Pacific Electric Thumper

dutchelm

dutchelm

Registered
Country flag
Several years ago I bought a HLW Pacific Electric Interurban thinking it was a tram. No matter which way I looked at it, it was a coach with driving cabs at each end. It wasn't a tram, sreetcar or anything similar & looked out of place on a street tramway.
Thinking out of the box I thought it could be converted into a DEMU. Remove the trolley poles & other junk from the roof. Add a diesel motor, sound unit & roof vents to cover the holes left by the trolley poles & you have a Thumper.
9c5993e409874ec4b5dbb2672628991d.jpg

035652c0b80e44769807c36c967ae207.jpg


For those outside of the UK Thumper is a nickname for some DEMUs built by BR in the 1950s. The name was derived from the sound they made, & this one sounds right with its Champex Linden sound unit.
 
Every Thumper needs a trailer to increase its carrying capacity so another Pacific Electric was acquired. Similar treatment with the roof. The hardest bit was coupling them together. My son gave me a pair of buckeye couplings from a large loco which seem to do the job. There is a fair bit of a gap between them which could possibly be reduced but there are some tight corners on the line.
4c50dda57ebe49b2bd1f8203aa92808d.jpg

bee528354379454b86972fcd64c9484a.jpg

There are a few more jobs to do like fit horns on the roof & a few mods to the paint work. Plasticote Insignia Red is a perfect match but that is made in the USA & may have been the original finish.
 
That looks great! You can really imagine it thundering along, we need a vid with sound!
How about a high output smoke unit, producing lots of clag! ;) :D
 
That's a great conversion.

As Duncan1984 said, it would be great if HLW were available in this country. Cheap and rugged - ideal for converting.

Ian
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top