Brake van and guard's van are terms used mainly in the UK and Australia for a railway vehicle equipped with a hand brake which can be applied by the guard. The equivalent North American term is caboose but a British brake van and a caboose are very different in appearance because the former usually has only four wheels while the latter usually has bogies. Many British freight trains formerly had no continuous brake so the only available brakes were those on the locomotive and the brake van. Because of this shortage of brake power the speed was restricted to 25 mph. In the 21st century, brake vans are rare, because freight trains now have continuous air brakes, but they can still be seen on heritage railways.

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