Interesting Jay - I have never seen the word "laguna" used in that manor but it is way cool! Makes perfect sense - meaning a "disconnect" or "blocked from understanding"!

Do not see an air line in those photographs which would indicate "no brakes". In those days you interspersed "braking vans" into the overall train. That meaning goods wagons with mechanically applied brakes and a small shelter for the operator. As said above, braking instructions would be relayed to the rest of the train using either colored flags or whistle codes. In the US every car had mechanical brakes and a brake wheel jutting up above the roof of the car. Brakemen would actually jump from car to car tightening or loosening these mechanical brakes again based on whistle signals and experience.

German, I think, style brakemans shelter.

Nice shots - good find!

???? I see mechanical coupler linkage and tightening handle for slack adjustment (Handle just like on a bench vise) but no air lines (hoses). Therefore no air brakes.

The comment for the photos were that some did and some did not have brakes. The car in the top photo does; I can clearly see the brake shoe along the right-hand side of the wheels, plus you can make out some of the associated hose work along the bottom and ends of the car. The bottom photo featuring the man holding the tightening lever shows a car without brakes. You can clearly see there are no brake shoes at all.

Interesting link about braking systems on trains: LINK Kind regards, Robert Jan

I was speaking about the photo immediately above with the guy holding the coupler hardware as not having an air hose. The two photos higher up that Robin posted are brake wagons - they have the small shelter for the brake operator so of course they have brake shoes - they have mechanical brakes operated by the guy in the shelter - still no air lines.