The standards of the complete work "State of the railway vehicles" contain technical specifications for systems and components of railway vehicles of standard gauge (standard gauge vehicles according to DIN 25003) that are relevant to safety and require monitoring. This standard specifies the limit state for the safe operation of standard gauge railway vehicles and their components. It is to be applied if the vehicles are operated on a public railway infrastructure. The minimum requirements for the processes to maintain the target state of the railway vehicles, as shown in the standards, shall also be applied. In addition, this standard shall also be applied to new design where design provisions are to be made to meet the operating limit criteria. NOTE 1 Design for maintenance-friendly verification of operating limit dimensions shall be considered. NOTE 2 The applicability of this standard to railroad vehicles of other gauges and their components shall be considered on a case-by-case basis. This standard applies to block brakes of railway vehicles and deals with the mechanical part of single and double acting block brakes and describes the technical nominal condition of the following assemblies: a) brake linkage including brake linkage adjusters and friction elements; b) hand brake/parking brake; c) operating and changeover devices; d) brake cylinder (without functional test). Recommendations for compact brake units are given in informative Annex A.