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HEP Mounting Plates and Comm/MU Boxes

by Northwest Rail Electric

Phone: (503) 231-4808 Fax: (503) 230-0572 E-mail
See where our equipment is located on a typical passenger car


Installing HEP as well as communications and multiple unit lines on a railroad passenger car requires that the connectors on the ends of each car be placed in a specific location so that the jumpers betwee the cars are able to reach. Northwest Rail Electric HEP and COM/MU connector mounting plates and boxes are designed to help this process by providing a pre-cut metal connector mounting surface.

HEP Mounting Plates

Northwest Rail Electric HEP Mounting Plates are designed to work with any standard HEP Connectors and COM/MU connectors. While we generally sell Clements HEP connectors, the other manufacturers all use the same bolt pattern so that these plates will fit any standard receptacle.

HEP connector Mounting Plate

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.

HEP Single Mounting Plate

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.


Comm. / M.U. Receptacle Boxes

Communications and MU Mounting Box

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.

MU or Communication Mounting Box

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:

Not pictured, but also available by special order: 1-HEP-0030 triple width COM/MU mounting box. Certain customers have found this useful for mounting a dummy housing for use as a holder for a COM or MU jumper.


See Also

Parts Required to convert a passenger car to HEP.

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.


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