# Need some ideas for making a river



## yellow_cad (Oct 30, 2020)

My layout is on the ground so my river right now is a small ditch dug out going from one bridge to another. I have small stream bed rocks and small aqua colored beads. I plan to distribute the rocks in the dirt bed and lay the beads to represent flow of water through the rocks. I am modeling Colorado in the 1920s so what I am modeling is a mountain like stream which is faster flowing water and not lots of it. I could go over the beads with diluted white glue or use clear epoxy, but I'm not sure how the epoxy will work with the dirt.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Jim


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

Jim, sounds to me like you are trying to mix what I would consider indoor and outdoor railroading. Generating a stream/river bed indoors using epoxy methods is OK. Outdoors the epoxy will be nothing more than a large single 'rock'. During a heavy rain the soils around that 'rock' may well wash out leaving a less than desirable look.

My recommendation would be to generate a 'dry creek bed' using all natural materials, ie sand, stone, pea gravel ... things you would find in nature. Gluing them in place may or may not work depending on the terrain you are trying to depict. You indicate you are looking for a smaller fast moving creek. I would model this using a bed of sand and pea gravel mixed with some larger stones placed somewhat randomly. The 'water' would be using your imagination.

A more common way is to generate a water feature with a pond on the lower elevation of the creek with a small pump moving the real water to a distribution point at the upper elevation of the feature. The distribution point can be simple tubing discharge hidden behind another scenery feature or elaborate like a water fall. There are many good articles on creating a water feature both in the forums and elsewhere on the Interweb.

Generally speaking, consider that if your railroad is outdoors, you will be dealing with all the aspects of mother nature that the prototype railroads deal with. Think about it this way, an 1:1 world rain drop could be a 3-5 gallon bucket in 1:24.

My thoughts, for what that is worth.


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## backyardRR (Aug 14, 2012)

While I would have loved to have a real river feature with flowing water, I did not want the hassle of seasonal draining not to mention the fact that getting electricity safely to a pump would have been a challenge. A dry river bed utilizing appropriately named "river rocks" fits the bill.


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## yellow_cad (Oct 30, 2020)

Thanks. Has anyone done it with beads for water that they could share a photo, etc?


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## BubbaPompano (Sep 14, 2021)

Planning on a similar outdoor project for my layout - appreciate the pics as well (thanks Wayne)!


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## bmwr71 (Jan 30, 2010)

I would say that your technique depends on what end result you want. The real flowing water or the dry creek would look realistic. The beads might be more stylized or whimsical.

Doug


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## KeithRB (Sep 25, 2015)

Small Glass Landscaping stones do pretty well.
They use it at the Biopark in Albuquerque even though they have a real water feature!

There is a video here that shows a glance:








Railroad Garden


The Railroad Garden is on a shaded pathway between the Botanic Garden entrance and the Butterfly Pavilion.




www.cabq.gov


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## GrisbyL (8 mo ago)

Another option would be to use dark contrasting fine stone or black lava rock for a symbolic stream bed.


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## JohnM (Mar 3, 2010)

After giving your post some thought, boy does my dry creek look boring!! 




  








7C605645-0A5E-4902-9DB1-048ED1ACC989.jpeg




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JohnM


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8 mo ago


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## yellow_cad (Oct 30, 2020)

I ended up using aquarium rocks from Petco and small turquoise beads and it does pretty good. I get a lot of tree debris on my layout so I do need to renew it once in a while.


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