Selvregulerende Bremser

Afhængigt af det motoriserede køretøj er der to måder at kontrollere bremserørtrykket på: Selvregulerende og den ældre, ikke-selvregulerende.

På de selvregulerende systemer håndteres bremserørtrykket automatisk. Føreren kan indstille togbremsehåndtaget til enhver position inden for en rækkevidde. Jo længere den er indstillet i "anvend"-retningen, jo stærkere er bremsekraften og omvendt. Ventilen håndterer automatisk tømning eller tryksætning af bremserøret afhængigt af håndtagets position.

On non-self-lapping systems, the process is more hands-on. The lever has a few fixed positions. Two of the positions, called “release” and “service” can be thought of as adding and releasing the brake pipe pressure, respectively. The position in between them, called “lap”, is used to maintain whatever pressure is in the brake pipe. The furthest position, called “emergency”, will release pressure at the fastest possible rate.

Auxiliary reservoirs are being drained when braking. When the brakes are released, it takes some time for auxiliary reservoirs to fill up again. The lap position, however, functions only if the auxiliary reservoirs are full. To stay in full control over braking it is recommended to not release non-self-lapping brakes when knowing that moments later braking may be needed again. Calculated, slow moves are preferable when releasing the non-self-lapping brakes.

With both brake types, the driver can see exactly how much braking force they are applying by looking at the brake pipe and brake cylinder gauge needles.

Hvis et tog indeholder motoriserede køretøjer med både selvregulerende og ikke-selvregulerende bremseventiltyper, vil kun de selvregulerende være funktionelle, når bremsen betjenes.

In case a train contains motorized vehicles with both self-lapping and non-self-lapping brake valve types, only the self-lapping ones will be functional when operating the brake. For that purpose, vehicles are also equipped with brake cutout valves, which can be used to isolate certain vehicles from the brake system and resolve this conflict.