HEP Mounting Plates and Comm/MU Boxes

HEP Mounting Plates

This is Northwest Rail Electric part # HPMTGPLT. This is what your shop crew needs to weld onto the end of the car ( in two places at the end of each car for full Amtrak HEP compatibility ) for the connectors that carry the head-end power from one passenger car to the other.

Northwest Rail Electric's HEP mounting plates are laser cut, so that it will always fit the connector mounting assembly. It would not be possible to fabricate your own HEP mounting plate as quickly or as cheaply as you can buy these from us, and it will save you a lot of headaches.

• Northwest Rail Electric's HEP mounting plates are made from thick steel, which gives your connectors excellent stability, as well as weldability to other under-car structures.

• Installed and operating on several hundred passenger cars operating all over North America.

• Actual plate length and width is kept to a minimum, allowing for the maximum amount of flexibility due to brake wheel hardware, piping, and other car details that would obstruct a large plate.

• Meets Amtrak's specifications for distance between connectors, and is designed to meet Amtrak specifications for HEP on passenger cars.

• Northwest Rail Electric part # HPMTGPLB is also available. This has a 105 degree bend in the material that makes mounting much easier on certain passenger cars.

The above mounting plate is Northwest Rail Electric part # HPMTGPLTS. This is a HEP mounting plate that is designed for tourist railroad or other non-Amtrak compatible cars that do not need full head-end power capability. It could also be used to mount a HEP connector on the side of the car to receive yard power. For information on the various HEP train line configurations used in North America, please see our Basic HEP Information page.

Northwest Rail Electric 1-HEP-0027 is a double-hole mounting box for installing both multiple-unit ( MU ) receptacles and/or communications ( COM ) onto the end of a passenger car. Communications lines are required for passenger cars operating in any Amtrak train, while operating on certain Amtrak routes requires both COM and MU.

Northwest Rail Electric 1-HEP-0026 is a single-hole mounting box for installing either multiple-unit ( MU ) receptacles or communications ( COM ) onto the end of a passenger car. Communications lines are required for passenger cars operating in any Amtrak train, while operating on certain Amtrak routes requires both COMM and MU. MU would be required, for example, if installing a system on a passenger car that operates anywhere cab-control passenger cars would operate, or for operating on a system where a locomotive might operate on each end of the passenger car ( such as some locomotive testing cars do ).

In both cases:

• The mounting box is laser cut and welded, so that they will always fit the connector assemblies. Hand drilling is not part of our assembly procedure.

• Nut inserts are welded inside the boxes, so that mounting the connector receptacle onto the box is not extremely difficult.

• The Box Surface is a qood quality paintable surface.

• The box is built to satisfy Amtrak specifications for passenger cars.

See Also

A brochure is available in the PDF format brochures area of our web site that also lists the parts required to convert a passenger car to head-end power.