Unfitted dia 1/146 21t HTO Coal Hoppers

One of our current rolling stock expansion themes for Train Simulator are the British Railways 21t Coal Hoppers. One of the last variations built has already been released in the form of the Rebodied dia. 1/146 HTV 21t Coal Hoppers.

Today we're looking back to a much earlier part of the story with the unfitted version of the dia. 1/146 hoppers which made up the majority of the wagons built to this diagram complete with the original style of body with five strengthening ribs and plain axleboxes.

Like most coal wagons these hoppers worked hard and were subject to corrosion from the acidic nature of the coal that they carried. As a consequence we have prepared various levels of distress to allow the hoppers to created a varied rake of wagons. The hoppers also feature a number of different lettering styles which are applied at random but can be overriden to one of your choice should you desire.

Given that the wagons were unbraked they were not fitted with lamp brackets to carry a tail lamp as they were never envisaged to be at the rear of the train. Therefore, to allow users to be able to form correctly marshalled trains we will be bundling a dia. 1/506 unfitted brake van that we previewed in our 'Bonus Brake Vans - Part 1' blog post a while ago.

Weathered rebodied dia. 1/146 HTV Hoppers

We showed off some pictures of the clean rebodied dia. 1/146 21t hoppers a few days ago. To bring the story of this pack up-to-date it seemed only fair to publish some pictures of the weathered ones too.

As can be seen from the pictures, time in traffic has effected the wagons in different ways and especially the degree to which the paint has changed and faded. From top to bottom we have: freight brown hopper with black under-frame; freight brown hopper with brown under-frame and a maroon hopper with black under-frame.

In the last two pictures you can also glimpse the randomised load profiles that have been added to these wagons.

Freshly Rebodied Common Hoppers

A while ago we showed you some work in progress renders of a rebodied dia. 1/146 21t coal hopper. As can be seen from these pictures they have progressed nicely and are currently undergoing QA with Dovetail Games as one of our range of wagons under development for Marketplace.

The pictures show three different livery variations that the hoppers received no doubt due to the long rebodying program and the fact that a number of different workshops with possibly their own understanding of things were involved! From top to bottom we have, freight brown with black under frame and running gear; freight brown with brown under frame and black running gear and finally maroon with black under frame and running gear.

If you'd like to read a touch more about the 21t hoppers and their rebodying take a look at this post: Rebodied HTV Render

Rebodied HTV Render

Carrying on our series of blog posts with renders showing new models in production we're excited to be revealing this re-bodied dia. 1/146 coal hopper.

Diagram 1/146 started to appear in about 1952 and with its BR style hand brake, Morton brakes and welded body can be considered to be the standard design of 21T coal hopper. This is further reinforced when you consider that some 17000 wagons were constructed.

However, carrying coal in any type of steel wagon has one big problem, corrosion. This was originally dealt with but cutting out corroded sections and welding in new metal. By the late 1960's this approach had been generally superseded by the process of replacing the whole body. From 1971 to 1978 a major re-bodying program took place with larger numbers of wagons from all diagrams receiving a new style of welded body with two ribs on each side.

Given their sheer number a many dia 1/146 wagons would have received the new body and this is what is featured in our renders above. Fitted and unfitted wagons from other diagrams were also re-bodied and some gained vacuum brakes at this time too.

Clean HEA Hoppers

These have been sitting quietly for a couple of days so it seemed a good idea to finally share them.

In a bid to increase the maximum speed of the HBA hoppers and following a number of trials the last 200 were built with Bruninghaus springs rather than the 13 leaf friction link suspension originally fitted which allowed the maximum speed to be raised to 75mph so the hoppers could work in the fastest Speedlink trains. The modification was successful and the majority of the friction link fitted HBAs were subsequently rebuilt in line with the last 200 hoppers.

The decision to recode the modified wagons with the HEA TOPS code was made in late 1981 which means that from 1979 - 1981 the last 200 hoppers and any of the early conversions ran with Bruninghaus springs and the TOPS code HBA.

The HBA set

The main models in 'clean' textures for the HBA hoppers are now finished. There are two different shapes, each in two contrasting liveries.

HBA/HEA Hoppers: Scenario TSR

This little gem came from the scenario builder showing a class 37 8N98 1032 Healey Mills - Tyne Yard as it enters a 20mph temporary speed restriction during its journey north.

This service forms one of the two scenarios to be included in the HBA/HEA Hoppers add-on under development for Train Simulator 2013.

HBA/HEA Hoppers: Darlington 1976?

Could this have been the scene at Darlington in 1976?

A class 08 shunts a train containing six brand new HBA hoppers recently released from Darlington ready for their first revenue earning trip. Part of a VDA van with experimental suspension can also be glimpsed at the left of the picture.

All the parts of the HBA/HEA hoppers for Train Simulator 2013 are in place and the base colours for both the maroon and Railfreight liveries are now complete ready for testing before having LODs created, individual versions created and weathered ready for release of the add-on towards the end of the year.

PEC-04: Railfreight Hoppers in Game

After quite a lot of tinkering to get just the right effect the (almost complete) master versions of the Railfright liveried HBA/HEA hoppers have made it into Train Simulator 2013. There's still a bit of texture work to complete, most notably on the wheels!

Each model sports five different variations of Railfreight logo and lettering which select randomly when placed in the game but can be further modified if required.