One of the key design features for the model railroad layout is a waterfall and river.  It just adds a lot of activity and interest in the layout.

I added a concrete spillway before starting the layout to handle the water coming down from the driveway.  The spillway ends with a drain line into the lake.  This created an easy way to creae a river.  I added a resevoir to store water, developed a diverter to push water from the spillway into the resevoir.  I then created an overflow so if the resevoir is full, the water will overflow back into th drain.

I also wanted to have some LED lights to shine through the water in the waterfall.  I wasn’t sure how this would look but I put 3 LED lights bars together bound on a plastic strip and then wired it up on the vertical of the waterfall.  We then layered mortar over the plastic strip, leaving the LED lights to shine out.  Still not sure if this will work but the colors and program of the lights can be programmed and we will work on that program later.

We added features in the river below the waterfall to allow the water to snake around before entering the spillway.

Later on I will add a sluice and a water wheel connected to either a lumber mill or flour mill to even make it more interesting.