Do you use a mirror to take a road "off" the layout?

Ogr had a article back a while showing a roadside tunnel going thru a hill. Also the article showed a switching situation in a industrial setting It was quite a while back but it was always something I wanted to try.

Well, it's not a road but I use a mirror to make my ice deck hold 8 cars instead of 4

quote:

Originally posted by Brother_Love:
I have a road that will lead into my backdrop. I was hoping to see how some of you accomplish that with a mirror. I am afraid the area that I will be using one will reflect straight back to the one viewing the scene..

Thanks, Malcolm

That is the problem. The mirror has to be positioned so that the reflection appears continuous with the scene and at the same time prohibits one from seeing their own reflection. That's tricky because placing the mirror at an angle so as not to reflect a person will cause tracks or roads to angle away unnaturally. So, really the best thing is to get the reflection right then restrict the viewing angle so one cannot look straight into it. This is usually accomplished by positioning scenery or a structure to act as a view block. Every situation is unique so you'll have to experiment to see what works.

Another alternative that someone posted here is to use a double track portal as the entrance to a tunnel. Then get a nice image from Google of cars emerging from a tunnel, or just a lit tunnel and glue that to the back of the portal. When you look at the portal it will appear your road keeps going.

 

The pic below is where I did it, and affixed the portal to the wall. It tuned out nice, unfortunatley I don't have a pic handy of the way it turned out.

 

You need to take two mirrors, and place them at the far end of the street, angled at 90 degrees to each other, situated like a V snow plow, with the "point" of the V facing away from the viewer.  It's best to use front-coated mirrors, or chrome-plated plastic sheet, so the viewer doesn't see the thickness of the glass, which would cause a seam down the middle of the road. If you can't find front coated mirrors, you can plant a traffic divider, with a tree or flagpole, right in front of the seam

 

This will create an illusion that reverses the left and right sides of the street, so that cars and trucks will appear to be facing the correct direction, on the roadway and along the curb, in the mirrored image. You can place a roadway bridge or some other structure across the street at the point where the mirrors are standing, to hide the tops of the mirrors.

 

This is the method that architects and model makers use when creating an architectural model.

brother love:  I found the article  using mirrors on a layout O Guage run # 196 Oct. 93. If you send me your mailing address , I will mail you the pages Thanks  Tstark      I tried sending you a e mail  but it was returned      

A head on view is extremely hard to do with a mirror unless you block the direct by having something higher in the foregroung that you have to look over, and have the mirror height stoplower than that point. You can mace the scene extend.