The HRA Bogie Hopper Wagon is the next modern freight wagon to receive the Bachmann Branchline treatment and this model sports the vibrant red livery of DB Cargo. The first HRA entered traffic in 2017, being created by cutting down the HTA wagons, of which more than 1,000 were built for EWS to transport coal. With the phasing out of coal fired power stations, a new use for the HTAs was needed. As stone is far denser than coal, repurposing HTA wagons for aggregate was inefficient as they could not be fully loaded before becoming overweight, therefore shortening the wagons allowed the same payload to be moved with a shorter length train than if unmodified HTAs were used. To create the HRAs, one hopper bay is removed from the HTA before the two ends are welded back together, and these changes are faithfully reproduced on these OO scale models.

The ‘cut and shut’ nature of the rebuilds is evidenced by the weld lines midway along the wagon sides and these marks are captured in model form, along with details such as the hopper doors, handwheels and separate pipe runs. Each wagon runs on bogies fitted with metal wheelsets and comes pre-fitted with buckeye couplings – as fitted to most of the prototypes. Standard tension lock couplings which fit into the NEM coupling pockets on the bogies are supplied for optional fitting. DB Cargo’s bright red provides the base colour, against which the logo, safety warnings, instructions and TOPS information all in white contrasts. Buffers are also supplied as optional fittings, allowing wagons to be configured as ‘inners’ without any buffers or as ‘outers’ which usually carry buffers at one end only.

MODEL FEATURES:

• Bachmann Branchline OO Scale
• Era 9
• Pristine DB Cargo livery
• Running No. 41 70 6723 073-6
• Accessory Pack
• NEM Coupling Pockets
• Length 192mm