Present-day Use of Vacuum Brakes
Today's largest operators of trains equipped with vacuum brakes are the Indian Railways and Spoornet (South Africa), however there are also trains with air brakes and dual brakes in use. South African Railways (Spoornet) operates more than 1 000 electric multiple unit cars, which are fitted with air compressed brakes. The electro-vacuum system uses a 2-inch (51 mm) train pipe and basic automatic vacuum brake system, with the addition of electrically-controlled application and release valves in each vehicle. The application and release valves greatly increase the rate of train pipe vacuum destruction and creation. This, in turn, greatly increases the speed of brake application and release. The performance of electro-vacuum brakes on SAR EMUs is equivalent to electro-pneumatic braked EMUs of a similar age.
Other African railways are believed to continue to use the vacuum brake. Other operators of vacuum brakes are narrow gauge railways in Central Europe, the largest of which is the Rhaetian Railway.
Vacuum brakes have been entirely superseded on the National Rail system in the UK, although they are still in use on most heritage railways. They are also to be found on a number (though increasingly fewer) main line vintage special trains.
Iarnród Éireann (the national rail operator in the Republic of Ireland) ran vacuum-braked British Railways Mark 2 stock on passenger trains until the end of March 2008 and still operates vacuum-braked revenue freight (at least in the case of Tara Mines ore traffic).
The Isle of Man Railway which is a steam railway operated mainly using a mixture of mainly Beyer Peacock 2-4-0 tanks and a Dubs 0-6-0 (and some diesel stock) wholly operates the vacuum brakes system which is fitted to all its coaching and wagon stock.
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