Air brakes on freight

[HSTEd]

Well I was wondering, after reading up on the air brakes used on American freight trains (after that accident in Canada recently), whether freight trains in Britain tend to use a two-pipe or one-pipe system for braking?

The latter seems to predominate in the US but I am not sure about the UK, since a Class 66 seems to have multiple air pipes on its "coupling plate" but those will include the pipes for sharing air between locomotives so I don't know.

Could anyone shed some light on this?

 

[GB]

There are a few types of wagons that are dual piped, but the majority of freight stock is single piped.

 

[talltim]

I have a distant recollection that it used to mainly ferry fitted vehicles that were two pipe, with some that were designed for fast freight also fitted, however that was a long time ago and policies will have changed several times since then

 

[eastwestdivide]

I have a distant recollection that it used to mainly ferry fitted vehicles that were two pipe, with some that were designed for fast freight also fitted, however that was a long time ago and policies will have changed several times since then

I "think" that was the other way round - wasn't early UK AB stock two-piped, while most of the continental wagons that came over on the ferries were single pipe?

e.g. this 1980 Paul Bartlett photo of a VDA:
http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brvda/h262ca935#h262ca935

The use of the second pipe was mostly abandoned later, maybe mid-80s, maybe apart from the merry-go-round fleet.

There's a more detailed discussion on another forum here:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/in...-braked-wagons-in-the-1970s-why-double-piped/

 

[Rugd1022]

The stone hooper wagons we run from Bardon Quarries are dual piped as they have air operated doors.