Dapol release new images of O gauge HBA & HEA coal hoppers

In 1975, the prototype 32.5 ton HBA (360000) was unveiled at Shildon Works. The hopper body was painted initially in Bauxite. 

An order for 2000 wagons to be built at Shildon was placed. Two small changes to the design were made. The ladders fitted at each end were altered from being centrally mounted to being offset to the left. Bruninghaus springs were fitted to later builds, allowing the maximum speed to be increased from 45mph to 60. This modification must have proven successful as a plan was put in place to retrofit the earlier wagons to the same standard. The TOPS code of HEA was introduced to distinguish these, with the last 80 or so completed by mid-1985.

By the latter half of the 1980s, the traffic that the wagons were designed for was declining, and new roles for the fleet had to be found, and an early example was carrying rock salt, while another was scrap metal.

Many HEA wagons were converted for other uses and the conversion process increased in pace and therefore number of HEAs declined steadily throughout the 1990s.

7F-047-002 HEA Coal Hopper Railfreight Red / Grey 360000

7F-047-003 HBA Coal Hopper Freight Brown 360114

7F-047-004 HEA Coal Hopper EWS Maroon 360354

7F-047-005 HEA Coal Hopper Freight Brown 360292

7F-047-006 HEA Coal Hopper Mainline Blue 360620

7F-047-007 HEA Coal Hopper Transrail Grey 360208

7F-047-008 HBA Coal Hopper Freight Brown 360626

7F-047-001 HEA Coal Hopper Railfreight Red / Grey 360104

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