by Chris Bird These fitting notes were originally on the Summerlands Chuffer website up until September 2019. Please scroll down to find your locos. The following locos are included here: Cheddar Samson, Reisa, Goliath and Hercules Regner Vincent Regner Lumberjack Regner RhB 3/4 Heidi Regner 99-222 Pearse Earl Pearse Leek & Manifold Bowman 234 Tender Loco Aristocraft Mikado Aster (LGB) Frank S Early Mamod SL1 type I have recently purchased both a Cheddar Samson and a Cheddar Hercules and have tried out the simple method given to me some months ago by Richard Page. I can now confirm that it is simple and quick. The smokebox front on Hercules, Goliath, Reisa and Samson is a substantial brass casting and the hinge is robust (see centre photo). If you are in any doubt about your abilities though, please leave it to an expert as we cannot be responsible for any damage. Richard Page's Method "I recently purchased 2 chuffers for a Cheddar Goliath and a Cheddar Reisa. According to your website there was a need to virtually dismantle the Reisa and quite a complicated amount of work for the Goliath. I have just successfully installed chuffers on both with a total time of less than half an hour's work for the two. All that was needed was to gently tap off the front of the smoke box. This can be done with a wooden drift on the false hinge on the left hand side. Slide the Chuffer down the funnel, mark the exhaust pipe 20mm above the bottom of the chuffer when the top of the chuffer is just below the top of the funnel, and cut. I used a Dremel which means the cut cannot be at 90 degrees but it takes virtually no time and the exhaust pipe can be supported by holding it with some pliers. Then slip the Chuffer over the exhaust; ensure the steam outlet on the Chuffer is well away from the side of the funnel by turning it to the best position. The longest operation was putting a slight bend in the exhaust to get the right tightness of fit. Push the smoke box front back on and the job is done. Wonderfully simple and a wonderful improvement to the sound of the locos." I followed Richard's method but would add the following suggestions
1. Before tapping the smokebox front out, place an old towel over the buffer beam and in front of the loco. The smokebox pops out! 2. Take it very steady and do not be tempted to lever it out. 3. Protect the boiler with cardboard before cutting the exhaust. Protect the top edge of the smokebox wrapper with some masking tape or similar as the Dremel chuck gets very close (or touches!). 4. Wedge the exhaust against the front of the chimney as it is quite loose 5. The cut with a cutting disc will be at a steep angle - this is fine. 6. Rather than bend the exhaust to get a tight fit, just gently (very gently) run a groove round the chuffer adapter with wire cutters, this just makes it grip (see photo below right). 
Zach Bond has recently fitted a Summerlands Chuffer (SCGP1) to his Regner Vincent - here are his notes, comments and photos.
"We all know the Summerland’s chuffer is a great addition to many steam locos - but Regner geared beasties? I decided to experiment and find out if the chuffer could successfully be put to use on my Regner Vincent. First comes the painful part - in order to remove the exhaust steam pipe which runs along the Driver’s left hand side of the boiler under the cylinder arrangement (without out totally dismantling the loco - though this is easily done), one needs to grab a pair of small side cuts (mine came in a box set of small pliers from B and Q for Christmas!) and cut off the exhaust pipe from inside the smoke box as close to the bottom of the chimney as possible. The smoke box front comes off with two bolts on either side. Once this is done the pipe can be removed by undoing the steam nut under the cylinder and carefully moving the pipe until it comes out of the hole in the side of the smoke box. Now you’ve got your pipe separate from the loco you will see that the rough cut from earlier has closed off the top of the pipe. One can rectify this easily by taking your side cuts and with very little pressure turning the pipe in the jaws. If one keeps turning the pipe in the side cuts applying pressure it should cut the pipe through eventually leaving the pipe circular and free of burs. Now test fit your chuffer, you need a general purpose chuffer to fit 1/8th pipes (SCGP1). Now the Germans doing everything in metric have left us with a bit of a problem, you need to file very little off the steam pipe and the chuffer should then fit really well. Take the chuffer off again and reassemble the exhaust pipe into the shoebox and re-attach on to the cylinder. Test-fit your chuffer onto the exhaust pipe and make adjustments with small pliers if necessary. I found I had to lower the exhaust pipe a little to get the chuffer completely inside the chimney but apart from that nothing else had to be done. Fitting the chuffer down onto the exhaust pipe can be a little fiddly but with small pliers the job is quickly done. With the steam nut under the cylinder done up again and the smoke box front back on a test steam is in order. Now this is a geared loco so a very slow chuff is not possible. Regner locos are geared down 6 to 1 so that’s 12 beats to one revolution of the wheels instead of 4. The result is a nice ‘chunter’ rather than a chuff but still with clear beats when running at sensible speeds. This reflects the characteristics of geared locos and really emphasises the charm of geared locos. Now not many of the Regner range can easily be fitted with chuffers. The Vincent is easy peasy as I found out however to fit a Konrad with a chuffer would require the exhaust pipe to enter the side of the smoke box rather than the chimney to give the space - a hole would be required. I am really pleased with the loud "chunter" my Regner Vincent makes when pottering round railways and hope that these notes have been of use to someone.
Here Wolf Schlegel has fitted a Summerlands Chuffer to his Regner Lumberjack. His Photos and notes describe the process.
"The photo left shows the materials and items used:
* first and foremost, Lumberjack itself * the instructions provided by Regner with the Lumberjack kit * the chuffer (leaning against the bottle with the blue liquid) and instructions provided by Summerlands * some tools * chemicals used for blackening the chuffer.
To make the chuffer less eye-catching, it can be
chemically blackened using the blue solution provided by Regner. Before
blackening the chuffer, it needs to be thoroughly cleaned as the oxide
layer produced by the blackening agent is likely to wear off otherwise.
Wolf has used benzine for this purpose, spirit and lighter fuel (or
thinners - cb.) should do the job as well.
When working with any kind of chemicals, always refer to the instructions for use and always wear eye and skin protection. The Regner diagram illustrates how to remove the smokebox door.
It is always a good idea to keep small parts safe, e.g. by putting them into a tin lid. Wolf still managed to lose one of the screws when re-assemling the smoke box door.
This photo shows the exhaust pipe in its original state. In order to fit the chuffer, unscrew the swivel nut and pull the exhaust pipe through the chimney. The photo shows (from top to bottom) the Summerlands Chuffer, a 6 mm spanner used for unfastening the swivel nut and the exhaust pipe with the Lumberjack's original chuffer.
The old chuffer is soldered to the exhaust pipe and needs to be cut off. In order to position the Summerlands chuffer at the correct height, the exhaust pipe is cut just below the old chuffer as indicated by the red circle.
Photo shows (from top to bottom) the old chuffer that has been cut of the exhaust pipe and the exhaust pipe with the Summerlands Chuffer fitted.
Insert the exhaust pipe through the chimney and fasten it with the swivel nut. After this step, re-mount the smoke-box door. Photo shows the Summerlands Chuffer as viewed from above. Due to the chemical blackening, is it less noticeable than the other brass items.
As with Roundhouse Katie, the fitting process has been straightforward and took less than 30 minutes. As with Katie and Riesa, the chuffer does what it says on the tin and provides a very nice audible experience."Photos and text (excluding Regner plan) Copyright © Wolf Schlegel, 2010
Regner RhB 3/4 Heidi Here Andreas Grund gives some note and photos on the fitting of the SCGP2 to his Regner "Thusis" loco. "Please find attached some photos which explain about the Regner Thusis loco (photo right). Actually, the "Thusis" is a Swiss Rhaetian Railway G 3/4, which is sold by Regner as "Heidi No. 11" in a green version, "Thusis No. 8" in black and recently as "Bruenig" with a few modifications also in black. It is a nice, powerful loco with good performance, however, it runs almost "noiceless". Therefore I added the Summerlands General Purpose Chuffer SCGP2. Fitting in the chuffer is easy, the original joint exhaust copper pipe has an outside diameter of 4.0mm (sorry, I live in the metric world...), so, the chuffer with 5/32", which is 3,96mm inner diameter can be easily sleeved onto the exhaust pipe in the smoke box. Of course, first the original Regner chuffer, which does not deserve such name needs to be removed - grip it with pliers through the chimney and pull it off with slight turns. The only real operation required is to cut the lower chuffer pipe by 8-10mm with a fine saw. As the photo shows, the Chuffer is mounted flush within the chimney, certainly it can be mounted a little deeper, either by cutting the chuffer a little more or by bending downwards the inner exhaust pipe. I also intend to paint the upper part of the chuffer with mat black to make it less visible. The overall time demand is approx. 5min and the result is surprising: Full chuff! Especially under load. I run the boiler with a pressure of approx. 2bar. A small investment which really pays off!"
For this loco the chimney needs to be extended inside the smokebox to give better resonance. This can be turned on a lathe as a press fit extension, rolled from thin brass or tinplate, or made using 21/32" K&S tube which is the largest sold in metal centres.
Using the 21/32" tube, cut one piece 50mm long and two pieces 18mm long using a fine saw. Clean up the cuts with a fine file or abrasive paper. Then slit both 18mm tubes with the saw or with strong scissors. On one of the tubes remove a 5mm wide piece.
Now push the two tubes over one end of the 50mm tube as shown below. Trial fit this in the chimney and squeeze the three tubes to make a firm fit in the chimney. If it will not fit, remove a little more from the outer tube until it fits tightly inside the loco chimney.
Steve Jackson and I have now fitted a Chuffer to his Pearse Earl - and it was a lot simpler than it looks! The Chuffer neeeded is the SCGP1 as this Pearse loco has a single 1/8" OD exhaust pipe which is crimped at the top. The first task is to carefully remove the steam pipes that go into the smokebox. These are just a push fit into their sockets and it should be possible to remove the lower one by easing it from under the water feed pipe. If necessary, the water feed clack box can be removed. Next, measure down from the top of the chimney to the top of the exhaust pipe inside. I used the depth gauge on a digital caliper, but you could use a rod and mark it at the top of the chimney when it rests on the exhaust. On this loco, the measurement was 14mm. Make a note of it. Now turn the loco on its side on a soft cloth or cardboard and you will see three brass screws under the smoke-box ( two of these are through a brass strip). Remove these screws and stand theloco on its wheels again. The smoke-box can now be easily removed. You will see the exhaust which rises from between the frames and is bent round the steam pipe. You want the top of the Chuffer to end up 5mm below the top of the chimney so subtract 5mm from the measurement you recorded (14 - 5 = 9mm) and mark this distance from the top of the Chuffer with a pencil or marker. Now if you hold the Chuffer against the exhaust with your mark level with the top of the exhaust, you have the finished position of the Chuffer. Mark the exhaust pipe with a small scratch at the bottom of the Chuffer fitting tube. Then measure 20mm up from the scratch and that is your cutting point - as 20mm of the exhaust will push into the tube. Before cutting, ensure by gentle bending, that this 20mm is as straight as possible as it will be a tight fit in the tube. When you are happy with it, protect the boiler with a cloth and cut the exhaust with a fine hacksaw or cutting disc. Use eye protection if the latter. Now clean off the burrs with a fine file and put a slight chamfer on the top of the pipe to ease fitting. Now push the Chuffer firmly into place - if it needs a slight tap, make sure you support the exhaust. If it is just too tight, check for straightness again and if necessary, you can shorten the exhaust more to give a minimum of 10mm insertion. Now test fit the smoke-box and adjust the pipe by bending the exhaust below the Chuffer tube to insure that the Chuffer is central and that the sound slot is not against the Chimney wall.
Pearse Leek & Manifold Ian Webb in New Zealand has now fitted an SCGP1 Chuffer to his Pearse Leek & Manifold - he reports: "Have test run the L&M and am very pleased with it. The pipe produces a very powerful chuff at reasonable speeds and at slow speeds with a good load it is most realistic and impressive." Ian's notes and photos are below:
2. Turn loco right way up and remove smoke box by sliding forward clear of boiler and blower steam pipe and lifting clear of exhaust pipe. 3. Cut exhaust pipe 54mm above floor plate. Clean and lightly chamfer cut and ream hole. Clean exhaust pipe above super heater tube to aid fitting. 4. Cut 5mm from end of chuff pipe. (This is optional but will ease bend round superheater tube) Clean and ream cut. 5. Work chuff pipe over exhaust pipe until top of chuff pipe is 104mm above floor plate. 6. Tighten bend of exhaust pipe round super heater tube until chuff pipe is vertical and central. 7. Re fit smoke box, ensuring blower pipe relocates in the smoke box union. 8. Loosely fit both cheese head screws. A dab of blue tack on the end of the screw driver helps. 9. Ensure smoke box is fitting properly and chuff pipe is 5mm below top of chimney. Tighten screws.
Very easy to fit. You will note in the photo that I did not reduce the length of the chuffer. I would recommend that this be done though to ease bend round. If you fancy improving the Chuff on your Pearse Earl, then click here for a detailed and fascinating account by David Pearson, detailing how he went about it and some of the thinking behind it.
Owen Roberts was the first to fit a development version of the Summerlands Chuffer to a Bowman 234. Here he describes the process and supplied the photos. which I am afraid were lost in a website rebuild many years ago Fitting a “chuffer” to your Bowman engine by Owen Roberts
The chuffer can ONLY be fitted to the 234 tender engines, as the direct exhaust from the port block on other engines preclude the fitting of a chuffer. Providing the nuts part easily this will take about 15 to 20 minutes. Should you decide to fit one the methodology is as follows :-
1.It is worth soaking the nuts in the cab floor, mid boiler steam connections, bogie nut and chimney base nut in penetrating oil about 24 hours before you start, the nuts are about 80 years old and may be resistant to being shifted! 2.Remove the burner from underneath the cab.3.Remove the front bogie to gain easy access to the chimney base nut. 4.Undo steam pipe joint at the middle of the boiler. Care is needed to undo this joint to avoid twisting pipework. Usually best to grip the steam pipe joint nearest the cab with pliers and use a 5/16th spanner on the nut which will undo towards the pliers – however do check that your joint does work this round in case it has been assembled the other way round. 5.Repeat for joint on other side of boiler, again the joint to grip is usually nearest to the cab. 6.Undo the chimney base nut which will hang on the steam pipes from the port block. 7.Undo the two nuts and bolts holding the cab floor to the footplate. 8.The boiler, cab and flame guard can be lifted clear of the foot plate as one unit. 9.Although it is not part of the fitting operation, take this opportunity to clean the underside of the boiler and footplate from the 80 years accumulation of soot and oil. 10.Take the chuffer and locate it over the two exhaust pipes protruding through in footplate in the chimney location. Support the pipes from underneath the footplate and press the chuffer down on the pipes. The noise slit in pointing backwards on my installation, I do not think it matters which way round the chuffer faces. (It doesn't but the slot must be clear of the chimney wall ) 11.Replace the boiler, cab & flame guard unit back over the boiler, locating the chimney base over the chuffer and through the locating hole in the foot plate. Ensure the steam pipes from the cab are located in the cut outs in the cab front. 12.Oil the thread on the chimney base and gentle screw the base nut a couple of turns until it is located. 13.Oil and replace cab nuts and bolts and bolt up loosely. 14.Clean and coat with steam oil the mid boiler steam pipe joints, do the linking bolts up finger tight. 15.Check that everything is located, then tighten up chimney base nut finger tight only, cab nuts and steam pipe nuts. 16.Replace front bogie and fuel tank. 17.Fire up your engine and listen to the change in sound!
A Summerlands Chuffer has now been successfully fitted to a 1:29 scale Aristocraft Mikado by Jerry Barnes. The following notes are based on Jerry's trials and numerous emails. All the photos are also supplied by Jerry. Although the Mike has a plastic smoke-box and stack, there is a fixed metal inner smoke-box and a removable metal liner inside the plastic stack. This stack tube has sufficient internal diameter (9.9mm) for most small locos, but the Mike has a big boiler and a lot of hot flue gas to clear. Initial trials showed that the burners would not light with a Chuffer inside the stack - so Jerry removed this metal tube and fabricated a new one from K&S tubing.
Fitting the Chuffer The stock exhaust pipe looks like this:
 To remove it Jerry suggests using a peice of 8mm OD K&S brass tube with a small 1/4" slit in the end and spread apart a little to be an improvised wrench. See top of photo below top left. An alternative would be to use a larger tube, but with the end flattened a bit to grip the nut
The correct Chuffer is the SCGP2 (a general purpose one which fits a number of different locos) which has a 48mm chuffer and a 25mm brass tube fitted that will be a firm push fit on the cut down stock exhaust. The total length of the fitted Chuffer and exhaust needs to be 83mm and I would suggest that you initially cut 30mm from the crimped end of the exhaust and clean up the cut end with a file. Test how firm it is to push fit - remember that any distortion or bending in the tube will make it very tight. Now adjust the length by trimming either the exhaust or the Chuffer adapter tube to get the correct length.
The Stack Tube Two versions of the Aristocraft stack tube are shown below. In replacing the tube, the aim is to achieve approx 12mm internal diameter and Jerry achieved this using K&S brass tube. He found it necessary to turn 0.15mm from one end to make it fit and then added a brass ring to prevent it dropping down. Jerry had pointed out that the need for turning down the diameter can be avoided by opening out the hole in the stack just a little with a Dremel or similar (or you could use emery glued to a piece of dowel). Jerry says that it is easy to do - but take great care - just a very little needs to come out! The piece of tubing round the outside stops it dropping in.
Here Stuart Timms has fitted an SCGP2 Chuffer to his Frank S (which he has also had modified in various ways, including fitting a Roundhouse burner, a gas tank on the loco - under one of the side tanks - and converted it to run on 32mm track.
Here are Stuart's notes, photos and at the bottom of the page, a video.
Stage 1:- Photo below shows the exhaust bolt/banjo connection under the loco. This needs to be removed along with the pipe work that pushes up into the waste oil collector.
Stage 2 :- The chimney needs to be twisted anticlockwise whilst holding the securing nut through the smoke box door. This can then be removed.
Stage 3:- The top exhaust pipe can then be pulled out of the top of the waste oil collector.
Stage 5:- A piece of copper 5/32 pipe that has an internal diameter of 1/8 needs to be bent into an s shape and cut to size. The banjo bolt and pipework need to be fixed back in place. This piece of pipework also needs shortening a little bit (mine was shortened by appromiantly 10mm). This part is a bit trial and error fitting into place then holding your s pipe against it. It all depends on how you have bent your s shape pipe. I recommend you get the s pipe fitting as low as you can get it. Then the Summerlands general purpose SCGP2 chuffer then slides on to the top of the s piece.
Stage 6 :- Screw the chimney in place to see how far the chuffer is sticking out. If it is to high, then the top of the s tube will have to be cut shorter. Once the chuffer is a few mm from the top of the chimney and your happy with the fitting. Removve the chimney and leave the chuffer in place. Now mark the top part of the s shape pipe where it meets the chuffer. Remove the chuffer and slightly ovalise the pipe by squeezing it with some pliers gently. This will make the chuffer grip the s pipe stopping it slipping down or shaking loose. Now the chuffer can be pushed back into place down to the mark on the s tube please see pic number 5 of the chuffer in place on the s shaped pipe.
Your Frank S should now look like picture below.
Stage 7 :- Now take the chimney that you have removed. And insert a piece of pipe to act as a chuff resonator 9.5mm/3/8ths in diammeter about 45mm long (thin wall). This will also need to be slightly ovalised with some pliers so it stays attached to the chimney. Once you are happy screw the chimney back into place with the securing nut held under the hole. See picture 6 for the chimney removed and the pipe inserted. And pic 8 of the chimney being pushed into place.
Then steam it up and listen to it chuff. If it is to loud. Just remove the chimney and resonator pipe and shorten the resonator pipe. then steam it up again and listen to the chuff.
Please watch the youtube video of my lgb aster frank s being steamed up and run (below). This engine also has been converted from 45mm to run on either 45mm or 32mm. A Roundhouse Pressure valve, Burner, Gas jet, & Gas regulator have been fitted. along with a custom made tank in the side of the loco body. Also a clack valve has been plumbed in with pipework to a brass tank inside the tender with a water top up hand pump. All work carried out by Larry Cheeseman. The video was shot by Bert Gascoine at Brambleton model railway club in Harpendon.
Early Mamod SL1 Type
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