Wanting to keep a natural look to the railway I decided to utilize water features rather than building mountains and tunnels on the layout. I decided I would endeavour to have the train disappear behind larger plants or behind buildings to effectively make it disappear, and running water would provide a lot of visual interest to the layout. It was the right move as the ponds, rivers, and operating mill are visitor favourites.
Originally there were three ponds and two working rivers on the layout. Being so close to a lake I can pump water directly to the layout and have it return by gravity this overcomes the algae issues common to many recycled pond systems. The pumps run on timers so as to only operate during the day, and the water operations can be shut down if there is no one around to see it. July 2012 saw the addition of a new underground spring on the railroad and the addition of an additional creek. I directed the new creek in and out under one of the existing trestles and added a two arch viaduct. The creek empties into a 25 foot sluiceway that feeds a working waterwheel on a mill building. It is built from red cedar surrounding a plastic liner. The mill structure inspired me to add a mill pond and a small waterfall into the existing river where the mill sits.
I have five bridges that cross the running water including a five foot trestle built from cedar, a Plastruct truss bridge and girder deck bridge from scratch, and a short cedar platform bridge and an LGB kit truss bridge.
Originally there were three ponds and two working rivers on the layout. Being so close to a lake I can pump water directly to the layout and have it return by gravity this overcomes the algae issues common to many recycled pond systems. The pumps run on timers so as to only operate during the day, and the water operations can be shut down if there is no one around to see it. July 2012 saw the addition of a new underground spring on the railroad and the addition of an additional creek. I directed the new creek in and out under one of the existing trestles and added a two arch viaduct. The creek empties into a 25 foot sluiceway that feeds a working waterwheel on a mill building. It is built from red cedar surrounding a plastic liner. The mill structure inspired me to add a mill pond and a small waterfall into the existing river where the mill sits.
I have five bridges that cross the running water including a five foot trestle built from cedar, a Plastruct truss bridge and girder deck bridge from scratch, and a short cedar platform bridge and an LGB kit truss bridge.
Rivers, Creeks, and Ponds Photo Gallery
Here are a collection of photos of the layout showing the layout and construction of the waterworks on the South Bay Railway.