Ian: I'd be surprised if the loco didn't have any sort of air brakes, but the presence of air lines doesn't guarantee that it had a trainline brake system installed. It's possible the loco in the photo just had a straight pipe through it, like many freight cars of the time, so that in a double-headed consist the brakes of the lead loco could be used to control the train. Branchline rolling stock wasn't as sophisticated as mainline passenger coaches, for example, so most likely most of the cars (in the late 1800's, early 1900's, anyway) in branchline service would have had mechanical brakes still.

An air compressor was actually quite an enormous thing; it would be hard to hide on such a small loco. I wonder, is there any sign of air reservoirs? It would be difficult to explain those if there was no air pump.

Jurgen