One major anomaly remained in the railway's operations: the 1889 Regulation of Railways Act had required, amongst other measures, that all British passenger trains be fitted with continuous brakes. McConnel had secured an exemption for the Talyllyn Railway, on the basis that the low speed of operation meant they were unnecessary and that the cost of compliance would bankrupt the enterprise, but by the end of the 1990s the Railway Inspectorate was insisting that the Talyllyn be brought into compliance with the act, a little over 100 years after it had passed. By 2001, the railway had fitted its entire passenger fleet with the necessary equipment, operated by air brake pumps mounted on the locomotives.