trainrider47 Wrote:
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> I'll defer to Chris on the details, but brake vans
> were aptly named. Loose coupled goods wagons in
> the UK had no air or vacuum brakes, so the guard's
> van was equipped with a hand brake and called a
> brake van. My understanding is they were weighted
> for more effective braking power. BTW, cabooses
> on the Canadian National were called vans. In
> South Africa, where they used vacuum brakes they
> were called guard's vans. The guard being
> somewhat analogous to a conductor.
>
> Anyone that has read Alistair MacLean's "Breakhart
> Pass" will have noted that the author apparently
> used British railway sources for his descriptions
> of US railroading, as he included a fairly
> accurate description of a brake van, among many
> other mistakes!
>
> Michael Allen


Britain was very late in applying any form of air brakes to freight trains - either pressured air or vacuum brakes. In the steam era, a locomotives ability to get a train over the road was determined by not only how much tonnage it could lift up a grade, but how much braking power it had to get a train down a grade. The Brake Van on the rear helped with that situation. I as told that they could put a few vacuum brake equipped goods wagons on the head end to create more braking.