I know that there is a post about this already, but I want to use real water on my H.O scale layout for a harbor I plan on using the house’s A/C to fill it during the summer and a faucet to help. any ideas or someone who tryed it?
Although, it seems like a good idea to use real water, you will find that real water does not look like water, when used in a model railroad harbor. The color change from the surface to the depth of the harbor cannot be replicated with real water. The sides of any model vessel placed in the real water will be visible from top to bottom, whereas, the sides of real ships are only visible for a few feet of depth. Waterfalls of real water do not show the turbulent white froth illusion of plastic waterfalls. Even tinted water does not give the illusion of ripples created by stippling on Woodland Scenic -“Water Effects” in a rushing stream. I use clear plastic 2’x4 sheets with a verigated pattern, (that are painted on to bottom side), to replicate the tiny ripples caused by wind on a real harbor. Any motion of real water sloshing back and forth, follows the rules of nature,and cannot be scaled down to give the proper illusion. Experiment, before you attempt to use real water on your layout There are many MR books dealing with the “how-tos” of replicating the illusion of water in harbors and in rushng streams. At least get Joe Fugate’s Vol. 4 & 5 DVDs on Scenery, for $40. I got the entire set for $100, and consider it the best money that I have spent on model railroading. NO! ---- Don’t use real water! Enclosed, is a photo of a small part of the harbor on my HO layout. Note that I used clear plastic 2’x4’ ceiling tile, (with a varigated pattern for the scattering of light from a ceiling shop-light), as the water surface. By painting the smooth bottom side with blue-green paint. the plastic water rippled surface reflects light (as in a real harbor). My car ferry, gondola barge and tug boats are moved mechanically by a cranked loop of, (nearly invisible), monofilament
Matthew,
You aren’t the first person to bring up the idea; nor will you be the last. I think a number of folks will tell you that using “real” water on your layout is NOT a good idea. Reasons being:
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[tdn] It actually doesn’t look realistic in scale (too flat)
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[tdn] Water and electronics (wiring, metal parts, electricity, etc.) don’t mix!
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[tdn] Water and wood don’t mix!
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[tdn] Water and locomotives don’t mix!
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[tdn] There’s greater possibility of growing mold on your layout (not desirable)
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[tdn] Moisture attracts spiders
I’m sure others can come up with additional reasons. That’s the ones that first came to my mind.
Tom
Like Arnold said when he broke the tree limb over the Preditors head…Bad idea!
And it EVAPORATES in addition to the great reasons mentioned above! Don’t do it! This forum has plenty of threads to help you out in modeling water! Do a search and check 'em out…
Matt
Actually I have it all planed out. after a operating session I was going to drain it. I also plan on modeling the changing seasons arouund here. Ice would be modeled with glass covered in cotton batting from the sewing department of Hobby Lobby or from my mom’s scrap bin. I was also going to buy R/C tugboats to work the harbor. to move barges, ships, carfloats, exc.
Hey, whatever happened to the “Its my layout I can do what I want” philosophy that is always so prevelant around here? If this fine young modeler wants to use real water and has it all figured out, why put a damper on his excitement. Go for it, and make sure you post pictures of it, espeically those r/c tugboats!
It sounds interesting. Good luck with it.
Of course you’d have to add “snow” to all the scenery - buildings, streets, hills, trees etc. too…and in a way that would be easily reversible.
What scale are you in?? Seems to me to operate working boats indoors you’d need a lot of space even in HO scale, and I don’t know that you can do R/C with boats as small as HO or even O??
It’s still here, Jerry. If Matthew wants to put real water on his layout, he is more than free to try it. There’s nothing wrong with warning someone of the potential pitfalls of an idea though.
Jerry, you’re not becoming a yes man, are you? [:o)]
Tom
OK, first, to be clear, I wouldn’t do it.
But, I have seen one case where it seems to have worked:
http://www.tslrr.com/water.htm
One thing I think is clear, it is going to be trickier than you think.
No less a person than John Allen tried real water on his layout (in Squawbottom Creek). He quickly gave it up because the humidty rise in the train room (along with the other problems noted).
Regards,
Charlie Comstock
The first book on scenery I ever read back in the 1970s, written by Bill McClanahan, said it best. Nothing looks less like real water than real water. Amen.
But that was before we had dehumidifiers. And of course most people scoffed at the idea of the iron horse in the first place.
Go get 'em, kid!
Thank you. I was going to take a scale tug from like Wathers and add all of the electronic crap myself. Hopefully the sucker works. GULP
VS:
I was going to suggest that one, too. Wayne Roderick is a (relatively) unsung genius.
I had a real-water pond on a former layout. I never got the circulating pump to work, so it usually stayed empty, but it didn’t leak, and kept the water in its place. (I should say that the pump worked all too well, actually. It was a windshield-washer pump, and SQUIRTED water into the air. :D)
My pond was made of sand-mix concrete on screen wire. The key is to keep the concrete well-dampened with water until it is fully cured…the thin material dries out fast and won’t cure right if it is allowed to dry.
Of course the Reynolds number stuff ensures you can’t get scale waves and rapids, but real water does have a nice relaxing sound. Real water has been a despised and yet continually revisted undercurrent in this hobby for a very long time. I’ve run into the same pros and cons in some very old books indeed. It’s a bad, bad idea, and yet strangely compelling…
As for tug boats: there was a railroad in MR, the something something Railroad and Navigation Co., that had a huge TANK of real water, made of ferrocement, in which a ferryboat named Aleck Scott sailed. It actually ran on wide-gauge (about 7") rails laid under the murky-dyed water.
HHpath56 -
Do you have any close up photos of your ice skating pond? Looks good from a distance.
It is a bad idea on so many fronts. You can do to your layout what you want, but I strongly recommend that you keep water away from your electronics, plaster and wood.
David B
Hello silicone cauking and waterproofer
Don’t worry kid. Remember, people laughed at Robert Fulton, but he had the last laugh. Let us know the results. I might give it a try myself.