HEA Hopper Conversions: Cut Down RNA

It seemed to be about time to have a break from pictures of coal wagons, so here's a wagon that used to be a coal wagon!

One feature of railway operation, which seems to have virtually ended now, is the use of barrier wagons to hopefully give some protection to the train crew should anything go wrong. Quite often these barrier wagons were empty revenue wagons placed at either end of the hazardous commodity being conveyed.

However, in April 1989 a design sheet was issued to convert 30 HEA hopper wagons into barriers for use with nuclear flask trains which were then the responsibility of the Railfreight Coal Sector. The work involved the removal of the hopper body, the addition of some extra weight and plating over of the hole left by removing the hopper.

The screenshots from Train Simulator 2014 show both sides of recently converted RNA wagons posing in the sunshine for the official photographer. The application of lettering does seem to have posed a problem due to the lack of bodywork and as such there are some non standard lettering features and no two wagons seem to be lettered in quite the same way which means we have had to go for a bit of a best average approach.