Garden Railway Forum

Hi all,
while steaming my mss standard loco i heard a strange hiss and a drop in performance, on a closer inspection i discoved that the steam was escaping through the water filler valve. When i tryed to steam it again later on she spent the best part of 10 miniutes raising steam as most of the pressure was escaping through the filler.
I was wandering if anyone could tell me why this is happening and if there is a cheap way to stop this happening.

thanks for looking.

Sam

is the filler vale the type that you use a pump bottle with a short peice of plastic hose
If it is that type the valve has a small peice of silicon tubing that acts as the valve so replaceing the tube would be easy

I expect the silicon seal has gone like Graham said. Try tightening it up, or I can send a new seal to you...

Thanks......
I'll take it off and have a little look.

the seal is just a short peice of silicon tubing to cover the filler holes and relies on steam pressure to keep it close . simple but effective

Hi, had to look at one of your photos on the Unofficial Mamod Forums to check which water top-up valve you have.

As Graham (ACLR) has already stated you just need to replace the silicone tube on this valve.

I had one go in the same fashion, and it was caused by crud from the water getting under the silicone tube and destroying the seal. Cutting off the offending tube, cleaning up the face of the valve, and fitting a new piece of silicone tube (available at all Radio Control Model shops as it is used as a fuel tube, just make sure you get the right size as it comes in various sizes and thicknesses), solved the problem.

I use a small syringe to fill up my boilers using these water top-up valves.

Chris Cairns.