brake-vans

brake-vans

related to : R:trains

  • Brake vans are similar to cabooses

  • They are often at the end of freight trains

  • Crucial difference is that former have just four wheels while cabooses have bogie wheels

  • Brake vans were crucial when trains did not have continuous braking. This was a time when trains were not allowed to go any faster than 40kmph because getting over the inertia to stop them would be a problem.

    • In these cases, brake vans would apply breaks at the rear along with the train. This is helpful if in case a coupling breaks and the train needs to stop ASAP

  • They aren’t really necessary anymore but Indian Railways still has themm

  • These cars house the Guard

## Guard’s duties

  • Use brake van brakes to control the train during downgrades
  • Use the handbrake to create tension when trains started, preventing couplings from snapping due to jerky motion in case the locomotive was unexpectedly powerful (this isn’t a concern anymore)
  • Provision of tail and side lamps to indicate to the locomotive that the train was still complete

## Indian passenger brake vans

  • Indian passenger trains have brake vans on either side
  • These were usually regular cars with a portion of it
  • A special feature of passenger brake vans is the dog-box, where passengers can carry their pets. It’s the guard’s responsiblity to feed the pet during the journey
  • The car also contains a stretcher, an emergency train lighting box and a pole to hold the light up

train-braking

In British railway networks, continuous braking was used only for passenger trains while goods trains continued to rely on braking from the locomotive and a car the end of the train called a R:brake-vans. These continued to run at slower speeds.