British carriage and wagon numbering and classification
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A number of different numbering and classification schemes have been used for carriages and wagons on Britain's railways, and this page explains the principal systems. Carriages and wagons (either not self-propelled, or part of a multiple unit which has power units distributed throughout a semi-permanent formation of carriages) have frequently had similar arrangements for classification and numbering, so are considered together. There are also links to other pages that deal in greater depth with the particulars of individual types.
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[edit] Note on classification
Carriage and wagon classification has never been quite the same as locomotive and multiple unit classification. For most railways, specific types were identified by their Diagram Number. This could simply be arranged by consecutive number, or there could be some greater organisation of numbers so that similar types were grouped together.
However, carriages and wagons have rarely been referred to in general terms by their Diagram Number. Instead, there have been a variety of other codes and designations, which have referred to generic designs rather than specific types. For instance, there were the BR (adapted from the LNER system) and LMS carriage codes, which indicated interior layout or usage. The GWR identified their non-passenger carriages and wagons through a series of animal designations, including sealife for departmental (non-revenue earning) stock, followed by a letter to illustrate detail differences, e.g. Beetle A.
Therefore the majority of the sections below deal solely with carriage and wagon numbering series, though where a particular classification system was used, this is also described.
[edit] Pre-nationalisation arrangements
Before nationalisation in 1948, each railway company devised its own numbering arrangements.
- The Great Western Railway and London, Midland and Scottish Railway (from 1933) adopted a system which allocated number ranges within one series for different types.
- The Southern Railway followed a similar approach, but used two series; one for passenger carriages and one for non-passenger carriages.
- The London and North Eastern Railway numbered its carriages so that the first digit indicated which area it was allocated to.
- The Great Western Railway Diagram Numbers included a letter to indicate the general layout or usage followed by a serial number issued consecutively.
[edit] British Railways
British Railways inherited the stock of the 'Big Four' companies upon Nationalisation in 1948, and also a substantial number of former 'Private Owner' wagons. It also inherited the stock of the Pullman Car Company, when it was nationalised in the late 1950s.
[edit] Numbering system
[edit] Arrangements at Nationalisation
After Nationalisation, the numbers of carriages and wagons inherited from the 'Big Four' companies were left unchanged, but were differentiated by the addition of a prefix letter to show where they had originated from, as follows:
| E: | London & North Eastern Railway |
| M: | London Midland & Scottish Railway |
| S: | Southern Railway |
| W: | Great Western Railway |
An additional prefix "D" in front of the regional prefix letter indicated that the vehicle was in departmental (non-revenue earning) stock. Departmental stock (including locomotives) inherited from the Southern Railway carried numbers with an "S" suffix (indicating Service stock, an alternative term for departmental) which was deleted and replaced with the "DS" prefix.
In contrast, former 'Private Owner' wagons (those that had been owned by industrial concerns rather than the old railway companies) had a prefix letter "P" but were all renumbered into a new series commencing at 1.
New carriages and wagons built by British Railways to the designs of the 'Big Four' companies were numbered in their series and carried the appropriate letter prefix.
[edit] Arrangements from 1951
In 1951, the first carriages built to British Railways' designs appeared, known as the 'Mark I'. From this time, a new approach was adopted, which involved the use of a prefix letter to indicate the region to which the carriage was allocated. The inherited carriages then showed the letter indicating the region responsible for heavy maintenance, usually the same as the company of origin, as a suffix.
Thus new British Railways carriages had no suffix and so were differentiated from the other four series. When the carriages of the Pullman Car Company were added to the mix, their numbers carried only a suffix (indicating regional allocation), and no prefix, as a means of differentiation. The regional allocation letters used were:
| E: | Eastern Region |
| GE: | Great Eastern lines |
| M: | London Midland Region |
| NE: | North Eastern Region |
| S: | Southern Region |
| SC: | Scottish Region |
| W: | Western Region |
Wagons were treated differently: they retained the existing set of prefixes indicating their origin, and new stock built to British Railways designs was given a "B" prefix.
British Railways adopted the following numbering system for carriages and wagons built to its own designs (a small number of types built to pre-Nationalisation designs were later allocated numbers in this series, but only following rebuilding to new types):
| 1 | - | 499 | First class Restaurant & Kitchen carriages |
| 500 | - | 999 | Pullman carriages (after Pullman Car Company nationalised) |
| 1000 | - | 1999 | Third class & Unclassified Restaurant & Kitchen carriages |
| 2000 | - | 2399 | First class Sleeper carriages |
| 2400 | - | 2499 | Composite Sleeper carriages |
| 2500 | - | 2899 | Third class Sleeper carriages |
| 2900 | - | 2999 | Royal saloons (later all Royal Train carriages) |
| 3000 | - | 3499 | First class Open carriages |
| 3500 | - | 3699 | Second class Open carriages |
| 3700 | - | 9199 | Third class Open carriages |
| 9200 | - | 12999 | Third class Brake Open carriages |
| 13000 | - | 13999 | First class Corridor carriages |
| 14000 | - | 14999 | First class Brake Corridor carriages |
| 15000 | - | 20999 | Composite First & Third class Corridor carriages |
| 21000 | - | 23999 | Composite First & Third class Brake Corridor carriages |
| 24000 | - | 33999 | Third class Corridor Carriages |
| 34000 | - | 39999 | Third class Brake Corridor carriages |
| 40000 | - | 49999 | Non-gangwayed carriages |
| 50000 | - | 54999 | Single-ended Driving Motor Diesel Mechanical Multiple Unit carriages |
| 55000 | - | 55999 | Double-ended Driving Motor Diesel Mechanical Multiple Unit carriages |
| 56000 | - | 58999 | Driving Trailer Diesel Mechanical Multiple Unit carriages |
| 59000 | - | 59999 | Trailer Diesel Mechanical Multiple Unit carriages |
| 60000 | - | 60999 | Diesel Electric Multiple Unit carriages |
| 61000 | - | 67999 | Motor Electric Multiple Unit carriages |
| 68000 | - | 68999 | Parcels Electric Multiple Unit carriages |
| 69000 | - | 69999 | Restaurant and Kitchen Electric Multiple Unit carriages |
| 70000 | - | 74999 | Trailer Electric Multiple Unit carriages |
| 75000 | - | 78999 | Driving Trailer Electric Multiple Unit carriages |
| 79000 | - | 79999 | Diesel Multiple Unit Carriages (pre-Modernisation Plan types) |
| 80000 | - | 80299 | Kitchen carriages |
| 80300 | - | 80499 | Travelling Post Office carriages |
| 80500 | - | 99999 | Hauled non-passenger carrying carriages |
Numbers 100000 to 999999 were used for non-passenger rated stock (including wagons, vans and departmental (non-revenue earning) carriages), while internal user vehicles (stock used for internal purposes (e.g. stores) at specific locations and unlikely to move) took numbers in the 0xxxxx series. For more details of these series see below.
Initially some non-gangwayed carriages were numbered in the 5xxxx series, but these were soon renumbered to 4xxxx when the Modernisation Plan Diesel Multiple Units started to arrive. Another change came when Third Class was renamed Second Class. There had been very few Second Class carriages before this change (mainly used in Boat Trains since ships still used all three classes), and most were absorbed into the larger mass of former Third Class carriages, although they had many fewer seats.
The same series was used for the 'Mark II' coaches built in the 1960s, but when the 'Mark III' carriage was introduced in the early 1970s new number ranges were carved out of the old series. These new ranges were perpetuated for the 'Mark IV' carriages in the 1980s), and were as follows:
| 10000 | - | 10499 | Restaurant and Kitchen carriages |
| 10500 | - | 10999 | Sleeper carriages |
| 11000 | - | 11899 | First class carriages |
| 11900 | - | 11999 | Composite First & Second class carriages |
| 12000 | - | 12999 | Second class carriages |
| 40000 | - | 40999 | High Speed Train Restaurant & Kitchen carriages |
| 41000 | - | 41999 | High Speed Train First class carriages |
| 42000 | - | 42999 | High Speed Train Second class carriages |
| 43000 | - | 43999 | High Speed Train Driving Motor carriages |
| 44000 | - | 45999 | Second class Brake carriages |
| 48000 | - | 48999 | Advanced Passenger Train Trailer carriages |
| 49000 | - | 49999 | Advanced Passenger Train Motor carriages |
| 82000 | - | 82999 | Driving Van Trailer carriages |
The new diesel multiple unit builds in the 1980s utilised the 52xxx, 55xxx, 57xxx and 58xxx series for the individual carriages, all of which were motored. The 55xxx and 58xxx contained a mix of driving and non-driving motors, but the 52xxx and 57xxx cars were all driving motors. In addition, some series have been used for conversions of carriages, e.g. 63xx has been used for a variety of miscellaneous carriages, including generator vans and observation saloons. Privately-owned carriages registered to run on British Railways were allocated numbers in the 99xxx series (which they shared with bullion and exhibition vans).
Another major change came in 1983 when the use of prefix and suffix letters was abandoned, and any carriage which had the same number as another carriage or a locomotive was renumbered. The programme worked as follows:
| 14000-14999 | to | 17000-17999 | to avoid clashing with Southern Railway carriages |
| 16000-16499/ 15500-15999 |
to | 7000-7999 | to avoid clashing with Southern Railway carriages |
| 25000-26999 | to | 18000-19999 | to avoid clashing with Class 25 and 26 locomotives |
| 40000-40099 | to | 40400-40499 | to avoid clashing with Class 40 locomotives |
| 50000-50999 | to | 53000-53999 | to avoid clashing with Class 50 locomotives |
| 56000-56999 | to | 54000-54999 | to avoid clashing with Class 56 locomotives |
| 81000-81999 | to | 84000-84999 | to avoid clashing with Class 81 locomotives |
| 85500-85599 | to | 94000-94099 | to avoid clashing with Class 85 locomotives |
| 86000-86999 | to | 93000-93999 | to avoid clashing with Class 86 locomotives |
Subsequently, further renumberings have taken place as new locomotives were introduced. Most have involved only a handful of carriages, but a major one saw carriages in the 920xx series renumbered to 929xx when the Class 92 locomotives were introduced.
This series has been perpetuated by the privatised railway, though the series have been adapted for new generation multiple unit stock. For instance, the latest diesel multiple units have reused the 50xxx and 79xxx series for driving motors and the 56xxx series for non-driving motors. In the electric multiple unit series, Class 390 Pendolinos have reused the 68xxx and 69xxx series.
[edit] Departmental and Internal User Stock
Most departmental and internal user vehicles are converted from revenue-earning stock; only a small number are built for non-revenue earning use. As mentioned above, initially stock inherited from the 'Big Four' companies were given regional prefixes (e.g. DE, DM, DS and DW) indicating their origin, and adapting existing number series.
From about 1951, British Railways started to use new numbering series for additions to departmental and internal user stock, allocated on a regional basis, as follows:
| Region | Departmental Carriages | Internal User Stock |
|---|---|---|
| London Midland | DM395000 onwards | 020000 onwards |
| Eastern and North Eastern | DE320000 onwards | 040000 onwards (a separate series commencing at 042000 was initially used for the North Eastern Region but later abandoned and these numbers have now been reused by the Eastern Region series) |
| Western | DW150000 onwards | Various series used in 06xxxx and 07xxxx ranges (only that commencing at 060900 now in use) |
| Southern | DS1 onwards (existing SR series) and DS70000 onwards (from 1957) | 080000 onwards |
| Scottish | No separate series used | 095xxx, 096xxx, 097xxx and 099xxx series used |
No prefix letters were used for internal user stock. Departmental wagons (and some passenger-rated non-passenger carrying coaching stock) often kept their original revenue earning stock number, but with the addition of the "D" prefix.
By the end of the 1960s, British Rail-built carriages were entering departmental stock and being allocated one of the regional prefixes according to their location, but from 1967 the "DB" prefix was introduced for all further additions to departmental stock (regardless of origin). This prefix was itself prefixed with a letter to indicate the use of the vehicle, as follows:
| A: | Mechanical & Electrical Engineers department |
| C: | British Rail Engineering Ltd |
| K: | Signalling & Telecommunications department |
| L: | Mechanical & Electrical Engineers Electrical Construction department |
| R: | Research department |
| T: | Traffic department |
| X: | Stores department |
| Z: | Public Relations & Publicity department |
The principal numbering series for carriages with the "DB" prefix have been 975xxx, then 977xxx. The next series to be used is expected to be 971xxx, but no numbers in this series have yet been applied.
Some early carriage conversions carrying the "DB" prefix were numbered in the 963xxx series, while carriages built new into departmental stock have usually been numbered in the 999xxx (and sometimes 998xxx) series (though this series also contains some conversions too).
Also in the early days of the "DB" prefix, some departmental locomotives were numbered in the 966xxx and 968xxx series, though in recent years those locomotives that remain self-propelled have been allocated locomotive Class 97 rather than use these series.
[edit] TOPS CARKND classification system
When the Total Operations Processing System was introduced by British Railways, classifications were applied to all carriages and wagons and recorded in a field called CARKND, which is now also used to refer to the classification system as a whole. The classification comprises three letters, the first of which indicates the broad type, as follows:
| A: | Hauled passenger carrying carriages |
| B: | Bogie Steel wagons |
| C: | Covered bulk wagons |
| D: | Diesel Multiple Unit carriages |
| E: | Electric Multiple Unit carriages |
| F: | Flat wagons |
| G: | High Speed Train carriages |
| H: | Hopper wagons |
| I: | Ferry wagons (International wagons) |
| J: | Private owner bogie wagons (previously bogie steel coil wagons) |
| K: | Private owner special wagons (previously 2-axle steel coil wagons) |
| L: | Advance Passenger Train carriages |
| M: | Mineral wagons |
| N: | Hauled non-passenger carrying carriages |
| O: | Open wagons |
| P: | Private owner 2-axle wagons (originally all private owner wagons) |
| Q: | Hauled departmental (non-revenue earning) carriages |
| R: | Barrier wagons |
| S: | 2-axle steel wagons |
| T: | Tank wagons |
| U: | Uncovered bulk wagons |
| V: | Vans |
| W: | Container wagons |
| X: | Special use wagons |
| Y: | Departmental bogie wagons |
| Z: | Departmental two-axle vehicle (carriage or wagon) |
The second letter gave more detailed indication of the design or use of the stock in question, and was different for each series. The tables below lists the variations for carriages only:
| A Series | |
|---|---|
| AA: | Corridor carriage |
| AB: | Brake Corridor carriage |
| AC: | Open carriage (2+2 seating) |
| AD: | Open carriage (2+1 seating) |
| AE: | Brake Open carriage |
| AF: | Driving Brake Open carriage |
| AG: | Micro-Buffet carriage |
| AH: | Kitchen Buffet carriage |
| AI: | Open carriage (2+2 seating) - end of rake of Mark IV set |
| AJ: | Restaurant Buffet carriage |
| AK: | Kitchen carriage |
| AL: | Open carriage (2+2 seating) - with disabled persons' toilet |
| AM: | Restaurant carriage |
| AN: | Miniature Buffet carriage |
| AO: | Private Owner carriages |
| AP: | Pullman Kitchen |
| AQ: | Pullman Saloon |
| AR: | Pullman Brake |
| AS: | Sleeping carriages |
| AT: | Royal Train carriages |
| AU: | Sleeping carriages (with pantry) |
| AV-AY: | Barrier vehicles |
| AX: | Generator Van (Until 1987: Narrow gauge carriages) |
| AY: | (Until 1987: Narrow gauge Brake carriages) |
| AZ: | Special saloon |
| D and E Series | |
|---|---|
| xA: | Driving Motor |
| xB: | Driving Motor Brake |
| xC: | Non-driving Motor |
| xD: | Non-driving Motor Brake |
| xE: | Driving Trailer |
| xF: | Battery Driving Trailer |
| xG: | Driving Trailer Brake |
| xH: | Trailer |
| xI: | Battery Driving Motor |
| xJ: | Trailer Brake |
| xN: | Trailer Buffet |
| xO: | Battery Driving Trailer Brake |
| xP: | Driving Motor (Diesel Mechanical Multiple Unit only) |
| xQ: | Driving Motor Brake (Diesel Mechanical Multiple Unit only) |
| xR: | Non-driving Motor (Diesel Mechanical Multiple Unit only) |
| xS: | Driving Trailer (Diesel Mechanical Multiple Unit only) |
| xT: | Trailer (Diesel Mechanical Multiple Unit only) |
| xU: | Trailer Brake (Diesel Mechanical Multiple Unit only) |
| xX: | Non-passenger Driving Motor and single-car passenger DMMUs |
| xY: | Non-Passenger Non-driving Motor |
| xZ: | Departmental stock |
| G and L Series | |
|---|---|
| xC: | Motor |
| xE: | Driving Trailer |
| xF: | Barrier Vehicle |
| xH: | Trailer |
| xJ: | Trailer with Guard's compartment |
| xK: | Trailer Kitchen with Buffet |
| xL: | Trailer Kitchen |
| xM: | Trailer Kitchen with Lounge |
| xN: | Trailer Buffet |
| N Series | |
|---|---|
| NA-NI: | Variety of Gangwayed Brake vans |
| NF: | Brake van |
| NG: | Car-carrying flat wagon |
| NJ-NK: | General Utility van |
| NL-NM: | Newspaper van |
| NN: | Courier vehicle |
| NO-NQ: | Parcels van |
| NR: | Container van |
| NS: | Post Office Sorting van |
| NT: | Post Office Stowage van |
| NU: | Post Office Stowage Brake van |
| NV: | Car-carrying van |
| NW: | Bullion van |
| NX: | Motorail van |
| NY: | Exhibition van |
| NZ: | Driving Van Trailer |
| Q, Y and Z Series | |
|---|---|
| xA-xC: | Ballast and sleeper wagons |
| xD: | General materials wagon |
| xE: | Runner wagon |
| xF: | Ballast hopper wagon |
| xG: | General materials wagon |
| xH: | Spoil wagon |
| xI: | Crane |
| xJ: | Tracklayer |
| xK-xM: | Ballast wagon |
| xN: | Steel wagon |
| xO: | Crane (travelling) |
| xP: | Staff or dormitory vehicle |
| xQ: | Tool vehicle |
| xR: | Stores or materials vehicle |
| xS: | Operating vehicle (e.g. barrier, generator) |
| xT: | Brake van |
| xU: | Brake van plough |
| xV: | General equipment vehicle (e.g. flat wagon) |
| xW: | On Track Plant, saloon or self-propelled vehicle |
| xX: | Specialist equipment vehicle |
| xY: | Electrification equipment vehicle |
| xZ: | Miscellaneous vehicle (e.g. snowplough, unpowered former locomotive) |
The final letter indicated the braking arrangements. Nowadays almost all stock is air-braked, but when TOPS was first introduced there was much greater variety, which made marshalling trains more complicated and this information essential. The letters were:
| A: | Air brake only |
| B: | Air brake plus through vacuum pipe |
| D: | Electronic control |
| E: | Electro-pneumatic brake |
| F: | Vacuum brake (AFI equipment) |
| G: | Vacuum brake plus through air pipe (AFI equipment) |
| H: | Dual brake (AFI equipment) |
| O: | Unfitted (handbrake only) |
| P: | Unfitted, but through vacuum pipe |
| Q: | Unfitted, but through air pipe |
| R: | Unfitted, but through air and vacuum pipes |
| V: | Vacuum brake only |
| W: | Vacuum brake plus through air pipe |
| X: | Dual brake (air and vacuum) |
| Y: | Unfitted (Civil Engineer's self-propelled stock) |
[edit] See also
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