Garden Railway Forum

One of my SL1s has developed a loose funnel It does not come off but gets wobbly when hot. Does anyone know how to fix it?

Hi Bryan - some sort of spreader tool is used to splay the base of the stack out at the smokebox end so that it holds in place in the main casting. At least that's how it looks like it is assembled!

I have had quite a few with loose chimneys and have had success by finding a piece of metal fractionally larger than the hole at the chimney base (or even a square section) and knocking it through. I hope you understand what I am getting at! This is done off the loco otherwise the exhaust is in the way - in any case you might damage something if you try this whilst the loco is fully assembled. Anyway - good luck with the repair. Hopefully you can work out a way to sort it.

I'd just like to say thanks for the tip, as I was wondering how to solve my issue of an SL3 "balloon stack" chimney that simply fell off after a short time on every run (and was so loose that I had to remove it every time anyway before turning the loco upside down for lubricating).

I had emailed MSS but they suggested removing the whole smokebox assembly to enable some kind of keyhole surgery mechanical fixing from underneath with the chimney mounted on the smokebox. It sounded over the top and this thread proved it was!

Took a small crowbar, jiggled it about in the bottom opening of the chimney, pressed it into the smokebox and hey presto! It stays on. Suspect I might have to repeat the process periodically, though.