Mixed Trains
Peter Tatlow’s article (January) usefully explained the background to and operation of a ‘mixed train’ in the UK, a concept which is often misunderstood. It is common, for example, for a passenger train that includes non-passenger-carrying vehicles which are brake fitted or piped (eg parcels or fish vans, horseboxes, milk tank wagons or vans) to be wrongly described as being a mixed train, even though marshalled, signalled and operated as an ordinary passenger train. The true mixed train includes unbraked vehicles in addition to its braked passenger coaches and must be dealt with under the specific regulations illustrated in the article that came into force in the late nineteenth century and have remained almost unchanged since.
That said, the lower picture on page 17 presents an apparent anomaly,…