SUMMERLANDS CHUFFERS
The Hambleden Valley Railway
Visitors to certain Garden Railway shows and Model Railway Exhibitions in the UK may well have been astonished by Steve Howard's Hambleden Valley Railway. It is 16mm scale and operates as a "terminus-fiddle yard" layout with live steam, slow speed shunting, using Roundhouse locos. Each loco is fitted with an SSP Slomo and a Summerlands Chuffer and the display that Steve puts on is truly awesome!
Here are Steve's Videos of the HVR in action and I have used his descriptions from Youtube:
Video first published on Feb 17, 2016
Hambleden Valley Railway - Roundhouse live steam 'Jack' shunting on Hambleden Valley Railway exhibition layout. Jack is fitted with a Slomo inertia device from SSP (Small Steam Performance) from Australia and a Summerlands chuff pipe for realistic operation and sound. Control is 2.4GHz radio from Lococontrol. The rear of the loco has had a coal bunker fitted that houses 4x AA batteries for the radio and servos. This stops the batteries from getting very hot as they did when housed in the tank alongside the boiler. This layout is scheduled to appear at Alexandra Palace on 24/25th Mar 2018 the 16mm show in Peterborough on April 7th 2018
Video first published on Feb 26, 2016
Hambleden Valley Railway and Roundhouse Lady Anne fitted with an SSP Slomo, a Summerlands chuff pipe and 2.4Ghz radio by Lococontrol. Seen on the other half of Hambleden layout from that in the Jack video. At 34ft long it is too long the put the whole layout up indoors. This layout is scheduled to appear at Alexandra Palace on 24/25th Mar 2018 the 16mm show in Peterborough on 7th April 2018 and others
Video first published on May 7, 2017
Billys first outing on the Hambleden Valley Railway at the ALSRM show in Reading 2017
Apologies for the background noise, filmed during setting up. Billy is my forth loco in the fleet and has been modified and many extra details added, how many can you spot? you should find at least 10.
It arrived in shiny green paint, but has been stripped, repainted and weathered and rebuilt. It has also been fitted with an SSP slomo and a Summerlands chuff pipe. The valve timing is off, but I quite like it that way.
Video first published on Nov 7, 2017
This is the third of my stable of live steam locos for Hambleden Valley. A Roundhouse Katie built up from kits with obvious additions such as an SSP Slomo, Summerlands chuff pipe, new running boards and new rear bunker. Apologies for the background noise, was filmed at the Solent G Scale Show at Wickham in 2017 This layout is scheduled to appear at Alexandra Palace on 24/25th Mar 2018 the 16mm show in Peterborough on 7th April 2018 and others.
Video first published on January 15, 2018
This is the fifth and final loco in the Hambleden Fleet. It is an amalgamation of an elongated Roundhouse Katie body on a shortened Lady Ann chassis. Added details include a new rear cab and coal bunker, new front running boards and other details. It is fitted with obligatory Slomo and a Summerlands chuff pipe. The initial sequence was filmed at home, but the later part was at the Chilterns Model Railway club show at Stevenage
Michael Crofts (of Perrygrove farm) sent me a great little video of Steve Howard's wonderful exhibition railway. In it he explains how Steve achieves the slow running, the precision control of shunting and......the Chuff!