Brake Tenders
 

Some replies make me smile
BRILLIANT.

I have never heard of tenders being worked in front of the loco only behind upto three in total.
It wasnt for the loco more for the ballast trains years ago heavy trains and not enough brake force.
As for class 40s i never worked on them.

ccmmick.

I saw it in a past issue of I think British railways illustrated of a 1969 view of a hymek with one in front and the same with a brush type 4
The issue was focused on the topic in hand.

I have to say, if you look at the 'Just Like The Real Thing' link, the first photo on there DOES actually appear to be a class 37 with a brake tender IN FRONT; the end with the b/t carries a headcode, and wagons are at the other end. Of course, it COULD be shunting, but.....?

We used to see these through Loughborough usually on unfitted coal trains hauled by whatever Toton had handy, Peaks (Class 44 or 45), 47's, or double headed 25's or 20's. They were usually marshalled behind the locos going south, but in front coming back North with the empties. I remember seeing them in green with yellow ends, very dirty of course, never saw a clean one. I also have a vague memory of seeing one with a 4 character headcode panel.
That Just like the real thing model looks the part, only trouble is it's O gauge and I'm working in OO.

Regards, 62440.

Yes i can see that now Dave i myself have never worked one in front of the loco.

ccmmick.

I see the GCR are re-creating one, project X.

Project ‘X’ – the Diesel Brake Tender Project

"Members of Railway Vehicle Preservations TPO crew are in the process of constructing an item of rolling stock that failed to enter preservation, despite the last vehicles having been withdrawn from traffic in the early 1980s, namely a Diesel Brake Tender. RVP member Phil Stanbridge initially came up with the idea while some vehicles at the Great Central Railway were about to be scrapped after having been purchased for spare parts. One of the vehicles was set aside for the project, while a feasibility study and then design work was undertaken. The project became known as “Project X” while this work was being undertaken, as the team wanted to keep it quiet until all hurdles had been overcome. Once proven that it was feasible work started on the vehicle, which will be numbered B964122, the next number following on from the originals. As all the original vehicles came from LMS or LNER descendents and this conversion is from a BR Mark 1 a new diagram number is being created to accommodate the design, this being 1/559, which would have been the next number in the B.R. wagon diagram series."

The first time I saw the brake tenders was on the East Coast line north of York. They were always in front of the D67xx's (later Class 37) on unfitted freight. By 1963 it was rare to see a D67xx without a brake tender and they were always in front of the engine.

The only time I ever saw a brake tender was at Barry Scrapyard in the mid 70s

As for concrete cracking.
Yes it does, one of our brakevans on the NYMR had its flooring all warped, we removed it and found that the concrete ballast is actually filled with old brake blocks and other scrap, the rust on this scrap had forced the concrete to crack then with water ingress and more rust the floor was distorted.

Was there a date when unfitted freight finished ?