A I progressed the mountain build and built up the opposite side of the new area, I wanted to do something with the river that ran through the valley. A waterfall seemed like a neat solution to fill the space between the two levels , but again I wanted to try and make use of the dead space behind it. Cue a little experiment to see if the mechanism used for the bunker doors in the mountain could also be used to make a waterfall that parted in the middle.
I spent some time playing with different effects for the water before getting into the mechanics of it. There are far better techniques for building convincing waterfalls than the approach I took, but I had to make sure the surface stayed as flat as possible so it could slide and in an out. I added a lot of froth at the bottom using white and trans clear round plates and bricks.
The mechanism itself pretty simple. An input shaft with bevel gears turns the driving gears in opposite directions. Those gears mesh with 1×4 plates with teeth and the rest of the “door” assembly rides on top of small wheels to keep it from sagging.
I never did end up building a proper cave to go behind it, but its a neat little feature on the layout that I’d not seen done before.
