Without any kind of warning device, the local commuter train is likely to strike village traffic!
Shōgatsu has a road, or part of one. The as-of-yet unnamed village (suggestions, anyone?) needs a road connection to the outside world—trains run on only a very irregular schedule and often bypass the station.
Building the road was dead simple. I took a scrap piece of 0.5mm styrene sheet (have you noticed that this is my favorite building material?), and carved into shape. I used a bit of track to make sure that it would just abut to the existing curve to make a level crossing, and then I carved out a small piece of plastic to sit between the rails at the level crossing.
I spray painted the plastic white, then used a bit of graphic tape left over from a previous project to mask off the center line and the stop line. I then painted (with a brush; I was too lazy to pull out the airbrush, although I should have) the bits with a very dark gray, and after removing the masking tape, I drybrushed the whole thing with a medium gray. Then I added an oil slick by the stop line with a bit of Tamiya “Smoke”. I don’t know what this stuff is (it stinks!), or what it is meant for, but it is absolutely perfect for simulating nasty oily messes.
And that’s it! Instant roadway.
“..trains run on only a very irregular schedule and often bypass the station.”
LOL…but, that’s very kind of you to give the car drivers an alternative to your train system, but aren’t you putting your passenger service at risk due to the increased competition of this road?
And how prototypical is it that your passenger service is not stopping at the station? That does not sound very Japanese to me!
Seriously though…the road looks good!
Ah, but most trains that I run are limited expresses or rapids, and the nature of these services is to skip stations, especially small ones. And this station is the smallest of the small…;)