Brake vans.

[JZ]

Description says it all really.

In pre-nationalisation days would a brake van be changed at a suitable place on the border of two companies, or would do the whole journey. Pretty much the same question for BR days, I model late '50s early '60s. I know when some were in departmental use they could be seen very far away from home. I recall seeing a former SR 'pillbox' up on the Fort William to Mallaig line in 1986.

[jwealleans]

I'm guessing that at company boundaries a train would work to whatever yard the handover of wagons was to take place and then the loco and brake would transfer to whatever the return working was and come back together. Within companies there was theoretically no restriction unless a van was allocated to a specific area/train/diagram - the GW were quite prolific on this. On the LNER I can't recall too many photos showing pregrouping vans 'out of area' except one in Geoff Kent's book on 4mm brake vans, where there is a photo taken at Banbury in 1944 showing a number of NE vans, one of which is branded IIRC 'Blaydon'. Of course that may be an extreme example provoked by wartime traffic.

 

I'd also guess that long range trains like the 'Scotch Goods' would return the BV on the same return working as the loco. Guards apparently tended to try to hang onto their vans and the guard would be working a diagram not unlike the loco crew. As the standard Big 4 designs became more common this may have reduced the amount different areas tried to hang on to 'their' BVs.

 

There was also the residual company loyalty after 1923, in the same way as foreign locos were looked at askance; there may have been the inclination to get 'that foreigner' back where it came from as quickly as possible.

[billbedford]

Sometime in BR days most brake vans became common user. The excepts, in the early 60s were those without lookouts and any of less than 20T.