At the Didcot 50th anniversary gala on the May Day bank holiday weekend we used two of our four-wheeled Victorian carriages on the branch line.

No 416, which was built in 1891, had the original type of communication cord, a stout cord strung along the eaves of the roof.

If a passenger was in danger, he or she would have to reach out of the window up to the edge of the roof, then give the cord a mighty tug.

In the guard’s van, this would turn a big wheel which had hanging from its edge a large wooden block on a cord.

The block would fly round and strike a bell on a spring, to attract the guard’s attention.

When this type of carriage was built, there was no continuous brake throughout the train, so the guard would then have to apply his hand brake, hang out of the window with a red flag and hope that the driver or fireman would notice either the flag or the slight drag of the brake.

The engine crew would bring the train to a halt using the fairly feeble brakes on the engine or tender.

The other carriage, No 1941, was built in 1901 so just sneaks into the Victorian period.

1941 has the more up-to-date communication cord, which is actually a chain running along either side of the carriage above the door inside each compartment.

The chains are linked to a series of levers at the ends of the carriage so when the chain is pulled, the levers work a valve which lets air into the vacuum brake system and will register on the vacuum gauges on the engine and in the guard’s van.

The guard, driver and fireman should all be monitoring this gauge and if they see the vacuum gauge drop, they will stop the train. The clever part is that the levers also work a tell-tale arm called a butterfly at the end of the carriage, which moves to show the train crew the carriage in which the chain has been pulled.

Our vintage carriages have single compartments with no connecting corridor so passengers cannot walk along the train to another carriage.

They also have rather hard seats which are not that comfortable.

But they make an interesting contrast to our more modern carriages.