The HEA Hopper Wagons were introduced following the success of the HAA Coal Hoppers which were first used in the mid-1960s to deliver coal to power stations as part of the then-new Merry-Go-Round (MGR) trains. The first wagons were built in the mid-1970s as HBAs, but as construction progressed, the design was changed, and the code HEA was used for later batches. The HBAs were subsequently modified to match the HEAs and recoded, giving a total fleet of almost 2,000 HEAs.
The wagons replaced ageing wooden- and steel-bodied wagons, delivering household coal to local terminals and reaching all corners of the UK. The HEAs worked in both mixed freight and block train formations.
With the demand for household coal in decline, HEAs were used to transport other minerals, like rock salt, and many were rebuilt or recoded, for example some were used as Nuclear Barrier Wagons (RNAs) with their hoppers removed, or box wagons (MEAs) with new box bodies to carry a variety of bulk loads.