Talk:Speedlink

Why is it significant that the wagons were air-braked?

Were freight cars manually braked until the 1960s in the UK, or am I missing something from my American perspective? Air brakes have been mandatory on all main-line railroads here since the late 19th century. Okto8 (talk) 07:43, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

okto8 This is partially explained in the note after the mention of air-braked wagons. Sometimes a wagon could spend several days getting from its origin to its destination - the air-braked service could run at a higher speed than vacuum braked wagons which had been used on the wagonload system up until then, and so efficiencies could effected across the system making it competitive with road transport (or at least, that is what they hoped it would do). There are more nuanced reasons too, but in a nutshell, faster, streamlined services. The joy of all things (talk) 15:19, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification! Okto8 (talk) 06:14, 27 February 2025 (UTC)