page_title: Push–pull train
section_title: Steam
hierarchical_section_title: Push–pull train / History / Britain / Steam
caption_attribution_description: English: GWR Autocoach 190
context_page_description: Push–pull is a configuration for locomotive-hauled trains, allowing them to be driven from either end of the train, whether having a locomotive at each end or not.
  A push–pull train has a locomotive at one end of the train, connected via some form of remote control, such as multiple-unit train control, to a vehicle equipped with a control cab at the other end of the train. This second vehicle may be another locomotive, or an unpowered control car.
  In the UK and some other parts of Europe, the control car is referred to as a driving trailer; in the USA and Canada, they are called cab cars.
context_section_description: Great Western Railway
  The first company to use the system was the Great Western Railway which, in 1904, equipped carriages and 0-6-0 locomotives as an autotrain to run on the Brentford Branch Line (between Southall and Brentford) as an experimental substitute for steam railcars. Control was by rodding and the mechanism allowed the driving compartment to be either one or two carriages-distant from the engine. With the engine in the middle of a formation, up to four carriages could be used. To reduce the surprise of a locomotive at the "wrong" end of its train, some were initially fitted with panelling painted in carriage livery. The experiment was successful and the company's remaining railcars were gradually converted for autotrain use and purpose-built units constructed.
  Other railways
  Other companies followed the lead in 1905: the North Eastern and LBSCR using a compressed-air method of control and the Midland, using a cable-and-pulley mechanism. The Great Central deployed the trains in 1906, using cable controls similar to that of the Midland.  By the 1920s most companies had them and they remained in use until replaced by diesel multiple units (DMUs) in the 1950s.
caption: A single GWR Autocoach capable of steam push–pull operation
exif: {}