page_title: Brake van
section_title: The guard's job
hierarchical_section_title: Brake van / The guard's job
caption_attribution_description: English: SR Queen mary brake van at the Bluebell Railway
context_page_description: Brake van and guard's van are terms used mainly in the UK, Australia and India for a railway vehicle equipped with a hand brake which 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 British freight trains formerly had no continuous brake so the only available brakes were those on the locomotive and the brake van. Because of this shortage of brake power, the speed was restricted to 25 mph. The brake van was marshalled at the rear of the train so both portions of the train could be brought to a stand in the event of a coupling breaking.
  When freight trains were fitted with continuous braking, brake vans lost their importance, and were discontinued by many railways. However, they still continue on some important railways, such as the Indian Railways, besides the heritage railways.
context_section_description: On unfitted trains, the brake van has several purposes, and hence jobs for the guard.
  Firstly, and most importantly, the guard would use the brake van's brakes to assist with keeping the train under control on downwards gradients and whenever he could see that the locomotive's crew was attempting to slow the train. Route knowledge would allow the guard to initiate the braking before the driver. To aid in this, signalling regulations mandated that signals be left at clear until the entirety of a train (including guard's van) had passed, as the guard would immediately apply brakes upon seeing a signal at danger.
  Secondly, the wheel handbrake could be screwed down to keep the loose screw couplings taut between unfitted wagons, to minimise the risk of snapped broken couplings from the locomotive "snatching" or jerking, which was particularly a problem as locomotives became more powerful. As breaking couplings on unfitted trains when starting were a fairly common occurrence, train crews were given specific instruction. Upon starting a freight train, rules mandated the footplate crew to look back on their train towards the brake van, waiting for the guard to signal (by flag or lamp) that the entire train was moving and all couplings were taut, before accelerating to higher speeds.
  A later job of the guard was the provision of side lamps on brake vans. The white lamp is the tail lamp, whilst the grey lamps are the side lamps, along with the standard tail lamp (showing red to the rear and sides) required on the rear of every train. The side lamps showed a white light towards the front and a red light to the side/rear. The front-facing lamps were an indication to the locomotive crew that the train was still complete, whilst the provision of extra red lights to the rear was an additional safety measure. Due to the very low chance of all three lights being out at once, it was stipulated that a freight train passing without any lamps on the rear had split and that the rear portion was potentially running away. These side lamps were used on passenger trains before the adoption of continuous brakes on such trains.
  A further purpose for these side lamps was that, as the red indication was provided by a shade that could be removed by sliding out of the top of the lamp, a white light could be shown to the rear of the train. This could be used to indicate to a train on a parallel faster line that the brake van showing the white light was travelling in the same direction but on another line, presenting no danger of a collision. The white lamp would be on the side closest to the faster running line, and would be deployed on relief or slow lines where faster running lines ran parallel with no more than one other line intervening, or on loops or refuge sidings next to running lines. In an emergency, the guard could attract the attention of other railway staff by reversing these side lights, so that red lights shone forward to alert the loco crew, or any other railway staff that saw them.
caption: Preserved SR "Queen Mary" bogie brake van - most British brake vans had just four wheels and a rigid wheelbase. This one has all three side lamps visible.
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