Can anyone answer the following two questions for me with respect to British railway practice?:
What are the whistle signals used by British steam locomotive drivers ?
What does “brake” signify in “brake composit coach” or “full brake coach”?
Thanks
The British don’t use whistles/horns to signal with the way we do in the US and Canada. Generally a short series of toots means “clear the tracks” if someone or thing (like animals) are in the way. Most all UK mainlines are fenced in, with gated grade crossings, so they don’t blow signals for grade crossings. FWIW UK engines generally don’t have headlights or bells either!! [:S]
“Brake” means it has a brake. Unlike the US, relatively few UK cars had brakes. That’s also why they call a caboose a “Brake Van”, because it had a guard who could set the brake in his car. Often the engine and brake van (or brake coaches) were the only part of the train equipped with brakes that could be activated while in motion…although some cars had a hand brake that could be operated from the side, so you could kick a car into a siding and someone running alongside could put on the brake (hopefully) before the car went too far and hit something.
As some one who lives in the Britain let me try and answer your two questions.
Whistle signals ; this is one of those “urban myths” British drivers(engineers) did not use their whistles except when approaching stations, normally close to the mainline stations of our cities,there was an extensive suburban network round these stations. You must realise that Britain is considerably smaller than the US and round our cities mainline, suburban and freight all shared the same tracks.
Brake. The best way of trying to explain this is :the term brake van referred to a coach that had a portion designed for the the use of the “guard” in the US "conductor they were placed at the end of a rake of passenger cars. They had side lookouts so that the guard could observe the length of the train. One of the reasons that they formed part of a coach was that there was a great deal of small parcel traffic on British railways. A brake composite was a a coach that was probably 1/3 guard compartment, 1/6 first class compartments and 1/2 second class compartments. a full brake was, the best equivalent I can give is an RPO.
I hope this has been helpful to you , but if you want further info please don’t hesitate to ask. My email is bmirner@aol.com
Further to my original post and seeing the first reply to your enquiry I have to clear up a few mistakes.
First all British passenger trains had complete braking systems, either vacuum or westinghouse(an air system). The guard in the brake was there to observe the train and to apply a manual brake if there was a problem. The majority of British freight wagons only had brakes that could be operated when stopped.So a “brake van”"at the end of a train had a wind down system were the guard winding down a brake wheel would apply the brakes on the brake therebty assissting the train engine.you have to remember that Britains railways are no as extensive as yours. All British freight stock is now air braked and we no longer have brake vans.
I do not garuantee that this is 100% but…
“Whistle” signals.
We must start withthe fact that there is a split between locos and Multiple units having whistles OR air horns. (I don’t know of anything with both). OTMs (On Track Machines usually have both regular airhorns for when travelling and sirens for use while working.
I believe that the first use in this country of two-tone air horns was on the GWR’s single unit diesel passenger cars (known as "flying bananas). This came about because they were express service cars and the PWay and others working on the track had trouble seeing and hearing them approach. They were, of course, used to steam engines making some noise at least… especially when getting a move on.
Whistles…
London Underground (Tube) trains have little whistles that go “pooop”. The 1st time you hear one you wonder what it is. They are run off compressed air.
I’m pretty sure that all the surface earlly electrics had whistles. I don’t know when they were changed. The original diesel locos probably did as well.
Steam locos have one or two different toned whistles. When there are two they either work together only or seperately only. They are not used like a two-tone horn. The larger/louder/deeper whistle would be used on the move and the little one for shunting and station “signalling”.
Use of the whistle (and horns) comes under three headings.
When anyone or anything is or looks like it will get in the path of a train then the driver will give an emergency warning… this is long and loud. Failure to acknowledge an audible warning (below) should bring on an emergency warning. A blocked opposite line will cause the Driver to
Oops! I covered more than just steam whistles…
… Part 2
“Brakes”
A brake composite coach is one that has accomodation for more than one class of passenger plus a Guard’s compartment. The compartment is usually just big enough for the gaurd and his paperwork. It will include a brake wheel for winding on the brakes on that vehicle only. It will also include a gauge for the continuous automatic brake and a valve to operate the brake. This will be “staright air” or “straight vacuum”… there is no subtlety if you use one of these.
A Brake 1st is the same with 1st class accomodation only. The same principle applies to a Brake 2nd, Brake 3rd or Brake “Standard”. A “BSK” is a Brake with Standard Class arranged in compartments (You can’t use C for compartments because it is used for “Composite” - which would be BCK. A BSO has open layout accomodation.
Some multiple units don’t have the brake wheel in the brake compartment when there is direct access to the cab from the compartment.
A Full Brake usually has a similar brake compartmnet for the Guard in the middle with either caged or open storage space on both sides. These are basically MTH “cars” with a compartment for the “conductor”. The only good thing about them is that they don’t have passengers in them.
Going a bit further to resolve some of the other replies a bit.
All UK trains carrying passengers are required to have all stock fitted with Continuous Automatic Brakes throughout. These must be brake tested every time the train is made up, the consist is altered in any way and before any journey commences - except where a train terminates and goes straight back out with the same crew.
Trains of passenger stock not carrying passengers do not have to con
Thanks Dave-the-Train.
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Did I answer the questions?
[:P]