I arrived at a point on the layout where I needed water columns, eight of them.
Not being able to find anything suitable on the market the only thing to do was to have a go at making them myself.
Not having drawings at all I used pictures in books and magazines for reference regarding the height and length of overarm etc. The problem there is that the pictures can`t show you everything.
They were all built in plasticard using tube for the columns, rod for the overarm and microstrip for the flanges.
To put the bends in the overarm, i made a small jig to hold the straight section and using a hairdryer to warm the plastic, I bent the rod round the jig , going past the ninety degree to allow for spring back. It`s a case of trial and error in getting the bend right but the result wasn`t too bad and looked something like it should.
Various other bits of plasticard were added to represent what i think are counter weights ( but not sure ) at the right hand upper end of the overarm and also what I think is the water control valve at the base of the column.
To fix them to the baseboard I cut a suitable size rectangle in the surface and glued a piece of plasticard in it to represent a concrete base that the column would have been bolted to. The plasticard base has a piece of brass tube through it which takes the brass rod that`s fixed to the column base making it a plug in and removable when required.
Some pictures showed an overarm support ( a cable may be,with a turnbuckle in it I think ) on top but other pictures didn`t so i `m undecided on that.
i`ve not made the water bags yet but might try cutting up an old handkerchief and gluing that together to see what it looks like and as for the chain, I`ll keep looking, It`ll have to be very fine.
At the moment I`m making good the areas around the bases .
Once that`s done and i don`t think i can go any further they`ll be painted.
None of this would have happened without plasticard, great stuff to work with.
Hopefully a couple of pictures attached,

Cheers just now,

Jim.