Footpaths....

[tramcar trev]

Chaps and Chapettes your opinions please...
In the attached pics you will see that I had found some "slate flagstones" to pave my footpaths with. Personally though I like the look and colour of this the scale is all wrong, the individual stones are too large. Of course the space around the stonesb would be filled with rammed dirt as per the real thing. I like the ones to the right that are rectangular and would make turning corners a lot easier but I think the colour is tooooo light.
I have broad shoulders so lets be honest, wadayathink?? Do I look for smaller flagstones or do I just asphalt the foot paths? Of course there is always the option of getting some real slate tiles, splitting down to around 5-6mm then running them thru the diamond saw into smaller sized blocks to lay.... Seems like a lot of work though...

 

[Nodrog1826]

Given the lengths you gone to befor, poles, ears, track, stone sets etc.

I think the crazy paving would spoil things, (you said be honest) the individual paving slabs look better.
A suggestion though, rather than cutting individual blocks, how about a strip, with the individual ones scribed on.

Hope you aint offended..

 

[korm kormsen]

i would use the rectangular ones.
they look more like a public footpath. the irregular shaped ones give it a touch of being a gardenpath. in my eyes, that is.

 

[mike]

just to be awrkward ..i think neither..the stones look too big.. the pavers look too regulare
i surpose it depends on the period your working on.. gravel? paveing stones(stone flags), would look best..

 

[barryw]

It's no for the stones from me they look to big and once filled in will look worse
sorry

 

[pugwash]

Going back to Mike's suggestion can't you get small square tiles on a mat used for kitchen walls that might come closer (and be easier to lay)? Like these but less gaudy:

If not I would go for the bricks.

 

[mole]

Sorry to say those stone's just do not look right at all prehap's they look bad is because of all the item's you have done before look so good.

 

[JRinTawa]

Hmm I agree with my learned colleagues above, the stones look way out of scale. I think I agree with Mike's succession of a gravel path. Depends a bit of course what footpaths use to be like around your way in the period you are portraying.

 

[Lobethalbahn2]

Despite the opinions of Northern Hemisphere centralistas, the colour of the smaller tiles looks about right. Check photos of most Australian cities around 1900 and the paths are all light coloured (based on a quick google of images from Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. While the precise colour is not evident, the tone at least is close to your rectangular tiles. Based on a couple of Adelaide photos (where I know the colour of the buildings) the colour of the stone paths appear to be sandy like the sandstone buildings rather than gray.

The photos seem to indicate rectangular stone slabs closely laid, similar to ashlar pattern stonemasonry. Maybe a little larger than your tiles, but proportionally pretty close. Even though most cities in Oz these days have concrete slab paths or asphalt, a lot of older areas still have stone guttering which probably also is a reliable guide to the stone colour of paths.

 

[Rhinochugger]

OK, let's think outside the box.

What materials are used for urban or suburban paving in the years gone by?

One of the continental solutions was gravel or hoggin. in this country we used Breedon gravel, nice pale fawn/yellow colour, especially in footpaths under trees.

Tarmac is much more recent, 'cos it's cheap to lay and quick 'n'easy - suits Councils in every way possible :thumbdown:

 

[Martino]

I'd go with rectangular bricks. That looks 'right' to me.

 

[Tony]

can you not use the rectangle ones but score a line mid way across to stimulate square paving / cobbles

 

[DoctorM]

Personally, I'd go for the bricks, there seems to be a good range of colour and shape variation - they are a trifle light, but I don't think that would matter once you got a lot down. After all you are using brass rail, and I think the eye just accepts that as what is there, and the same would apply to the paving, as long as you maintain your normal high standard of work.

 

[tramcar trev]

Well first of all let me assure you I appreciate constructive critism. There is a big difference between that and just knocking a persons efforts and not offering a solution. Secondly I do have to agree that the crazy paving is not appropriate.... I think I will go for the rectanguar blocks especially in front of the Cinema and the Pub and the remainder I will do in a psudeo gravel finish in a similar tone i.e. the "crushings" from the process of cutting the stone slabs. Every city in Australia was different, South Australia had a preponderance of limestone slabs (indeed there are still some around) Hobart was done in Welsh slate imported from Wales by the shipload, Sydney was either wooden blocks or in posh areas sandstone, in the suburbs gravel or dirt. Brisbane was gravel in the city degenerating to au naturel in the 'burbs..... I'm left with a number of possible solutions as I'm not modelling a particular location but there is a strong Sydney influence as that's where I grew up. So therefore I guess the rectangular limestone blocks that do tone in with sandstone will be ok. The snapshot of my layout is just before WWII, there were still single truck trams in the streets, there were still gas lights, in Sydney there were still steam trams. Electricity was still (believe it or not) somewhat of a novelty with houses of the period having a power point in the kitchen and one in the main room for the "wireless" the hear Mr Menzies say with a serious note in his voice "It is my melancholy duty to inform you...." Of course the Cinema (many of which had their own steam driven generators) will be a grandiose Art Deco example with strings of chasing leds and flashing lights....
Anyone want some slate stone paving I have 7 x 300mm x 100mm pieces that I wont use....
Thanks for the advice and critique, I do appreciate honest comment.

 

[tramcar trev]

Sorry to say those stone's just do not look right at all prehap's they look bad is because of all the item's you have done before look so good.

Ahhh a touch personal but does your Avatar charge by the hour and if so how much?

 

[pugwash]

can you not use the rectangle ones but score a line mid way across to stimulate square paving / cobbles

I think that would look too european, we still have 'proper' cobblestones all over the place - indeed a lot were so well laid they simply tarred over the top.
Sorry Trev, back to you

 

[tramcar trev]

I forgot to mention Golden Sq near Bendigo ... All I would need to recreate an authentic Golden Sq look would be a few sheets of gold leaf....

When the pics were taken the gold leaf had long gone...​

​

 

[Lobethalbahn2]

Here are some images from Adelaide, South Australia circa 1890 (Courtesy of the State Library of SA, used with permission). As Trev has indicated, most likely limestone slabs although gutters were often slate.

Australian cities in the late 19th / early 20th Century were very different to British cities of the same period for the simple reason they were brand new! Adelaide was only about 50 years old at the time. The first image does show the variable and smallish size of the slabs used. Cobbles are very rare in Australia, except maybe in the Georgian parts of Sydney and Hobart. At this time most roads were unsealed, although this changed after WW1. Australia had the third highest number of cars on a per capita basis (after the US and Canada) in the 1920s.

 

[Rob s]

Trev - the stone paving would poss look good in a yard area ?
for say horse drawn drays - brewery court yard - especially if it was well cluttered
Just a thought - poss not some thing you might want on your superb lay out mind :thinking:

 

[tramcar trev]

I really have no more space to use the flag stones, but the rectangular ones have grown on me and Ive been experimenting placing them in patterns but I think its either herringbone or brick, probably the brick pattern as the Herringbone looks a tad ostentatious and maybe "Modern"