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Yo Steve.
I suspect that this train was being driven. I saw a similar thing at Brighton many moons ago. When the leading carriage dropped off the road the driver fell over (he was standing up on a class 319 which had a tip-up seat). By the time he got back to the desk to apply the brake the second car had also come off and both were tipped at angle of about 30 degrees. Very sad to see.
As you suggest, nowadays all EMUs have spring parking brakes, operated off the Brake Reservoirs. If the air bleeds out of the reservoir, the spring releases and pushes a rod activating the disc brake pads.
Here's a story about these. I knew a driver once who got an emergency brake application on an 8 car. (2 x 4) It was the Rush Hour and at the time the company policy wanted you to be moving again in 5 mins max, which is ridiculous. Anyhow this driver checked most of the train, but not the rear car. They then operated the safety override and got moving again. When they reached the part of the route where 2 tracks widen to 4 they noticed that the drivers of passing trains were flashing their headlights and sounding their horns. They looked back and saw smoke pouring from the rear car!
This driver had been taught (as was I) that if there is a leak on the Main Reservoir Pipe it will be blindingly obvious as you'll see a reduction on the MRP gauge and also be able to hear it pissing out when you get near it. But what had happened was that that the knuckle joint on the MR pipes between the penultimate and rear cars had sprung apart. So because of the self-closing star valves in the pipe joints the Main Res pipe had stayed sealed but the air in the rear car had leaked away (as a result of brake application and door operations), until the point where the parking brake had started to apply.
Sneaky Huh? I've never heard of the air pipe joints on a Multiple Unit popping apart ever. I suspect that they'd been taken apart at the depot for some reason and and not put back together properly.
The driver got a massive rollocking, but no points on their licence - which was nice. Not long after the company dropped their '5 minute max' policy (I think they themselves got a rollocking from the DFT for pressurising drivers into making unsafe decisions).
But if you do something silly in this job and don't hurt anyone you never get to hear the end of it. For the rest of their days this driver was known as 'Smokey'.
Happy days, John
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