B964122 at Rothley in July 2019. ©Dave Bower

British Rail discovered that their newly introduced diesel locomotives in the 1950s and 1960s had insufficient braking force on trains of unfitted goods wagons. This was due to diesel locomotives being lighter than their steam counterparts, which provided greater tractive effort at a cost of lesser braking ability. The solution was to produce a fleet of small tenders, which took the form of a hollow box mounted on a frame with a pair of former carriage bogies. They were low enough so not to obscure the driver's view when being pushed but could also be pulled directly behind the locomotive. The practice of using unfitted goods trains was phased out in the 1980s and all diesel brake tenders were scrapped as a result. In 2017, a replica tender was produced at the Great Central Railway using remnants of a Mk1 corridor coach and was given the next number in the brake tender sequence - B964122.

(Information provided via Wikipedia)

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