Thamas the Tankl Engine has a “brake van” …is this a cabbose or a railroad car that has the compressors to power the brakes?
Ahh, no not exactly. In the not too distant past many British lacked continuous brakes through the train. In other words there were brakes on the locomotive, and a man called a Guard in the Brake Van had a hand operated Brake. So when the Locomotive Driver (UK Engineer)wants to stop he applies the locomotive brakes and whistles for the Guard to apply his brake. Of course their freight trains were fairly short and much lighter than ours.
John Beaulieu
My understanding is each car has only a “parking” brake, no train line braking system. The Brake Van is used to help the engine slow and stop the train. I’ve seen in the movie,“Von Ryan’s Express”, that every few cars is a little brake house of the cars. I could be wrong on all acounts, but I tried.
In the days when many British freight trains lacked continous brakes, at the top of an incline the trains would stop and the train crew would pin down the hand brakes. IF a train was partially fitted, the fitted cars would be marshalled at the front so as to make use of their brake force.
Now that all freight trains here are fully fitted brake vans are not very common. I think the only instances where they are still used is on nuclear freights, so that the guard can observe the train from the rear, and on one or two lines where the train crew have to open and close level crossing gates.