British railway brake van

Each railway produced its own design of brake van, and there was considerable variety. Generally, brake vans were kept within the owning railway, and when a goods train passed from one railway to another with the locomotive being changed at the exchange point, the brake van would be changed as well. From 1942, wartime conditions ended this practice, and brake vans were pooled; consequently, the Railway Clearing House designed a British Standard Brake Van, to be used by all the railways. Four were built by the LMS in 1943, which kept the first one for themselves and supplied one to each of the other three companies.[5] The GWR, LMS and SR did not adopt this, and continued with their own designs.[6]

British Railways, being an amalgamation of four companies, that were in turn an amalgamation of 120 railways, merged only 24 years earlier, resulted in a wide variety of designs for brake vans. British Railways in the years immediately after its formation, continued to use the various wagon designs plans it had inherited, gradually adjusting designs, such as using steel in place of wood. In February 1948, the Railway Executive appointed the Ideal Stocks Committee to make recommendations on "ideal" wagon and locomotive designs for traffic of the 1950s. The committee also reviewed the matter of brakes on freight wagons. From an economic stand point, the committee identified that it would cost £31 million (equivalent to £49.24 million in 2021), and that the results of moving forward would land somewhere between an annual loss of £1.2 million (equivalent to £1.91 million in 2021) to an annual gain of £1.3 million (equivalent to £2.07 million in 2021) The committee ultimately recommended further investigation into if fitting of continuous brakes to all freight wagons should move forward.[7] In time, British Railways settled on a set design for new brake vans going forward, a 20 ton design, based on LNER's brake van design, with a few minor adjustments, to the length of the stepboards on the sides for boarding the brake van, and where hand rails were provided. These brake vans,

Taking advantage of the fact that brake vans were intended to and usually required at the rear of trains, including those used for 'permanent way' track work, a specials brake van was designed that carried a plough on each end, to assist in spreading track ballast as it was unloaded by ballast hoppers. The plough could be lowered using a wheel on the platform on either end. The vans, referred to as 'shark' brake vans, were based on the predecessor LMS' design, using the LMS brake van design.[8]

British Railways would go on to copy the LNER 'Toad D' brake van design,[9] which would become known as the 'British Rail Standard Brake Van'.

The 1963 The Reshaping of British Railways report would mark a shift in British Rail away from unfitted, wagonload, freight trains, and a desire to shift towards 'Liner Trains' (unit trains of shipping containers, and unit trains for freight, such as coal. This shift was motivated by the costs involved with the handling of wagonload trains, and the lack of profit in this sector of freight. There was a clear desire to move towards newer, brake equipped wagons, which would enable higher speeds, higher freight capacity, more wagons per train and would make more effective use of increasingly powerful locomotives.[10] A noted aspect of the proposed Liner Trains, were the new wagon would be intended for high speed operations, and outfitted with air or vacuum brakes.[11]

By the mid-1960s, wagonload freight was still unprofitable, incentivizing British Rail to curtail the service and in turn withdraw older, unfitted rolling stock[12]

In 1968, the requirement for fully fitted freight trains to end with a guard's van removed from the rule book, and the guard was allowed to ride in the rearmost locomotive cab, which provided a good view of the whole train. By this time, the Beeching Axe had reduced by two-thirds the amount of trackage in the UK; as a result, most steam locomotives had been withdrawn and most British Railways standard-design diesel and electric locomotives had double-ended cabs. Therefore, there was no operational need for so many brake vans, and many types were withdrawn.[13]

In 1985, rail unions agreed to single-man operation of some freight trains, the first time trains did not have a guard on board for over 150 years. Further, the conclusion of almost all unfitted freight trains in the late 1980s, saw brake vans continue to become unneeded. At this point, brake vans were only required on select trains, often when demanded by railway regulations, typically dangerous goods, unusual cargos, and engineering trains[14]

The British Railways Working Manual for Rail Staff - Section 3 - Handling and Carriage of Dangerous Goods, known as 'Pink Pages', for the pink paper it was printed on, into the 1990s, required that trains carrying Class 2(c) Toxic gases, Hydrocyanic acid, nuclear flasks, along with any dangerous goods requiring an escort, must have a guard and brake van. Wagon labels for these specific cargos, used by British Rail to supplement standard dangerous goods placards and provide special instructions to train crews, contained the phrase "BRAKE VAN REQUIRED".[14]

The brake van was required to be either fitted with a brake matching the rest of the train, or have a brake pipe and brake gauge and emergency brake valve. The intended purpose of the brake van at the rear of the train was to enable the required protection of a train to be carried out, without staff walking past dangerous goods wagons.[14]

The Pink Pages procedures for train crews following an accident involving toxic gases and Hydrocyanic acid contained clear warnings that "Driver and guard must never go towards each other past affected wagons."[14]

Dangerous goods trains requiring an escort had additional regulations, requiring that the escorts travel in the brake van, and that no more than 3 escorts could ride in the brake van with the guard, otherwise a second brake van for the escorts was required.[14]

In 2021, Preparation and working of freight trains - Issue 1, came into effect. This module of the railway rule book is the modern successor of the former Working Manual for Rail Staff documents Freight Train Operations or the 'White Pages' and Handling and Carriage of Dangerous Goods or the 'Pink Pages', now merged as a single document.[15][16] This revision removes all references to brake vans in the dangerous goods sections, with the related sections now instructing guards to either ride in the rearmost driving cab of a locomotive or an escort vehicle if one is provided. Brake vans are still mentioned in two sections directed at train preparers, regarding their inclusion in measuring the total length and weight of trains.[16]

In the years immediately prior to that, brake vans were only deemed necessary by HM Railway Inspectorate or Network Rail in certain special cases, for example in trains with unusual cargoes or track maintenance trains, or when one of the few single-cabbed locomotives was used, such as the British Rail Class 20.

Brake vans are a common sight on many heritage railways such as the Helston Railway, the National Railway Museum or other small railways. On occasion, multiple brake vans will be coupled together in what is known as a "brake van special" for people to ride in on larger railways.

Equipment carried aboard the brake van, which had to be checked by the guard before the train's departure, consisted of a shunting pole ,[lower-alpha 2] a brake stick (a square ended baseball bat, used to lever down the handbrakes of wagons by placing it under the solebar and applying downward pressure), paraffin for the lamps, usually in an old milk bottle, and two pairs of track circuit operating clips .[lower-alpha 3] He would also check that the tail and side lamps were carried, filled, trimmed, and lit at night, during fog or falling snow, or if the train is to run through any tunnel in which lamps are required. These checks were part of the guard's train preparation duties, and his responsibility. The guard would, also at this time, ensure that the van carried coal and kindling to light the stove fire, even in summer if the train was to be relieved by another crew who might have to work into the cool of evening or night. It was common for guards to carry old newspapers with which to stop up any draughts that made their presence felt at speed; partly fitted freight trains might run up to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h).