Stream

Fibreglass does breakdown eventually. The gel coat on the outside of boats etc does most of the weather resisting. Older boats are tested for water absorption when being sold.
 
I would guess the longevity of both fibreglass and concrete would be about the same??
 
I would guess the longevity of both fibreglass and concrete would be about the same??
Concrete is a totally different beast, though it can and does break down. Old Bridges and Concrete Buildings being a case in point, however this is mostly due to the effect of Rusting Rebar inside causing what is known as Concrete Cancer. Frost Heave could be a problem with small Water Streams such as we are discussing here. However thus far with my one at Hemel Hempstead 12 Years and the Ruschbahn ones around 10 Years and my first one in St.Neots 3 Years no problems so far with Cement.
JonD
 
The Roman's pioneered the building of structures and buildings with concrete 2,000 years ago and many of them are still standing....

David
 
The Roman's pioneered the building of structures and buildings with concrete 2,000 years ago and many of them are still standing....

David

Some are quite large, and do not seem to suffer with 'concrete cancer'??
Should we be building with more mass, and less steel?

There is a fibreglass pond in my parents garden.. Must be 30+ years old, and still going..
 
Adding a stream to your railway is a great feature.
I re-worked my railway some years ago to incorporate a stream, waterfall, pond and mountain with an LGB bridge modified to double track to cross over the pond. The sound of the water and the passing of a train is most pleasing and theraputic.

I used butyl pond-liner and underlay in one piece for the pond and the stream, expensive but no joints to leak.
The mountain was left standing for about 5 years until I bought the pond-liner and installed the waterfall and stream etc. Even after leaving the ground to settle for such a long time, the waterfall suffered from subsidence and consequently leaks. If I were to build another waterfall, I would base it on better foundations. The soil in my garden is pretty 'fluid' it always tries to find it's own level.
With the stream, I raised the pond liner at the edges using some old tiles and disguised the liner with pebbles and hoped that the adjacent plants would grow and hide the liner. In practice, this lead to water-loss due to capillary action and I now have exposed pond-liner at the edges. Again, if I did it again I would do it differently, either higher sides or different material to hide the edges of the pond-liner.
I had no idea what size of pump to use, so it was a stab in the dark when I chose a pump rated at 2500 lph (I think). This does give a reasonable sounding noise of splashing water. The gradient of the stream is about 3 inches in 10 feet.
Even with no leaks, there is a loss of water with the waterfall and stream so I now have 2 large water butts to replenish the water.

Alan
F7A-B passing the river.jpg
 
Wonderful!
Thanks for the information. Though I would class that as a river!;):clap::clap:
 
Hmmmmmmm! Thanks to all for the info, given me a lot to think about, I live about 50 yards from the River Tees, pity I cant do a small diversion!! Don't think Richmond council would like a new ford in the road though!!! If/ when I get around to pursuing the stream dream I'll post some pics.
 
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