Thumper Class 205 DEMU 

Happy days. Spent many hours working on these, including this very unit. If this set was a Berkshire, Hampshire, or Oxted, the engine would have been the 600 BHP type, with a Napier MS200 turbo. The Hastings DEMUs had only 500HP engines and Napier MS100 turbos. I was sad to see the old reliables go, and sad to see the equivalent units in Northern Ireland go too, though theirs were built in the 60's to late 70's. Don't be fooled by the BR Class 210 lookalike 450 class there, they used the traction equipment from the original 70 or River class units. All gone now bar a very few lucky ones. The 4SRKT was a damn good lump, and first used in Egyptian DEMU units in the early 50s.

The glorious old thumpers, I used to travel to work on these in 1988, the sound is great especially when you hear one pulling hard up a hill. The only locomotive I've seen where you could stand on the platform and see the engine through the windows as it went past. Those trains with revvy underfloor engines are very unpleasant by comparison.

Beauties. That sound. I grew up beside the Reading-Tonbridge line at Dorking, that had the Tadpoles, and the engine sound just flies me straight back to the 70s.I remember being in the guards van once as a boy and being quite scared to go anywhere near the engine!

I LOVE BIG ENGINES!!! worked on V24 Caterpillars for a few years but CANT BEAT thumpers, Sulzers, deltics, maybachs!!!

Thanks for the thumper video and don't you just love that sound!!😎🚃

The sound of the 4SRKT engines and that wining generator are music to my ears. I love these 'Thumper' units.

We had the English Electric 12CSVT & the 8CSVT Locos in the then East African Railways and i could straight identify the Napier Turbocharger image in the Clip. We never had the 4 Cylinder EE Engines in Our Railways Network.

I've just found out that the 4SRKT engine designation stood for 4-cylinder Supercharged Redesigned K-Type for Traction use. Cylinders were 10 inches (254 mm) bore by 12 inches (305 mm) stroke! No wonder they sounded so damned good.

It always worried me walking around engine rooms with the loco on full power. Legs out of bed,crank case explosions and flashovers etc. Loved the sound though.

I can see the romance with these. The screaming perkins 6 propelling the 166's that replaced these on my line are incomparable.

Always wondered what’s hiding in there! Brilliant video, great sound.

I am very impressed at how well you picked up the sound of this engine. It completely surrounds you with headphones. Gorgeous! Special microphone?

I live in Kenya and soneone told me to look for a market for 2 of these English electric Napier which were used to run factories. I didnt know they run trains too!!

What a unique video! well done

Great stuff, great demu.

Great sound

Awesome :D

Cool thanks for that

Excellent, enjoyed that!!!

I must have done a million miles on Thumpers, Tadpoles, Hastings. Why nobody mention the 73s? It's in the originals, still plenty knocking about with GBRf. Can't complain about the 73/9 though, progress blah blah.

Hi Mick.. You plan on attaching that to a quadcopter...lol

I couldn't really tell if this was a 4-cylinder or a V-8. If it was pulling 1k horses and a 4-banger the pistons would have to be HUGE PLUS! The D-7 Cats were 4 3/4 inch bore and 8 inch stroke and 900 or 1200 r.p.m. max and the old 8's and 9's were about the same. Thumpers too!

EE 4SRKT?

The engine appears low-revving and unstressed.

600 hp not 1000hp