Pre-Grouping Roads

[Poggy1165]

Bit of an odd question this, so excuse me.

 

Does anyone know how a typical country road would be surfaced prior to WW1? I know tarmac was invented way before this, but somehow it seems too "modern" for a byway. (I bear in mind that Tarmac wagons seem only to have become common post-1923.)

 

OTOH I really can't imagine them laying stone setts as would be done in town.

 

The kind of road I have in mind is a mere minor thoroughfare, perhaps mainly used by farm carts, cattle being driven for milking, and maybe the local squire's car - not the A1!

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Macadam is what you are looking for. Good articles on line.

[Poggy1165]

10 minutes ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

Macadam is what you are looking for. Good articles on line.

 

Thanks for this. I shall do some searching.

[Caley Jim]

Most, if not all, country roads would be gravel, basically dirt tracks. There might be ruts from farm carts etc, but there would not be a 'ridge' in the middle, or grass growing there, as you would see nowadays.  The horses drawing the carts would flatten that down and prevent weeds growing there. 

 

Jim

[Jeremy Cumberland]

I think properly-surfaced roads (metalled/macadam, but not tarmacked) were common in pre-First World War Britian. There is an excellent account of a road mender in The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (1915) working on a remote road in south west Scotland. It might have been a main route (it is referred to as a "highroad"), but there was very little traffic; in the morning there was just the baker in a motor van, the county surveyor in a car and the narrator's pursuers (who did not recongmise him) in another car, plus a shepherd on foot.

Edited August 1, 2020 by Jeremy C

[Andy Hayter]

Macadam surfaces go back into the early 19th century.  Tarmacadam dates from 1902 and was discovered by accident when a barrel of tar fell off a horse drawn wagon on Man Tor.

 

My money would be on a Macadam surface - crushed stone with a neat infill of mud, horse dung and probably worse.  

Edited August 1, 2020 by Andy Hayter

[F-UnitMad]

A Macadam surface was also perfectly adequate for horse'n'cart traffic, cart wheels helping to compact the surface.

It was pneumatic tyres alongside the higher speed of motor cars that damaged macadam surfaces, sucking up the gravel instead of pressing it down. Look at the coats, hats & goggles that Edwardian motorists wore - it wasn't for show!!

[Compound2632]

There's been a long discussion of late 19th/early 20th century road surfaces, withe detailed discussion of macadam, recently in @Mikkel's workbench topic, from around here onwards:

 

[Poggy1165]

This is great stuff, thank you all. It looks to me as if I could get away with fine ballast, as long as it was laid with some care. And with some suitable painting/weathering.

 

To explain, I have it in mind to "lose" a river under a road bridge, but then it dawned on me that I had no idea what the road surface would look like.

[stewartingram]

How about looking at the Pendon model for inspiration?

[mike morley]

Photo albums of towns and cities as they used to be were widely available in the not-to-distant past and it was noticeable in most that the road surfaces were frequently almost white.  There were also frequent mentions of "water tarmac". I suspect there was a connection, but does anyone have any idea what that was.

[brightspark]

An interesting subject full of myths and misinformation.

 

I found this an interesting read and may help fill in a few gaps.

 

https://roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/ripley/

 

A part that I found interesting was that with the opening of the railway that it was the road system that suffered. I was always taught that it was only the canals. 

[corneliuslundie]

Yes, and according to another source I read recently the rise of cycling in the late 19th century led to improvements in roads which then started to deteriorate again when motorised traffic increased.

A related question. On my South Wales valleys layout set in 1912 there is a quite steep ramp from the road to the goods yard at a lower lever. Any suggestions for the surface? I assume not cobbles a#s they would be slippery in wet weather. Macadam again?

Jonathan

[Regularity]

50 minutes ago, stewartingram said:

How about looking at the Pendon model for inspiration?

Depends how chocolate box you want your layout to be, I suppose.

[Mikkel]

I'm copying these two references that @kitpw linked to in the Farthing blog. I found them quite useful, although they do require a certain investment of time to peruse!

 

On 14/04/2020 at 11:47, kitpw said:

Mikkel - I came across this https://wellcomelibrary.org/moh/report/b18039212/59#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&z=-0.3331%2C0.1089%2C2.5953%2C1.0141 whilst researching some local history (Wandsworth, south west London) - a long web reference to an even longer title but it's the annual report of the Wandsworth Board of Works for 1897.  It records (dive in at page 60!) various quantities and materials for repair/making up roads, pavements and kerbs (and some interesting references to the costs of steam road rollers and horses).  I noticed "toppings" (no idea, could be anything) and "shell", presumably crushed and still available as an aggregate.  It is also records the tonnage of dung removed from roads and notes that roads were watered in dry weather, sometimes several times a day, to reduce dust (His Dark Materials?) which is acknowledged as a hazard to health.  It's worth a look - it suggested to me that there was quite a wide variety of textures and colours in the Victorian road palette which must assist in modelling the period - mixed pink and yellow shell topping?

Kit PW

 

On 17/04/2020 at 22:07, kitpw said:

Mikkel - for the real enthusiast, there is "The construction of carriageways & footways ... Boulnois, H. Percy (Henry Percy), b. 1846." at   https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015062219434&view=1up&seq=1.  It reveals the extraordinary fact that some small stretches of road were paved with "indiarubber", notably outside the Euston Station as revealed in a cross-section drawing from the chief engineer of the London North-Western Railway Company (pages 83 and 84). I looked up this book because I was wondering whether the "crossings" were in fact introduced to prevent the gravel, shells and sand toppings from migrating too far from where they were put down - I couldn't find any reference to such a purpose so I guess they were "crossings" for crossing.  Boulnois gives details of their construction and much else besides.  I think I'll head for the workshop now and look at how to cut in a catch point where I should have put it in the first place - 

 

Curious what catches one's attention when the local library is unavailable together with pretty much everything else that isn't on line - although a hard copy of MRJ278 turned up today featuring Sherton Abbas.  It's currently quarantined on the hall floor.  

 

Kit PW