BlueBrixx Baggage Car Dark Green Set 103877

BlueBrixx's Baggage Car in dark green is a BlueBrixx-Specials model built from 456 blocks, measuring 40.8 × 6.4 × 9.6 cm assembled, weighing around 480 g. Designed by Alex. No stickers or prints.

The most important man on the train rode in here

A baggage car is not a shed on wheels. Before continuous automatic brakes, it was where the train was stopped from.

Early trains had no brakes the driver could apply to the whole train. The locomotive had its own, and individual vehicles had handbrakes that somebody had to turn. So the guard rode in the baggage van at the rear, with a brake wheel and a view along the train, and when the driver whistled for brakes the guard wound his on.

That arrangement is why the vehicle exists in the shape it does: a compartment with a raised lookout or side bay so the guard could see forward past the carriages, a hand brake, and the rest of the space used for luggage, mail and parcels because it was going anyway.

Automatic air and vacuum brakes made the braking function obsolete from the 1870s onwards, but the guard stayed — responsible for the train, its paperwork, and everything that was not a passenger. The van survived well into the age of air conditioning and disappeared only when parcels traffic moved to lorries.

Which train it belongs to

At 40.8 cm this sits between BlueBrixx's two Rheingold carriage sizes — longer than the 35.5 cm cars, shorter than the 50.5 cm four-axle ones. As a goods and mail van it works behind almost any locomotive, which is what baggage cars did.

In the BlueBrixx range

Sets 101001 (V200), 102531 and 102532 (BR 92), 102937 (V36), 104004 (US Shunting Locomotive) and 104283 (BR 103) are the locomotives.

Specifications

Pieces: 456 · Designer: Alex · Series: BlueBrixx-Specials · No stickers · Weight: approx. 480 g
Model dimensions: 40.8 × 6.4 × 9.6 cm (16.1 × 2.5 × 3.8 in)