NMX‑RBT‑30 / Rev 00 / railway air brake / wagon · coach · rake 2026 · Product Page

NMX-RBT-30 · ENGINEERED TO ORDER — SINGLE WAGON, SINGLE COACH & RAKE TEST RIGS

A brake test is a rate, not a reading.

Name: Single Wagon, Single Coach & Rake Test Rigs
Brand: Neometrix

Almost nothing in the standard sequence is a static value. Leakage is a pressure drop per minute over a defined hold. Sensitivity is a rate of brake-pipe reduction that must trigger an application; insensitivity a slower rate that must not. Application and release are times in seconds. So the instrument that decides the result is the clock — and everything else follows: pressure resolved in time, fixed and known reference volumes, and the standard steps sequenced by solenoid manifolds rather than by an operator opening cocks in a remembered order. One rule governs the design: the rig must be tighter than the vehicle it tests, or it is measuring itself. Three scales share the discipline — one wagon, one coach, or a whole formed rake, where the driver stops being precision and becomes air flow. Every test leaves a certificate.

Enquire — brake test rigs Capability sheet (PDF)

Illustrative image, not a delivered system — a brake test rig beside a depot track: a grey steel control cabinet on heavy castors with red and yellow coiled air hoses running to the brake-pipe couplings under the end of a plain unmarked freight wagon, weathered ballast and rail in the foreground, an open-sided depot shed behind, overcast light, no people and no markings

Fig · 01 The single wagon rig — the vehicle stays where it is; the rig comes to the coupling — illustrative, not a delivered system

Measures

rates, not valuesleakage · times · response

Scales

wagon · coach · rakeone discipline

Rule

tighter than the stockleak-proved per shift

Sequenced

by manifoldsame test, every shift

Output

a certificateper vehicle · kept

ISO 9001 / 14001 Engineered to order Depot-grade build Brake-bench franchise Noida · India

Overview

The clock decides, not the gauge.

A vehicle’s brake system is judged on how it behaves, not on what it reads at rest. Does it hold pressure? Does it react to a reduction it should react to, and ignore one it should ignore? How long does it take to apply, and to let go? Every one of those is a slope or a duration, which is why this equipment is fundamentally a timing instrument that happens to be plumbed in air — and why the honest engineering questions are about the rig’s own tightness, its reference volumes and its clock.

Illustrative image, not a delivered system — the pneumatic manifold inside an opened control cabinet: a machined aluminium manifold block with a row of black solenoid valves along its top, two polished precision pressure regulators, four small cylindrical pressure transducers with thin cables, and tidy bent stainless tubing on a pale back panel, all plain and unmarked, no people and no text

Fig · 02 The manifold — the standard sequence built in valves, so the test does not vary with the shift — illustrative, not a delivered system

The rig must be tighter than the vehicle. This is the requirement everything else defers to. If the rig’s own leakage sits anywhere near the acceptance limit for the vehicle, then a good wagon and a leaking rig are indistinguishable — and the depot learns, correctly, not to trust the result. So internal leakage is engineered an order of magnitude below the limit, the couplings and hoses are the tightest part of the assembly rather than an afterthought, reference volumes are fixed and known so a leakage figure means the same thing on two different rigs and in five years’ time, and leak-proving the rig is a routine before a shift, not an annual calibration event.

Sequencing is what makes it a machine. The test itself is a defined series of steps — charge, service application, full application, release, hold and measure — and performed by hand it varies with who is on shift, how tired they are, and how many vehicles are waiting. Built into a solenoid manifold and driven from a recipe, it becomes the same test every time, fast enough that a whole detail of vehicles is proven in a shift instead of a day. That is the practical difference between a rig a depot uses and one it works around.

Three scales, one discipline. The single wagon rig proves one freight vehicle. The single coach rig does the same for passenger stock, whose brake arrangement differs by design and needs its own recipes, connections and limits. The rake test rig works the whole formed train — continuity through every vehicle, leakage across the entire rake, and propagation of application and release from one end to the other. At that scale the binding constraint changes: it is no longer precision but air flow and volume, because the rig must charge a full train in a time the yard can live with.

This page is the vehicle and train level. The equipment and component benches on this site — brake equipment, air-brake system and universal benches — cover the level below it, and are linked below.

Timed

Every criterion is a slope

Pressure resolved in time against fixed reference volumes — because leakage, sensitivity and response are all rates.

Tighter

The rig is not the leak

Internal leakage an order below the acceptance limit, and leak-proved before a shift — or the rig is measuring itself.

Recorded

A certificate per vehicle

Automatic pass or fail, a printed record, and a history that makes a repeat offender visible instead of forgotten.

Architecture

Charge, apply, release, hold and measure.

The schematic follows the standard sequence — the pipe charged from a clean dry supply, a timed application, a timed release, then a hold against fixed volumes with the drop per minute compared to the limit — and shows the machine behind it: air supply and reference volumes, solenoid sequencing, transducers and the clock, and the pass-fail and certificate.

FIG · 03RBT ARCHITECTURE · AIR + REFERENCE VOLUMES / SOLENOID SEQUENCING / TRANSDUCERS + CLOCK · PASS-FAIL & CERTIFICATE

Fig · 03 Nothing leaves unproven — and every test stays on the record

Arc · 01

Air & Reference Volumes

Clean, dry, oil-free air at controlled pressure, and fixed known volumes — at rake level, flow is what sizes the rig.

Arc · 02

Solenoid Sequencing

The standard steps built into valves and driven from a recipe — the same test every shift, at the throughput a depot needs.

Arc · 03

Transducers & Clock

Pressure resolved in time on brake pipe, feed pipe and brake cylinder — because every acceptance criterion is a slope.

Arc · 04

Pass-Fail & Certificate

Automatic comparison against the limits, a printed record per vehicle, a history database and a path into the depot’s systems.

Equipping a wagon shop, a coach depot or a formation yard? Send the stock types, the specification and the throughput — a clause-by-clause compliance matrix within two working days · [email protected]

Send tender spec

Specifications

Reference rig, built to the specification.

The parameters below describe a reference installation. The scale, air capacity, connections, recipes and limits all follow from three givens: the stock to be tested, the governing specification the results are judged against, and the throughput the depot has to achieve.

Illustrative image, not a delivered system — a trackside brake test point at dusk: a slim grey steel column beside the rail with a thick air hose looping to the coupling at the end of the nearest vehicle, and a long line of plain unmarked freight wagons receding down the straight track into the distance, ballast, rails and gantry structures, low evening light, no people and no markings

Fig · 04 The rake test point — where the design driver stops being precision and becomes flow — illustrative, not a delivered system

Where brake test rigs go wrong

The rig’s own leakage is not an order below the acceptance limit, so it fails good vehicles, and the depot learns to distrust it — the most expensive failure a test machine can have. Timing accuracy is treated as secondary to pressure accuracy, when almost every criterion is a rate. Reference volumes are undefined or drift, so a leakage figure cannot be compared between two rigs or across years. A rake rig is sized on pressure and not on flow, and then cannot charge a full train in a time the yard will accept. Sequencing is left to the operator, so the test varies by shift and nothing can be trended. Records stay inside the rig, so there is no history and a repeat offender is never spotted. And laboratory-grade hardware is put into a depot, where hoses get dragged across ballast at three in the morning.

So the discipline runs the other way. The rig is leak-proved before a shift, to a limit an order below the vehicle’s. The clock is specified as carefully as the transducers. Reference volumes are fixed, known and stated. Rake rigs are sized on flow and volume against a full formed train. The sequence is built into the manifold and recalled from a recipe. Results leave as a certificate and a database record. And the whole machine is built depot-grade — protected transducers, robust couplings, field-replaceable modules a depot can change itself.

Full specification — expand

System	Railway air-brake test rigs at vehicle & train level — single wagon, single car/coach & rake test rigs; engineered, built, installed, commissioned & supported
Function	Proving a vehicle's or a formed train's brake system — charged, applied, released, timed, held & certified
The Measurement	Rates, not readings — leakage as drop per minute over a defined hold; sensitivity & insensitivity as rates of brake-pipe reduction; application & release as times in seconds
Single Wagon Rigs	One freight vehicle's complete brake system — plain, computerised & fully automatic computerised configurations to the governing specification
Single Coach Rigs	The same for passenger stock, whose brake arrangement differs by design — its own recipes, connections & acceptance limits
Rake Test Rigs	Whole formed train — continuity through every vehicle, total leakage across the rake, propagation of application & release end to end; SCADA-based configurations
Rake Sizing	At train level the driver is air flow & volume, not precision — the rig must charge a full formed train in a workable time
Governing Rule	The rig must be tighter than the vehicle — internal leakage an order of magnitude below the acceptance limit; leak-proved as a routine before a shift
Reference Volumes	Fixed & known, so a leakage figure means the same thing on another rig & in five years
Sequencing	Solenoid manifolds driven from stored recipes — charge, service application, full application, release, hold & measure — identical every shift
Instrumentation	Pressure transducers on brake pipe, feed pipe & brake cylinder, resolved in time; calibration traceable
Records	Automatic pass/fail against the limits, printed certificate per vehicle, history database, network path into the depot's systems
Build Standard	Depot-grade — dust, monsoon, heat, shunting impacts, dragged hoses; protected transducers, robust couplings, field-replaceable modules
The Family	The vehicle & train level — the brake-equipment, air-brake-system & universal benches on this site cover the component level below
Sourcing	Transducers, solenoid valves, regulators & industrial controllers are bought-in certified items; Neometrix engineers the rigs, air systems, sequencing, software & certificates
Status	Engineered to order · quoted across single-wagon, single-coach & rake test-rig requirements · grounded in the delivered brake-equipment test-bench franchise on this site · no delivered vehicle- or rake-level test rig is claimed on this page

PDF · 1 page

Single Wagon, Coach & Rake Test Rigs — Capability Sheet

Tender Response

Send stock types, specification & throughput — compliance matrix in two working days

Variants

One discipline, three scales and a retrofit.

Requirements arrive as a single wagon rig, a single car or coach rig, a rake rig, or the computerisation of a rig a depot already owns. The measurement discipline is common; the scale and the connections follow the stock.

Var · 01

Single Wagon Test Rigs

One freight vehicle, fully proven — manual, computerised or fully automatic computerised, to the governing specification.

Var · 02

Single Car & Coach Test Rigs

Passenger stock — its own brake arrangement, recipes, connections and limits, with automatic sequencing and certificates.

Var · 03

Rake Test Rigs

The whole formed train — continuity, total leakage and end-to-end propagation, sized on flow, in SCADA-based configurations.

Var · 04

Computerisation, Retrofit & AMC

Bringing an existing rig up to automatic sequencing, instrumentation and certificates — with calibration, spares and AMC.

Applications

Wherever stock is signed out.

Wagon shops, coach depots, formation yards and the workshops that overhaul them.

A · 01Wagon repair & examination depots

A · 02Coaching depots & carriage workshops

A · 03Formation yards & rake examination points

A · 04Periodic overhaul workshops

A · 05Rolling-stock builders’ test bays

A · 06Metro & suburban maintenance depots

FAQ

Common questions.

Plain-language answers from the engineering team.

Q · 01 Why is a brake test described as a rate rather than a measurement?

Because a brake system is judged on behaviour, and behaviour only shows up over time. Take the four things the standard sequence actually asks. Leakage: the pipe is charged, isolated and held, and what matters is the drop per minute — a system can sit at a perfectly correct pressure and still be unfit. Sensitivity: the brake pipe is reduced at a defined rate that must cause the distributor to apply the brake — too sluggish a system is dangerous. Insensitivity: the pipe is reduced at a slower defined rate that must not cause an application — too twitchy a system will brake the train on a normal pressure fluctuation, which is its own hazard. Application and release times: seconds to reach defined brake-cylinder pressures, because a vehicle that applies late or releases slowly does not behave like the rest of the train. Every one of those is a slope or a duration. The consequence for the equipment is direct: the clock is a primary instrument, not an afterthought, pressure has to be sampled fast enough to resolve the slope rather than just its endpoints, and the volumes the air is expanding into must be fixed and known — because a rate measured against an unknown volume is not a rate anyone can compare.

Q · 02 What does “the rig must be tighter than the vehicle” mean in practice?

That the rig’s own leak rate has to be far enough below the vehicle’s acceptance limit that it cannot influence the result. If a wagon is allowed, say, a certain drop per minute and the rig itself leaks at a similar order, then a perfectly good wagon and a leaking rig produce the same number, and there is no way to tell them apart from the printout. In practice three things follow. First, internal leakage is a design target — an order of magnitude below the limit — which drives fitting choices, seal selection and the decision to weld or braze rather than thread wherever it is sensible. Second, the couplings and hoses become the critical items: they are handled roughly, dragged over ballast, coupled and uncoupled dozens of times a shift, and they are exactly where a rig starts leaking first, so they are specified as the tightest and most robust part of the assembly rather than bought as a fitting. Third, leak-proving becomes a routine: a self-test the rig runs against its own blanked-off volumes at the start of a shift, which takes a minute and either passes or tells the depot the rig needs attention. A rig that is only leak-checked at annual calibration will spend part of the year quietly failing good vehicles — and the moment a depot suspects that, the equipment loses its authority even when it is right.

Q · 03 How does a rake test rig differ from a single vehicle rig?

In what limits the design. On a single vehicle the challenge is precision — small volumes, small leak rates, tight timing on one set of equipment. On a formed rake the challenge becomes flow and volume: the rig has to charge the brake pipe of an entire train, which is a very large volume at the far end of a long, restricted pipe with a coupling at every vehicle. If the rig is sized on pressure alone it will technically work and practically fail, because charging the rake takes so long that the yard stops using it. So a rake rig is sized on delivered flow against a full-length train, with the receiver capacity and compressor duty to match. The questions it answers are different too. A single-vehicle rig asks whether this vehicle is fit. A rake rig asks whether the train is fit: is the brake pipe continuous through every vehicle and every coupling; what is the total leakage across the whole formation; and does an application made at one end propagate to the far end within the permitted time, and release again the same way. That last one — propagation — is uniquely a train-level property. No amount of testing individual vehicles proves it, which is exactly why the rake rig exists alongside the vehicle rigs rather than instead of them.

Q · 04 Why automate the sequence — the test can be done with cocks and a gauge?

It can, and for decades it was. Automation buys three things a depot values in a specific order. Repeatability comes first: performed by hand, the sequence depends on which cock is opened when, for how long, and how promptly the hold is timed — all of which vary between people, and vary more at the end of a shift. Built into a manifold and recalled from a recipe, the test is identical every time, which is the only basis on which results can be compared between vehicles or trended over time. Throughput comes second: a depot has a queue, and the difference between proving a detail of vehicles in a shift and in a day is the difference between a rig that is used and one that is bypassed when things are busy — which is when it matters most. The record comes third: an automatic sequence naturally produces a timed dataset, so the certificate, the pass/fail decision against the limits, and the vehicle history all fall out of the same run rather than being transcribed by hand. What automation does not change is the underlying physics or the acceptance criteria — the rig is running the same standard test, just doing it the same way every time and writing it down.

Q · 05 Can an existing rig be computerised rather than replaced?

Often, and it is usually the better value where the base machine is sound. What generally survives is the structure, the air receivers and the pipework, provided the pipework can be proved tight to the standard the new instrumentation will expose — which is worth establishing honestly at survey, because a retrofit onto a leaking base is a way of buying an accurate measurement of the wrong thing. What gets replaced or added is the solenoid manifold and sequencing, pressure transducers with proper time resolution, the controller and recipes, the pass/fail logic and certificate printing, and the network path into the depot’s systems. Reference volumes are measured and documented as part of the work, since an old rig frequently has volumes nobody has ever recorded. The practical advantages are cost, and that the depot keeps a machine its people already know physically while gaining the repeatability and records. The honest caveat is that a retrofit is only worth doing if the base is tight and the structure is sound — and that judgement is made at survey, before quoting, not after.

Q · 06 What do you build, and what is bought-in?

What Neometrix does: the rig — structure, cabinet or trackside column, air receivers, reference volumes, pipework and the couplings and hoses that reach the vehicle; the air system — clean, dry, oil-free supply at controlled pressure, sized on flow for rake work; the sequencing — solenoid manifolds, recipes and interlocks; the instrumentation and software — transducer installation, time-resolved acquisition, pass/fail against the limits, certificates, the vehicle history database and the interface to the depot’s systems; the leak-proving self-test; and installation, commissioning, calibration, training, spares and AMC. What is bought-in certified: pressure transducers, solenoid valves and regulators, industrial controllers and printers, each with its certificates. This page is the vehicle and train level; the brake-equipment, air-brake-system and universal test benches on this site cover the component level below it, and are linked below. Engineered to order; quoted across single-wagon, single-coach and rake test-rig requirements; grounded in the delivered brake-equipment test-bench franchise; no delivered vehicle- or rake-level test rig is claimed on this page.

↗

The brake-testing family from Neometrix.

The equipment and component benches that cover the level below this page, and the rail test franchise beside it — engineered at our Noida facility.

↗ Equipment

Brake Equipment Test Rig

The component level — brake equipment proven on the bench before it goes under a vehicle.

↗ Universal Bench

Computerized Control Universal Brake Test Bench

The workshop bench for brake system components and distributor valves.

↗ Rail

Rail Bogie Test Rig & Turntable

The running-gear sibling — the other half of what a depot proves.

Browse all Neometrix product lines.

Get a quotation

Send the stock types
and the specification.

The projects desk replies within two working days with a clause-by-clause compliance matrix and a budgetary quotation. Write to [email protected] or use the form.

Enquire — brake test rigs Capability sheet (PDF) +91 7777 876 876

ISO 9001 / 14001 ENGINEERED TO ORDER — SINGLE WAGON, SINGLE COACH & RAKE TEST RIGS RATES NOT READINGS · TIGHTER THAN THE STOCK · SEQUENCED · CERTIFIED PER VEHICLE ENGINEERED IN NOIDA · INDIA

A brake test is a rate, not a reading.

The clock decides, not the gauge.

Every criterion is a slope

The rig is not the leak

A certificate per vehicle

Charge, apply, release, hold and measure.

Air & Reference Volumes

Solenoid Sequencing

Transducers & Clock

Pass-Fail & Certificate

Reference rig, built to the specification.

Where brake test rigs go wrong

One discipline, three scales and a retrofit.

Single Wagon Test Rigs

Single Car & Coach Test Rigs

Rake Test Rigs

Computerisation, Retrofit & AMC

Wherever stock is signed out.

Common questions.

The brake-testing family from Neometrix.

Brake Equipment Test Rig

Computerized Control Universal Brake Test Bench

Rail Bogie Test Rig & Turntable

Send the stock types
and the specification.

Similar Products

Share This Page

A brake test is a rate, not a reading.

The clock decides, not the gauge.

Every criterion is a slope

The rig is not the leak

A certificate per vehicle

Charge, apply, release, hold and measure.

Air & Reference Volumes

Solenoid Sequencing

Transducers & Clock

Pass-Fail & Certificate

Reference rig, built to the specification.

Where brake test rigs go wrong

One discipline, three scales and a retrofit.

Single Wagon Test Rigs

Single Car & Coach Test Rigs

Rake Test Rigs

Computerisation, Retrofit & AMC

Wherever stock is signed out.

Common questions.

The brake-testing family from Neometrix.

Brake Equipment Test Rig

Computerized Control Universal Brake Test Bench

Rail Bogie Test Rig & Turntable

Send the stock typesand the specification.

Similar Products

Share This Page

Send the stock types
and the specification.