LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Tamworth

LMS Route: Nuneaton to Birmingham New Street

Bromford Bridge Station: mrbb645a

Close up of image 'mrbb645' showing the front of the pair of diesels standing at Bromford Bridge with a brake tender coupled to the front of the locomotives. Brake tenders were used by British Railways when the brakes on diesel locomotives were inadequate to control an unfitted train. Originally intended to be used in North East England, where they were usually propelled (pushed) by the locomotive, their use later spread to other regions; on the Southern Region they were normally hauled behind the locomotive. The tender took the form of a hollow box, low enough to avoid obscuring the driver's view when pushed. The body was carried on a pair of former carriage bogies, which provided the automatic brakes. The body was filled with scrap steel to raise the weight of the vehicle to between 35½ and 37½ tons; consequently increasing the available brake force. Four lamp brackets were provided at each end to display locomotive headcode discs describing the class of train. When being propelled, the tender obscured the buffer beam of the locomotive resulting in the need to mount the headcode on the brake tender. Introduced around 1964-5, they were taken out of use in the 1980s when the practice of using unfitted trains was finally discontinued after nearly 150 years.

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