Much like our railway bedding, the construction of our roads has been pea-gravel on top of landscape fabric. In order to get nice photos, like ones we've posted in "When Zombies Attack - 07-08-12" and "Tanker Truck Fire in G-Scale Land - 08-19-12", we had to spend over half an hour pulling weeds from the roads.
Though the gravel roads were a great place to start, I have been continuously looking for a way to replace them with something better. On yet another trip to Home Depot (I wish they sponsored our train layout, considering how many of their products
we purchase) I found rubber walkway tiles. Though they looked very much like asphalt, they also had a bevelled edge which prevents them from abutting nicely together. The table-saw provided quick, straight cuts but the rubber melted to the saw blade under all the friction. I tried tree-shears as well but it was slow work and the cuts were jagged. Scissors and knifes didn't work either. A hand-held jigsaw proved to be the best tool for trimming the tiles.
On the layout, I had to remove a 1/2 inch of gravel, rip out the
landscape fabric and re-lay the electrical wires to the buildings.
Even though there is some fine grading that needs to be done to
eliminate the joint spacing, I don't think the weeds stand a chance to grow through the new roads. I still have to do the line painting to indicate lanes, stop bars and parking spaces.
I performed a paint test on a spare piece of rubber trying: spray paint, liquid paper, acrylic paint and automobile striping. The advantage of having the road in 16" squares is that I can take individual tiles into the house to paint instead of laying on my belly outside in the dirt.
You have put in an awful lot of work. I hope that proves to be successful for you. Great pictures!!! It is looking good. Once you get the lines down of the road it will be fantastic!
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