CEA Covered Hoppers [EWS]

Last week we showed off some pictures of the completed Loadhaul liveried CEA hoppers. This week it's the turn of the EWS ones.

Even though there have been some questions raised about the success of the CEA conversions it would appear that EWS saw some use for the small fleet of covered hoppers. A large number of them gained one of two variations of EWS livery either unbranded EWS maroon with stencilled lettering or fully branded EWS with gold lettering. In both cases a smart new retractable sheet in EWS maroon was also fitted.

As with the vast majority of our packs the wagons will be supplied with clean and weathered versions along with loaded and empty physics. These wagons also feature automatic body switching to take in to account the different positions of ladder and aer fitted with our intelligent tail lamp system.

Loadhaul CEA Covered Hoppers

A fair while ago we shoed some pictures of the CEAs under development. Today it's a pleasure to show off the final versions with updated materials and textures and a few other tweaks.

The CEA conversion was one of the latter attempts to find a use for the large numbers of hoppers that were standing around with very little to do. They were converted in 1996 by the shadow privatisation company Loadhaul with a retractable sheet that could be rolled back from ground level by attaching a windlass to a spigot fitted to the under-frame to allow them to carry products which needed protecting from the weather or may have had issues with dust blowing off in transit. Interestingly a thin corner support was added to the later build wagons at the time of conversion which led to a little bit of confusion at one point in the development of this expansion!

Some 44 wagons were converted and they appear to have had questionable success in traffic. Some commodities that the wagons have been noted carrying include Limestone, Calcified Seaweed, China Clay, Petroleum Coke and Chipped Tyres for use at Aberthawe Cement Works.

HEA Hopper Conversions: Sparkling CEAs

Time is always at a premium over the summer months with all those little jobs and fun family things to do! However, time has been found to finish the last of the models and base liveries to be included in our HEA Hopper Conversions expansion pack for Train Simulator 2014, a milestone marked by the completion of the CEA hoppers.

For a small fleet of hoppers the variation in livery and lettering they have gained since conversion, when they were a nice uniform fleet, is amazing. As a consequence the red liveries are a bit of a best fit compromise that gives the correct feel but isn't necessarily correct for every wagon.

The first picture in the post shows a red liveried CEA (one of the few converted from the early batch with central ladders) in what feels like a bit of an interim livery to spruce up the hoppers but still very much in the style of the original Loadhaul livery.

 This second hopper has gain fully branded red and gold livery. Even with this livery there is little standardisation in the extents of the red paint and the positioning of some of the labelling specific to the CEA hoppers themselves.

Moving right back to the start we see the completed Loadhaul hopper that has had a trip back to the Paint Shop for the application of the lettering that was still to be applied in the previous post.

With the shapes and base textures completed, control of the project now moves to our texture artist to add a little grime to the clean ones and to be distressingly creative with the weathered ones.

HEA Hopper Conversions: Loadhaul CEA

A freshly converted CEA hopper is seen in Loadhaul livery, fresh from the paint shop before any of the lettering has been applied.

The CEA conversions were an interesting conversion of the standard HEA hopper by Loadhaul to convert them into a covered hopper utilising a fixed flexible sheet with an integral system to retract it for loading. Some 45 wagons were converted and have been tried on a variety of traffics which have either been short term or less than successful! At the present time a number are in store at Tees Yard.