Yes, the Westinghouse Brake Co. Ltd. was founded in Britain in the late 19th century, and later merged with the Saxby & Farmer company which specialised in signalling equipment. Some of the British railways at the time did adopt the (triple-valve) air brake. However, at the time of the Grouping (1922) the resulting Big Four companies all standardised on vacuum brakes, with existing air brake equipment being replaced over the subsequent decades. Electric multiple-unit trains might have been among the few exceptions. Some distributor valves are effectively constructed from two triple valves, but connected in a different way to the basic triple valve. The Westinghouse company is still in business and makes both triple-valve and distributor-valve equipment, principally selling each type into different markets due to the differing prevailing standards. They also make various types of EP brake, for example under the "Westcode" brand. There are other companies making compatible equipment, such as Knorr-Bremse and Davies & Metcalfe. A 7-step Westcode system is used in British push-pull fitted trains (ie. the HST, Class 91, Class 90, and the Mk3 and Mk4 DVTs) in which the brake pipe is reduced at both ends of the train simultaneously on an application, but increased only from the driver's valve on a release. Aside from that, the brakes on these trains are a standard twin-pipe distributor brake. A 3-step Westcode system is standard across many types of British DMU and EMU since the Pacer, Sprinter, and Networker series of the 1980s, in which the digital pressure actuator is fitted to the individual brake system of every vehicle, and only an air supply pipe and some control wires run the length of the train. These control wires operate on the "energise to release" system, with a special "continuity wire" to detect inadvertent train division, and the Emergency position on the brake handle actively grounds the wires to assure that the brakes are applied even under fault conditions. There is a different kind of EP system on many German trains, but this is probably from the Knorr company rather than Westinghouse. Here, the brakes are applied by a 7-step digital signal in a similar manner to the 3-step Westcode system, but if that system is not operational, it is more similar to the 7-step Westcode system, operating via brake pipe pressure.
Westinghouse (UK) was founded in 1899 as a subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company (US), which was formed in 1886 to manufacture, among other things, (American) George Westinghouse' patented triple valve railway brake system.
That was a really interesting and useful read, thanks for posting it. I would not have known (or thought) to apply throttle while the automatic brake is engaged to avoid an unintentional stop. I used it today coming to the end of a scenario and had probably my most accurate stop in a US freight locomotive by using dynamic brake and throttle with auto brakes at minimum application to control speed on a 1.4% downgrade before increasing and stopping with the auto brake.
cattivo I know, it's wonderful feeling. Imagine my delight once I figured out the bail-off handle is mouse or '[' key for 1 second. All of a sudden I had complete control and my stops have been getting more accurate each time.
