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: 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.

HEA Hopper Conversions: Loadhaul MEA

The last of the pre-privatisation shadow freight companies to place an order for MEA conversions was Loadhaul. These wagons were delivered after the acquisition of Loadhaul (along with Transrail and Mainline Freight) by a subsidiary Wisconsin Central, better known as EWS.

The livery of these wagons differs from others given the Loadhaul treatment in that they were delivered in all over black without the orange ends usually applied to Loadhaul rolling stock. The wagons are also notable for having a white band around the top rather than the more usual yellow carried by other MEA conversions to that date. Possibly these changes were dictated by the change in owning company at the time of delivery.

Our latest screenshot from Train Simulator 2014 shows an ex-works MEA wagon in tidy black and white Loadhaul livery posing for the official camera before entering service.

HEA Hoppers - Post BR: Long Lived Loadhaul

Continuing our exploration of the HEA Hoppers after British Rail we come to one of the unusual examples, a dirty Loadhaul liveried hopper that has survived long enough for the paint to fade and a bit of grime to build up. This long life has allowed it time to gain modern overhead warning stickers and have the end ladders removed.

Given the lack of information about the HEA hoppers and especially those that made it into Loadhaul colours this could be a bit of a might have been variation but at least it adds a little more variety!

HEA Hoppers - Post BR: Fresh paint Loadhaul

After showing you the Transrail liveried HEA for Train Simulator 2014 earlier in the week it's now time to give you a glimpse of the Loadhaul liveried version that will feature in our forthcoming expansion pack.

The Loadhaul liveried Hopper is a bit of a mystery as we've still only seen pictures of models but have a reference to a published photograph of a number of Loadhaul liveried examples in service.

With this in mind we've based the livery on the model and are prepared to add them to the expansion pack as they are more likely to have existed than not!