Question about prototype operation...

I was driving on the Healesville route the other day, and when I got to the end of the line the instructions told me to run around to the other end of the train so I could go back the other way.

Now, my understanding is that the Brake Van should always be at the end of a train, so that if a coupler breaks the crew in the van can apply brakes and stop the disconnected cars from rolling out of control. (This being before the invention of automatic air brakes.) So, to be more prototypically accurate, shouldn't the session instructions include an extra switching maneuver where I move the Brake Van to the siding and attach it at the back of the train before setting out? Is that how it would have been done on a real 19th century railroad?

Ideally yes, you would've wanted the ability to stop a broken runaway, but some things are unavoidable, and I'm guessing that under certain conditions it was probably acceptable practice to avoid the extra switching moves, particularly when dealing with a dead-ended branch line. Could also depend on the topography of the line, I'm not familiar with the route you're referring to specifically.

My guess would be in real life conditions of the day you'd probably back the train out of the branch coupled to the brake van, then once at the main you'd reconfigure the train as necessary, probably running the engine back to the head end of the train so you were headed down the main the correct way. Remember that most steam engines didn't go in reverse as well as the did forwards due to the tender and the construction of the cylinders/tie rods (unless you're driving a true tank engine - again I'm not familiar with the route in question), so I doubt under normal conditions you'd want to continue backwards down the main anyway - so why swap ends with the brake van only to have to swap the brake van back to the other end again at the main, unless there was a turntable handy to be able to run the other direction on the main.

This is with a true tank engine, no tender.

The route (Which I believe is only available on T:ANE) doesn't have any reversing loops or wyes. There's a turntable at each end, but of course a whole train won't fit on that and a tank engine doesn't need to be reversed anyway

Switching the brake van to the other end is fairly easy. There's already a siding for running the locomotive around, so all you need to do is uncouple the brake van and use the same siding to push it to the other end of the train. Then put the loco back in front and push the whole train back a bit to couple with the brake van again.

Hi Dght64
I had thought about implementing this in the session, however the carriage that is at the 'Healesville' end of the train is actually a combination passenger car with First Class, Second Class, and a Guards Van in the center (this is the reason for the slightly odd window layout compared to the other cars), and hence there's no need to shunt the guards van to the other end. The Victorian Railways often ran with a van at both ends of passenger trains to save shunting, although not always (it was common if a combined car was in the consist ).

I had actually intended to make the session a lot more complex (involving a run to Tarrawarra and then back to Healesville, then refuel and turn the loco on the turntable, before then returning to Lilydale), but simply ran out of time to do so.

Regards
Zec