smoke stack adapter

[spla13]

helo curmudgeon, you spoke of a smoke stack adapter some time ago. i would like to know if there is one that will allow one to fit a shay spark arrester type stack to fit in a k-27? (the stack with the opening screen at the top) i know this is not correct but it looks great. thank you. bob.

[Steve Stockham]

The barrel of the stacks are not even close to being the same diameter. If you want one to fit a K-27 I'm afraid that you will have to scratch build the base. This is the "adaptor" that TOC was referring to I believe. The opening in the K-27 is going to be too large for the Shay's base to cover. (You might be able to add a strip of styrene to the bottom to make it large enough though.) The stack style you are referring to is the Ely/Thomas stack. Depending upon whether you can get one from a 36 ton version or a 38 ton will determine whether you will need the entire stack or just the base to be modified (there were different versions.) Hope this helps.

[Jon D. Miller]

Steve is correct. The spark arrestor stack you refer to will not even come close to fitting the K-27. 

The stack you describe is known properly as a Lima Diamond stack.  It may have been installed on the Ely-Thomas Shay but that doesn't make it a Ely-Thomas stack.

For example, the Bachmann item number 82498, painted unlettered, fifty-five ton three truck Shay came with four stacks.  Those stacks were the straight stack, Hunter-Radley, Ruston, and Lima Diamond.  So, you had a choice of installing any of the four stacks.



This is the Lima Diamond stack.  The little round object to the left of the stack is the base in question.  This base was supplied/used on the Hundter-Radley and Lima Diamond stacks that came with the 55 ton Shay.

Good luck is trying to adapt a Lima Diamond to a K-27.  I'll say one thing, if you pull it off the K-27 will certainly have a "different" look!

JD

[Steve Stockham]

Thanks Jon, I completely spaced the name of the stack! I have seen a Bachmann 10-Wheeler with a Lima Diamond stack in a picture that was sent into Garden Railways a couple of years ago. Jon's right in that it definitely gives the engine a 'different" look!