News from the Summerlands Chuffer team
New Website Format
At long last this website has a new format, thanks to my son Richard, and is now searchable and has working internal links. We have lost the embedded videos, but I hope you will find that the whole site is now so much easier to use. I will be editing and adding to it over the coming weeks and months so please do watch this space!
UK postage charges
For the last seventeen years, we have sold our Chuffers direct, post free. From the 1st May 2026 we will have to charge £2 postage for second class. If you would like first class or special delivery, please ask at the time of ordering for a quote. We have held the price of the Chuffers at £29 as it has been for the last ten years, despite inflation. I’m not sure how long we will be able to do this!
John Sutton joins the Chuffer dealers for 2026
I am delighted to welcome John Sutton of John Sutton Models as a Summerlands Chuffer dealer. As many in the UK will know, John regularly attends shows across the UK with his stall selling garden railway items as well as the smaller scales. John already has a good range of Chuffers in stock and these will appear on his website in due course.
Chuffers for the Regner Niklas
The latest loco from Regner, the Niklas, comes with two chimney options – the straight stack and the balloon stack. These are interchangeable, but it is best to decide before steaming up as the paint acts like glue when hot! It is also important to decide as there are two different Summerlands Chuffers. The balloon stack needs the new SCRG4 to get the best sound from the stack, whereas the standard SCGP1 works fine for the straight stack. Both require you to cut the existing exhaust inside the smokebox – an awkward job, but well worth it for the Chuff! A big thank you to Jason Novak of The Train Department for help in developing and testing the SCRG4.
New Chuffer for the Accucraft Peckett!
Better late than never! We now have an approved design for the beautiful Peckett – the SCAC58 which will be available to order from the New Year. Although I was aware that a couple of customers had fitted the Quarry Hunslet Chuffer to their Peckett locos, I had agreed not to produce one for general sales as it was thought the chimney needed to be clear to keep the loco from overheating. Thanks to help from Clive Taylor and Dave Mees, a new version of the 3mm Chuffer has now been tested and found to do the job nicely. It gives a soft chuff and, most important, keeps the loco so much cleaner!
The Chuffer for the Accucraft Rheidol is available to order!
The SCAC57, for the superb new Accucraft Rheidol is available to order. We have found that there is some variation in the position of the exhaust fitting on these locos. Where the fitting is directly below the chimney, the Chuffer is a simple, screw in job, but where the fitting is offset in front of the chimney, it is necessary to remove the smokebox so that the Chuffer can be fitted and slightly bent to centre in the chimney. This is not a difficult job and the resulting sound and much cleaner loco is well worth the effort I am told.
New Chuffer for Accucraft 13 Ton Shay
The SCAC56 Chuffer for the 13 Ton Shay is now available to order, thanks to a successful test by Andy Probyn of Accucraft UK. Early production models had some burner breathing difficulties, but this has been sorted for all production models supplied to the UK and so you can now add some serious volume to your Shay.
New Chuffers for 7/8ths Diana and Gauge One 43xx
The SCAC53 is now available to order for the Accucraft 7/8ths Diana and the SCAC55 is available for the Gauge One 43xx Mogul, thanks to help from fellow enthusiasts who supplied the measurements.
The Garden Railway Club
A few years ago, Google decided to pull the plug on the Garden Railway Club that a number of us had created as a free resource for the hobby. Thanks to some very clever fellow enthusiasts, this content has been saved – though it cannot be updated. I now have the links from this site to the Garden Railway Club working and am working through the long project list to add them. You can either click the links or go to gardenrailwayclub.co.uk which will take you to its new home. The contents are listed down the left hand side and there is lots to read if you have spare time.
Chuffer for Accucraft 16mm Large Quarry Hunslet
The slimmest Summerlands Chuffer ever, at under 3mm diameter, has been developed for this new Large Quarry Hunslet with its tiny chimney. The SCAC51 really does the business – keeping the loco so much cleaner and adding a pleasant chuff. I must thank Peter Ingall for twisting my arm to design it, and both Dave Mees and Ian Pierce for testing and approving it.
Free Chuffer design service
Since the first Summerlands Chuffer in 2009, I have offered a free design service for new, unusual or scratchbuilt locos. In the past month I have done four new ones and always enjoy the challenge. Do get in touch if you would like me to look at your loco – I will need some measurements and photos, but there is no commitment until you are happy.
Chuffer advertising
Each quarter, for the past sixteen years, I have been producing an ad for 16mm Today magazine, featuring photos from my railway with caricature figures from Rob Bennett’s Busybodies and ones supplied by Si Harris at Model Earth Design. Here are some recent ones:
A few years ago I ran one which said “Size Matters” because when it comes to Chuffer design, it really does. Browsing through my old photos I came upon this one of my little Mamod and, of course, when it comes to loco size, it doesn’t matter. Provided that there is enough space in the chimney, we can do it – just look at the new 16mm Quarry Hunslet Chuffers!
And I used the same message in November 2023, but this time with the large 7/8ths Edrig conversion!
And below are some more recent ones:
