Abstract: An emergency braking system for hoist cages, mounted for vertical travel between opposed guide rails, utilizes opposed pairs of pivoted brake application arms associated with braking web surfaces provided on the insides of the opposed hoist guide rails where each pair of brake application arms are provided, at one of their ends, with opposed pairs of braking surfaces associated with the webs and at their other ends with opposed cam follower rollers which, in turn, are associated with symmetrically opposed cam surfaced members which are mechanically connected to a spring biased hydraulic cylinder combination mounted for limited free lateral movement on the cage and located between the opposed pairs of brake application arms with the piston rod of the cylinder connected to one cam member and the cylinder per se to the other cam member. The cam member cam surfaces being arranged to apply spring braking pressure to the respective webs when the cylinder is not under pressure.