Thumpers

[jayc]

Anyone want to share memories of the Southern Region Thumpers?

 

[turbo mick]

Thumpers ah bring back memories when i was a guard on the Reading-Basingstoke line they were also used on salisbury and pompey services a big guards van with lovely heater a good work horse with EP,Westinghouse brake,We called them the REGGIES at Reading Depot 81D after our traction inspector who trained 3 links on the traction.

Only thing was in the leaf fall they could be a nightmare with only one power unit and if you slipped to a stand that was it assistance required.

They were known down on the east grinstead line,hastings,asford area also near the end.

Saw the green preserved thumper at reading last month

 

[SWT Driver]

The there was the Taddies.

They used to run on the Reading-Guildford-Redhill-Tonbridge line, routes 55 & 88, before the blasted WRecks DMUs took over, an totally retrograde step.

The line used to have an hourly all station service all day (last being 2333 from Guildford SX), everyday, good reliable as clockwork, then the WRecks took over & we got stink bombs instead, plus a drastic reduction in service between Guildford & Redhill, so that the smaller stations got just 4 or 5 a day (it's not much better now!).

But the thumpers, ah yes... Warm & oh so comfortable and of course that lovely thmp, thmp, thmp.....

 

[yorksrob]

Ah yes, the thumpers. Spending my formative years in Ashford, the journey on either the Hampshire or the Sussex units to Hastings would be the start of many happy times along the south coast. Can remember on the way back home from Brighton a dash from the Seaford CIG at Lewes across the station car park to the pub. then a dash back to the train from Victoria (another CIG) to Hastings, then fish and chips on the seafront before the final leg back on the DEMU to Ashford. Always liked the Hampshire units as the long bench at the end of the carriage was great for a snooze.
Prefered them before they inserted the CEP trailer (mainly Sussex but one Hampshire unit) But always an excellent journey. Sorely missed

 

[Oracle]

We had thjem on Portsmouth-Southampton 'stoppers' and also Southampton-Salisbury. The longest trip for me was Portsmouth-Westbury as they were used alongside the WR DMMUs on the services to Bristol.

Apart from the 'tadpole' units from Reading, there was a 33/1 + 4TC train or two..caught one from the bay to Redhill once.

 

[theblackwatch]

Probably the most bizarre service train I've had a Thumper on was in 1998 when I had 1001 on Middlesbrough-Whitby and back when it was hired by Northern Spirit.

 

[Matt Taylor]

http://matthew-taylor.fotopic.net/p52185799.html

Route code 87 was Salisbury to Portsmouth via Redbridge, this was in the days before the lines from Portsmouth to Eastleigh and Southampton were elctrified. Nowadays its a 158 from Salisbury to Southampton and then a 450 to Pompey.

 

[Drsatan]

, then the WRecks took over & we got stink bombs instead,

What DMU class are you referring to there?

 

[yorksrob]

Probably the most bizarre service train I've had a Thumper on was in 1998 when I had 1001 on Middlesbrough-Whitby and back when it was hired by Northern Spirit.

I wish someone up this way would hire it again.

 

[Drsatan]

Apparently Wales & West had to hire a few Thumpers in 1998 due to a shortage of rolling stock, which explained them turning up on Heart of Wales line services and on Bristol - Southampton trains.

 

[theblackwatch]

I wish someone up this way would hire it again.

Same here, Leeds-Knaresborough would do nicely!

 

[Helvellyn]

I think it's interesting that BR examined whether the DEMU concept was worth exploring for replacing the first generation DMUs. For those who don't know two prototypes were built, classified as Class 210. One was a three-car, and one a four-car. The latter had a composite trailer car, with two toilets.

The units looked like the original Class 317 BedPan units, except that have of one driving coach had the above floor engine compartment, with the remaining vehicles being trailers.

BR decided the concept was too expensive, and then we got the Sprinter prototypes (Class 150/0 and Class 151). If a fleet had been built, I wonder where they'd have been used, and if they'd still be in use today?

I guess for the Southern Region, the benefit of having DEMUs was that the electrical equipment was pretty much as used in the EMUs, just with the diesel providing the power rather than the third rail.

 

[fgwrich]

I think it's interesting that BR examined whether the DEMU concept was worth exploring for replacing the first generation DMUs. For those who don't know two prototypes were built, classified as Class 210. One was a three-car, and one a four-car. The latter had a composite trailer car, with two toilets.

The units looked like the original Class 317 BedPan units, except that have of one driving coach had the above floor engine compartment, with the remaining vehicles being trailers.

BR decided the concept was too expensive, and then we got the Sprinter prototypes (Class 150/0 and Class 151). If a fleet had been built, I wonder where they'd have been used, and if they'd still be in use today?

I guess for the Southern Region, the benefit of having DEMUs was that the electrical equipment was pretty much as used in the EMUs, just with the diesel providing the power rather than the third rail.

Ah...I remember reading about these...too young at the time...and at the time i pretty much found it rather bizarre...But of course if BR had found potential in the 210, then perhaps we would still have something very akin to the NIR 450 / Castle Class still running to this day, albiet with English Electric Engines and utilising a 455 Body running on a Mk1 Chassis...

Difference being, was the BR class 210001 & 210002 was a complete new build with Paxman 6RP200L and MTU 12V396 engines, whereas the NIR Castle Class are former 70 Class Engines - English Electric 4SRKT as used in the English Thumpers & Class 73s - built into a Mk3 cl455 Derived body on a Mk1 chassis...They certainly are very interesting units and well worth a ride on indeed!

Unfortunatly i have to admit that ive never actually been on a BR Built Thumper! But on a trip to Ireland & Northern Ireland this autumn, i pretty much spent 4 hours shuttling between Belfast Central & Larne Town on the NIR 80 Class, Again the same engine and traction package as the British Rail Thumpers, albiet built in the Mk2 A bodyshell... They certainly make for Interesting units indeed but suffer the same problems thatthe southern units had as suggested by turbo mick...albiet NIRs 12 remaining units, reformed into 3X 4 car units, have the power units running at the outer ends, so they dont suffer the autumnal weather as much...

And do you know whats on the sandite dutys aswell?

A mixed 'rag bag' pair of 80 Class's...

And if anyone is planning a trip over to NI, the 16:42 Belfast to Larne Town is usally booked for 4 car 80 Class...

So all in all i do miss them in a way, but personnally i prefer the NIR Thumpers to the ex BR units...

Sick NIR 452
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZp-voionLk

NIR 80 CLASS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIhLlwLx5zw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-ujFElSwN4&feature=related - inc diagrams

Having said that...the Southern Thumpers do sound pretty impressive when firing up on a cold day...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS3f0to-FyQ&feature=related

 

[4SRKT]

I loved Thumpers back in the day. I recently found a load of old photos of them I took in the 1980s in blue and grey livery. It was the last winter of the Hastings units, and I've a lovely shot of one basking in the sunlight in Hastings station 6" deep in snow!

Was in Northern Ireland last week, and went thumper crazy on the Larne line, now the last place where the discerning crank can enjoy EE traction in everyday main line use. Made 9 journeys altogether, totalling 161 miles. 4 journeys were on the only operating 80 class set, which is Mk IIb bodyshells. Lots of leaning out of the window as NIR on-train staff don't seem too bothered about this. Remaining trips on the more modern 450 class (see my avatar), whose engines were recovered from the old 70 class sets, originally built in 1966! These sets don't have a proper guard's compartment, but have a small section with a tip-up bench seat, originally used as overspill seating or a mail compartment. Now it's reserved for the ticket inspector, but on the last run he let us sit in it. This means the engine was just on the other side of the bulkhead, and we were sitting as close as it's possible to sit to the engine without actually sitting in the engine compartment! Wonderful!

 

[SouthEastern-465]

I can just faintly remeber them in there final year but sadly I have never been on one,Class 205 and Class 207 I think.

Originally they were nick-named "Hampshire"
and "Oxted" units before having the third coach added I think not to sure though?

 

[4SRKT]

I can just faintly remeber them in there final year but sadly I have never been on one,Class 205 and Class 207 I think.

Originally they were nick-named "Hampshire"
and "Oxted" units before having the third coach added I think not to sure though?

205s were Hampshire units, basically identical body design to the BR version of EPB/HAP stock. The 207s (Oxteds) were a bit more modern, having the jumpers and brake cables on the cab ends recessed in the manner of a CIG/VEP. They also have a slightly narrower body profile, which was presumably necessary on some section of the lines from Croydon and Tunbridge Wells to East Grinstead and Uckfield, and only have 2+2 seating. This narrower profile is really obvious in the example preserved at the East Lancs, which has a trailer car from a 4 CEP (I think) instead of the proper one. Frankly I think this looks ridiculous and the ELR would be better off running it as a 2-car set.

 

[90019]

This narrower profile is really obvious in the example preserved at the East Lancs, which has a trailer car from a 4 CEP (I think) instead of the proper one. Frankly I think this looks ridiculous and the ELR would be better off running it as a 2-car set.

The narrower body profile was because of some of the tunnels on the routes they ran.
The class 206s are known as tadpoles because the motor coach and trailer were from Hastings units (201s?) and the driving trailer on the back was from an EPB, which had the wider profile.

IIRC, the centre car of 1001 is the wider profile as well.

 

[SouthEastern-465]

Thanks for that guys very intersting to read

 

[Burkitt]

I travelled on the Thumpers a few times between Ashford and Rye, and to be honest I thought they were horrible trains. They were slow, noisy, had a poor ride quality. The interior was ancient and filthy and the windows coated in grime.
There were no corridors, except on the ex-CEP centre coach, which of course didn't go anywhere. Today's class 171s would have seemed like luxury by comparison.
Mind you, now they're gone, I'd probably pay good money to have another ride on one!

 

[SWT Driver]

What DMU class are you referring to there?

The horrid mechanicals, buses on rails as we knew them. I think they were Cl.117's.

Stink bombs, because they stunk of paraffin & diesel and regularly departed Guildford in a cloud of acrid smoke!

 

[4SRKT]

The horrid mechanicals, buses on rails as we knew them. I think they were Cl.117's.

Stink bombs, because they stunk of paraffin & diesel and regularly departed Guildford in a cloud of acrid smoke!

117s and 119s worked the North Downs line back then IIRR.

 

[SWT Driver]

Bloody awful things and their replacements are even worst the Turdos...

BRING BACK THE THUMPERS!

 

[yorksrob]

Same here, Leeds-Knaresborough would do nicely!

Or Leeds - Sheffield via Castleford

 

[jayc]

Back in 1996/97 I remember being in the car park of Sainsbury's Hampden Park and seeing a thumper named Ashford Faye with the class 411 carriage in the middle go past. And I travelled on a class 205 between Oxted and Uckfield back in the summer of 1997. But my best memory was this....

I remember around 2001/02 I lived about a mile from Pevensey & Westham station (with plenty of open space between my street the East Coastway line) and would often hear around 11.30pm the sound of a class 205/207 approaching in the distance and leaving the station, even behind double glazed windows! And if my window was open and the wind blowing in the right direction I could hear it faintly thumping away in distance from a few miles away for several minutes before. Lying in bead listening to that was music to my ears.

(by this time the Brighton/Eastbourne-Ashford International service had been cut back to between Hastings and Ashford, with about three early morning and late evening trips starting from or extending to Eastbourne (for refueling/night stabling?).

Final memory of the Thumpers was seeing as I passed Uckfield station in December 2004.

 

[yorksrob]

I guess for the Southern Region, the benefit of having DEMUs was that the electrical equipment was pretty much as used in the EMUs, just with the diesel providing the power rather than the third rail.[/FONT]

And longevity - bearing in mind some of the Hampshire units lasted over 45 years, keeping us going over that early 1980's recession and beyond - although according to Hastings diesels the original Hastings units were only supposed to be a ten year stop-gap !

 

[Drsatan]

Although I have no memory of the Thumpers, my dad once told me that in 1997/8 he went from Salisbury to Romsey on a Thumper (substituting for a 150 or 158) which had been put in service because of a shortage of rolling stock. Can anyone enlighten me as to what thumpers would have been used in the Wales and West region?

 

[4SRKT]

Although I have no memory of the Thumpers, my dad once told me that in 1997/8 he went from Salisbury to Romsey on a Thumper (substituting for a 150 or 158) which had been put in service because of a shortage of rolling stock. Can anyone enlighten me as to what thumpers would have been used in the Wales and West region?

Pretty much never in normal service. They were used only by the Southern Region, basically because they could use EMU technology and shove a power unit in. The power unit incidentally is the same as that used in class 73s when away from the juice.

Nobody else copied this practice except, bizarrely, the Ulster Transport Authority and its successor organisation Northern Ireland Railways. Lucky that they did, as a handful are still in service and are the last EE passenger trains still in service.

 

[43021HST]

Sounds like a lot of people have missed out on the treat of traveling on a thumper, I was a thumper virgin until Mid Hants decided to run theirs one sunny Saturday. It was a fun ride also I was sitting right next to the engine.

 

[SouthEastern-465]

Sounds like a lot of people have missed out on the treat of traveling on a thumper, I was a thumper virgin until Mid Hants decided to run theirs one sunny Saturday. It was a fun ride also I was sitting right next to the engine.

Is there one still in "Connex" livery or has it been repainted to BR Green?

 

[fgwrich]

Pretty much never in normal service. They were used only by the Southern Region, basically because they could use EMU technology and shove a power unit in. The power unit incidentally is the same as that used in class 73s when away from the juice.

Nobody else copied this practice except, bizarrely, the Ulster Transport Authority and its successor organisation Northern Ireland Railways. Lucky that they did, as a handful are still in service and are the last EE passenger trains still in service.

And quite a good few of NIRs are still running in various forms...Ie the 80 Class are still around from time to time and fortunatly now refurbished...And the long scrapped 70 Class are still running out and about...albiet now rebuilt as Castle Class - 450 Class....

As for Thumpers on the Western region...None from what i can remember have done such a thing, but they had been known to deputise from time to time on the waterloo to exeters...