Pull push with only brake and whistle?

[Egg Centric]

It occurs to me with primitive pull-push technology that it ought to have been sufficient - if certainly less than ideal - to have an end car where the sole controls were the brake and the whistle, leaving the regulator and reverser up to the fireman (or perhaps another driver, or a combined position).

Did anyone try this or something like it?

 

[Rescars]

Whilst what you describe feels fraught with peril, it is the perfect set-up for a slip coach, especially if you were to substitute a gong for the whistle. The end car, but unhelpfully at the other end of the train!

 

[Gloster]

This was what, in effect, happened on many occasions. When the autocoach was leading the fireman drove the trailing (or intermediate) loco, operated the brakes when necessary, sounded the whistle when regularly required (Whistle/S/SW boards), etc. The driver sat in the autocoach end cab and sounded the gong or put the brake in if necessary. The reasons were varied: on the Wallingford branch the loco frequently had to be uncoupled from the coach to shunt goods traffic and constantly recoupling and adjusting the linkage was a time consuming process.

 

[Taunton]

GWR auto coaches had a gong on the front. There was a brake valve, same as in a guard's van, but the fireman (always Passed on a push-pull) had to work the ejector to blow it off again. Apart from the nuisance of connecting the linkage the GWR pattern one could be very stiff to operate, so the crew would either still run round if they could, or the fireman did almost everything. They were small trains, and generally could run from one end of the branch to the other without needing intermediate firing.

 

[ac6000cw]

It occurs to me with primitive pull-push technology that it ought to have been sufficient - if certainly less than ideal - to have an end car where the sole controls were the brake and the whistle, leaving the regulator and reverser up to the fireman (or perhaps another driver, or a combined position).

Did anyone try this or something like it?

It's not that far removed from using whistle signals when banking trains - train stops at bottom of the hill, banking loco buffers up to the rear, drivers exchange specific whistle signals and off you go (using experience and skill to manage the banking effort, especially on a curvaceous climb). Then the banker drops back at the top while train continues on its way. (Is 'uncoupled' banking still allowed these days for freight?)

On (continuous brake) unfitted/partly fitted trains, whistle signals would be used to ask the guard to apply the guard's van handbrake when needed to assist with stopping the train.

 

[John Luxton]

It occurs to me with primitive pull-push technology that it ought to have been sufficient - if certainly less than ideal - to have an end car where the sole controls were the brake and the whistle, leaving the regulator and reverser up to the fireman (or perhaps another driver, or a combined position).

Did anyone try this or something like it?

Llangollen Railway used this method 2014 to 2018 when they extended to Corwen East from Carrog. A window was provided in the corridor connection and a brake.

The second driver communicated with the driver and fireman on the loco by radio whilst the loco propelled.

 

[edwin_m]

Llangollen Railway used this method 2014 to 2018 when they extended to Corwen East from Carrog. A window was provided in the corridor connection and a brake.

The second driver communicated with the driver and fireman on the loco by radio whilst the loco propelled.

Great Central (North) did this too a few years ago, and may still do, via a window in the end gangway of a brake coach.