Brake van

[Roman Kochnowski]

Could you tell me until when were brake vans  used in Britain?And the second question is if anyone makes a N gauge model of brake van with end red shining light?
with best wishes
Roman

[edwin_m]

Passenger brake vans formed and still form part of every loco-hauled passenger train, because other British passenger coaches do not have a parking brake so the brake van is needed to secure the train if the loco is uncoupled. 

Goods brake vans were used on all freight trains up to about 1970.  After that they were used only on trains without continuous automatic brakes (as the guard would have to apply the brakes to stop the train or if it became divided) and on certain trains carrying hazardous goods or running into some places where the locomotive had to push the train.  Scroll down on the link below for a description of automatic brakes and how you can work out whether wagons of this period were fitted and with which type:

http://www.solihullmrc.org/wagon_tops_codes.html

These types of train gradually reduced and disappeared about 1990.  Brake vans were then only seen very rarely, the most common being the "SHARK" type which is used on ballast trains to plough the ballast after it is dropped onto the track. 

As far as I'm aware nobody makes a brake van with a built in tail lamp.  It should be pretty easy to add one yourself, even with a small decoder inside the van if you want to switch it on and off on DCC.  In earlier times brake vans also carried side lamps which would make things a bit more complicated. 

[Paul B]

If you do not run DCC then I have seen this on E-Bay -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/N-gauge-Tail-lamp-kit-van-is-not-in-the-sale-/271180187724?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item3f2399484c

I have not tried this set myself, but it seems to be an easy way to fit a red tail lamp on a brake van?

[EtchedPixels]

Two other cases. A single cab locomotive and when making propelling movements with the loco at the back..

[Caz]

Although I'm DCC, getting reliable pickup of power from just 2 wheels is difficult so I've just fitted the TrainTech kit into a GWR Toad and a standard BR brake van.  The nice thing about this kit is that the tail light only lights when the train is moving but stays on for about 5 minutes after it stops before automatically turning itself off to save the battery

For N gauge you cut the battery holder down and use the smaller CR1225 battery (bought seperately from same supplier).  Hope to have a tutorial and pictures on the forum in the next few days.

See http://www.dcpexpress.com/automatic-constant-lighting-coach-wagon-p-489.html for more info.

[Caz]

Correction to the above.  If you order the AL3X instead, you save 50p as it is then supplied without the larger 2032 battery, just order the smaller CR1225 battery instead under reference "BAT2"

See http://www.dcpexpress.com/al3x-auto-constant-lighting-export-without-battery-p-480.html