A barrier vehicle (BV), barrier wagon, match wagon or translator coach is used to convert between non-matching

railway coupler A coupling or coupler is a mechanism, typically located at each end of a rolling stock, rail vehicle, that connects them together to form a train. The equipment that connects the couplers to the vehicles is the draft gear or draw gear, which m ...

types. This allows locomotives to pull railway vehicles or parts of a train with a different type of coupler. A match wagon has an identical

dual coupling Different types of railroad rolling stock have different couplers depending on the purpose and type of equipment being used and its intended destination. European rolling stock tend to use buffers and chain couplers while American rolling stock use ...

at both ends.

Use

They are often found on empty coaching stock moves where freight locomotives need to transport coaching stock fitted with

Scharfenberg coupler The Scharfenberg coupler (, abbreviated ''Schaku'') is a commonly used type of fully automatic railway coupling. Designed in 1903 by Karl Scharfenberg in Königsberg, Germany (today Kaliningrad, Russia), the coupler has gradually spread from tr ...

s and other automatic couplers. The use of barrier coaches has evolved with a general move from conventional passenger trains consisting of locomotive-hauled coaches, to trains consisting of

multiple units A multiple-unit train (or multiple unit (MU)) is a self-propelled train composed of one or more Coach (rail), carriages joined, and where one or more of the carriages have the means of propulsion built in. By contrast, a locomotive-hauled ...

Liveries

These vehicles tend to be neutrally liveried or in some cases are painted with the livery of a particular

rolling stock company A rolling stock company (ROSCO) or rolling stock leasing company owns and maintains railway engines and carriages which are leased to train operating companies who operate the trains. Rolling stock companies have been criticised as rentier capit ...

. For example, Porterbrook use corporately-liveried examples for delivery of rolling stock and for transfers for refurbishment and maintenance.

Gallery

File:Bounds Green Carriages 3.JPG,

Bounds Green TMD Bounds Green Depot, also known as Bounds Green Train Maintenance Centre, is a traction maintenance depot situated in Bounds Green, North London. The depot is to the immediate north of Alexandra Palace railway station. It is presently operated ...

, London: windowless barrier coaches for moving Mk4 passenger stock fitted without buffer and chain couplers File:York Road Match Wagon.jpg, A barrier vehicle at

NI Railways NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways (NIR; and for a brief period Ulster Transport Railways; UTR), is the railway operator in Northern Ireland. NIR is a subsidiary of Translink, whose parent company is the Northern Ireland Tr ...

' York Road yard. It has an instanter coupler and buffers at one end for use by 111 Class or 201 Class diesel locomotives and Dellner couplers at the other end for use with DeDietrich carriages.

References

Railway coaches of the United Kingdom {{rail-transport-stub

Use

Liveries

Gallery

See also

References