Get LHG OHG Goods Brake Vans - Austrains

A 'Brake Van' is a compartment usually seen on the back end of a train. It is the compartment in which the guard travels. This compartment is called the brake van because it is equipped with a hand brake that can be applied by the guard.

The equivalent North American term is caboose, but a British brake van and a caboose are very different in appearance, because the former usually has only four wheels, while the latter usually has bogies. German railways employed brakeman's cabins combined into other cars.

Many brake vans today are used on heritage railways as passenger vehicles, like on the Helston Railway and the National Railway Museum demonstration lines at York and Shildon.

At a subsequent date, probably c 1952, former GWR Brake Vans were branded 'Not In Common Use', which indicated the vans were supposed to remain on WR workings and not be allowed to wander off elsewhere.

'Toad' is the GWR telegraphic code for a brake van. Most goods trains were 'unfitted' (no continuous brakes) so relied on the engine's brake and the Guard's handbrake in the brake van.

The brake van also contains a stretcher, an emergency train lighting box, and a stand to hold the lamp signal during the night. The vacuum or air pressure gauge is hosted in front of the guard's seat with a lever to operate it in case of emergency. The hand brake can be used in case of high emergency.

A brake van, on a train, is a wagon at the rear of a Goods train where a guard would sit with a hand brake. The job of this wagon was to provide extra braking force for a train and as an emergency hand brake, should an unfitted train become uncoupled from the locomotive and become a runaway train.