In 2021, DB Cargo launched a major campaign, ‘Freight belongs on Rail.’ to rail industry stakeholders which coincided with the opening of a new freight terminal in Cricklewood, London. The campaign aimed to encourage a modal shift from road to rail transportation, especially with the continued construction of HS2. To celebrate the launch of the campaign, DB Cargo displayed at the Cricklewood site Class 66 No. 66004 in its colourful ‘Climate Hero’ green livery, alongside a freshly painted HRA wagon with the campaign slogan emblazoned on both sides of the vivid green livery.
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 this OO scale model.
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. The vibrant green livery provides the base colour, added to which is the ‘Freight belongs on rail.’ slogan, DB Cargo logo, safety warnings, instructions and TOPS information, all expertly reproduced. 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 ‘Freight belongs on rail.’ livery
- Running No. 41 70 6723 066-0
- Accessory Pack
- NEM Coupling Pockets
- Length 192mm
- Bachmann Collectors Club Limited Edition – 504 Certificated Pieces
