Boats running up and down river and how
 

Hi guys. New here so sorry if I'm wrong but I can't find any posts relating to my querie. What I want to do is have a small river thought my layout but I want running boat going throught it but how would I go about doing this

You could modify the "Faller Car System" to drive a boat instead of a road vehicle. The system uses a magnetic wire buried under the surface and the battery powered "vehicles" follow this. Whilst it's possible to get a boat to move I have my doubts as to how realistic it would look without the ripples and wakes it would create in real water.

There are plenty of Canal craft you can get but as prior posts say realistic boat operation is difficult

The only way would be a circular track with tunnels and boats fixed to a fake water surface complete with ripples etc. and then have a slow speed motor turn the diaorama

just a thought but I gave up with even the duck pond but thinking of re-instating one

I feel that modelling water can be quite difficult to acheive a realistic appearance; whether you are tyring to show a lake, canal, river or the sea - such as the quayside in the harbour.
Does anyone have a near foolproof method?

I don,t know how possible this is ,BUT what about a series on electro magnet arranged either in the water or along the bank .
? Then by using a series of switches to activate the magnets the boat would be drawn along (a bit like a linear motor)
I am sure that some electroniclly minded person could suggest a circuit that controlled the magnets to produce the "energy" to faciltate the movemnt that you require .
Its just an idea really but some one might be able to suggest a method of doing this
With very best regards Bernard (berjay)

When I was a kid I remember making balsa wood boats and the way they were propelled was, and I can't remember exactly but a piece of soda [I think] was fixed at water level and the action of it dissolving drove the boat through the water. Can anyone else remember that?
How you could incorporate real water into your model is another matter!