Hello

I'm building a fairly large diorama for the Armageddon armoured train (in 1/72 scale)

The setting is late WW2 in Germany

The diorama will include some paved road

I need to know type of road surface might be used

I was looking for cobblestones, best I could find was irregular shaped stones in a fairly random pattern (see pics below, with a large truck and small car to show the size of the pattern)

can anyone who knows advise if what I'm thinking of using is possible or impossible ? likely, or unlikely ?

any advice appreciated





cheers
Neil

Our cobblestone roads usually have a regular pattern but I don't think it's that important if you use an irregular one, especially if you focus on the train. If it's left over from medieval times it might look like your street, but more modern roads mostly have a square or fan pattern.

Hi Momann

thanks for the reply.

I will have to try to hunt down some square or fan shaped cobblestone patterned surface, I'd prefer it be as accurate as possible. I might even try to make my own, but if all else fails I'll go with 'medieval' road surface

thanks for the help

cheers
Neil

http://www.stadtmuseum-ibbenbueren.de/fotoarchiv_bildergalerie_03_04.htm

This is a picture set from my hometowns archives. The town is industrialized, 30.000+ inhabitants even back then. The pictures up to the 1960s/70s are useable since major work on the roads was started only then.

Hello mmeier

their are many good pictures in your link, giving a clear indication of road surface types, and the time periods.

I had tried searching google without much luck

thanks for the link, it will be a great help

cheers
Neil

Considering the scale you can also look at model railroad accessories. They usually have nice cobblestone roads.

I'd like to piggy back on this question if I may...how were the roads between the towns and villages paved?

They could not have all been cobblestone...were they?
Were there macadam roads? or something similar?
I'm particularly interested in the areas that were Pomerania, West Prussia, and Silesia.

Thank you!

Road surfaces varied a lot. A lot of roadwork outside the larger cities was done in the 1970s so I still remember some older roads. Major roads where tarred like today and the autobahns where concrete slabs with tarred seams. Secondary roads where similar but with less sturdy underbuild so they could not stand as heavy a load. Then you got terciary roads that where hard packed dirt with a gravel cover. If well drained these roads are quite useable and still found for walkways/bycicle path in woods. And finally the last category was hard packed dirt turning to ancle deep mud

There are always exceptions. The access road to a mine was a terciary road but since heavy loads went there it was build like an autobahn lane. Same for the access road to Achmer airport

Hello

thanks again for the replies, its all useful information

I take it not a great deal of difference between eastern and western areas of Germany in terms of road surfaces & products used to make them in the first half of the 20th century ?

Similar cobblestone shapes and patterns would have been used ?

Looking at some of the old pictures in mmeier's link, some roads in town areas seem to be paved with what look like rectangular bricks, others with what look like "square bricks" which I guess are more accurately described as square cobblestones or pavers

model railway supplies will be what I am looking at, but very hard to see exactly how these look (when they are actually in your hand) when browsing the products on the web, so want to avoid buying on the web.

Not many hobby shops here & they are poorly stocked for this type of stuff, but I'll go hunting in the shops, or make my own, now that I have some photo references

cheers & thanks again
Neil

The page is in german but shows some more details.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pflaster_(Belag)

The show the patterns, some sizes and the more common artificial stones. Not sure when they started to be used and when they gaines wide use. One of the producers is around my hometown so they may have been more common here.

As to the differences: Yes they surely existet. Most of east Prussia was agricultural with a less developed road network than the Ruhr valley or some parts of Silesia. So most roads will be second or terciary class

Hi Mmeier

that german wiki link has the kind of pictures and illustrations I was looking for. Thanks for finding & posting it. I wont have any excuse for not having a correct road surface now

cheers
Neil