holes for trees, line poles, etc.

Great Ideas looks really good in the finished state

My friend Brian has become expert at making realistic looking paving for The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Transit Historical Society's portable traction layout.  The road surface here on the "city section" depicts a typical early 1940s scene, with brick street paving and Belgian Block pavers in the track zone, as well as poured concrete and multiple street patches with asphalt.  The brick paving is mostly sheet styrene, but all of the rest is tinted vinyl spackle that is embossed with custom tools as it starts to 'skin over.'  One unique tip is to cut the foam sub-roadbed pieces under the layout in a few of the places where you will put pavement joints.  Over time, the normal flexing and temperature changes will make ultra-realistic pavement cracks that are nicely random, but follow a logical and controllable path (more or less) along the expansion joints.  If you overdo it, a little vinyl spackle "blacktop" makes a realistic fix!  Parts of this trackwork have been replaced over time, so later "street repairs" just add to the realism.  The only problem we have had is with adult modelers, who just can't resist touching the street to figure out how its done.