Generally the letter of a headcode would indicate the destination district. For example 'A' was for trains to London (which I believe was common to all regions except Scottish). The letters E (Eastern), M (London Midland), N (North Eastern), O (Southern), S (Scottish) and V (Western) were used for inter-regional workings of both freight, parcels and passenger. Each region had a specific letter for the various districts. Class 1 workings also included mail trains. An example of an inter-regional working was 'The Cornishman' from Bradford Exchange (Eastern) to Penzance (Western). The 'up' working was 1E21 (to Bradford), the 'down' workkng (to Penzance) was 1V72 - this was in the early 1970's. Another example was the afternoon 'perishables' from Penzance to Crewe. Its headcode was 4M05 - indicating a working to the Midland region. It is worth noting that the Southern Region didn't use S as its regional 'letter', as that was allocated to the Scottish region.
Hi Dave, Just to clarify something. All Southern Region locos (Class 33, 71,73 & 74) operated with a 2 alpha/numeric digit code as did the EMU fleet. These numbers/letters actually denoted to route rather than the class of train and were used right up until the withdrawn of the 400 series slam door trains in 2005. Route codes were for example: 91 Waterloo-Weymouth/Weymouth -Waterloo fast service. 92 was a semi-fast, 93 a stopper & 94 was Weymouth boat train. 81 was a Waterloo-Portsmouth harbour/Portsmouth Harbour-Waterloo (via Guildford) fast service etc.
Precision Labels do some excellent 4 character headcodes for fitting in your diesel loco. Didint realise that the latter two numbers would be higher the later in the day when the train service operated.Enjoyed the presentation. Cheers Dave.
Thank you for these recent very informative videos. I was hoping that you were going to show the destination letter codes. As you said they changed a lot throughout the 70s so I will have to research them for myself. I could not take my eyes off of that O Scale Deltic, it is huge. No room in my house would be big enough to run that monster and I would not like to see it sitting on a shelf in a glass cabinet. Please all stay safe and continue with this great service. Martin. (Thailand)
Hi Martin, with the sheer number of variations it may be a bit 'much' for one of our livestreams, but we can look at covering this in more detail in the future.
For a light engine move the letter refers to the region or district that the move will start/terminate in and the last 2 numbers refer to the terminating depot. For example 0B01 was a light engine movement to/from Kings Cross depot. A regional Sectional Appendix will give the full list and also over the district and special destination letters for the region and district. For ECS movements the last 3 digits would be the headcode of the train the coaches are for, for example the ECS for 1N01 would be 5N01, which would terminate in the Newcastle district if on the ECML from London (1979 Sectional Appendix).
Until the 1970 timetable all up and down services from King's Cross use the headcode 1Axx for service. After this service fir Scitland became 1Sxx, Newcastle 1Nxx, Leeds 1Lxx and Hull 1Dxx. 1Axx was retained for trains to King's Cross from the Eastern region stations and 1Exx for those from Scotland. Source napier-chtonicles.co.uk.
It was not uncommon to see the wrong codes being displayed. Often caused by the winding mechanism getting stuck, or broken. I have seen one where the black code is not present at all on just one character! Plus the odd driver who couldn't be bothered to change the entire code or just one, or the numbers being between two numbers or letters! I saw an express full of passengers carrying the 5 of empty stock!
Love the series you are offering. Well done. St.Catharines Ontario Canada
Thanks John, glad you're enjoying the videos.
Generally the letter of a headcode would indicate the destination district. For example 'A' was for trains to London (which I believe was common to all regions except Scottish). The letters E (Eastern), M (London Midland), N (North Eastern), O (Southern), S (Scottish) and V (Western) were used for inter-regional workings of both freight, parcels and passenger. Each region had a specific letter for the various districts. Class 1 workings also included mail trains. An example of an inter-regional working was 'The Cornishman' from Bradford Exchange (Eastern) to Penzance (Western). The 'up' working was 1E21 (to Bradford), the 'down' workkng (to Penzance) was 1V72 - this was in the early 1970's. Another example was the afternoon 'perishables' from Penzance to Crewe. Its headcode was 4M05 - indicating a working to the Midland region. It is worth noting that the Southern Region didn't use S as its regional 'letter', as that was allocated to the Scottish region.
Although at the start on the ECML all trains to/from Scotland and the north-east used the letter A in bith directions until 1970.
Hi Dave, Just to clarify something. All Southern Region locos (Class 33, 71,73 & 74) operated with a 2 alpha/numeric digit code as did the EMU fleet. These numbers/letters actually denoted to route rather than the class of train and were used right up until the withdrawn of the 400 series slam door trains in 2005.
Route codes were for example: 91 Waterloo-Weymouth/Weymouth -Waterloo fast service. 92 was a semi-fast, 93 a stopper & 94 was Weymouth boat train. 81 was a Waterloo-Portsmouth harbour/Portsmouth Harbour-Waterloo (via Guildford) fast service etc.
Precision Labels do some excellent 4 character headcodes for fitting in your diesel loco. Didint realise that the latter two numbers would be higher the later in the day when the train service operated.Enjoyed the presentation. Cheers Dave.
Thank you for these recent very informative videos. I was hoping that you were going to show the destination letter codes. As you said they changed a lot throughout the 70s so I will have to research them for myself. I could not take my eyes off of that O Scale Deltic, it is huge. No room in my house would be big enough to run that monster and I would not like to see it sitting on a shelf in a glass cabinet. Please all stay safe and continue with this great service. Martin. (Thailand)
Hi Martin, with the sheer number of variations it may be a bit 'much' for one of our livestreams, but we can look at covering this in more detail in the future.
For a light engine move the letter refers to the region or district that the move will start/terminate in and the last 2 numbers refer to the terminating depot. For example 0B01 was a light engine movement to/from Kings Cross depot. A regional Sectional Appendix will give the full list and also over the district and special destination letters for the region and district.
For ECS movements the last 3 digits would be the headcode of the train the coaches are for, for example the ECS for 1N01 would be 5N01, which would terminate in the Newcastle district if on the ECML from London (1979 Sectional Appendix).
Very good video as usual Dave the codes seem very complicated .Thank you and Hattons
Great Video, very informative. Congratulations on 10K subscribers. keep up the good work Dave all the best.
Thanks David, here's aiming for 100k :-) - Dave
Well done good series, Harlow UK
Thanks David
Still learning👍
Does This actually apply to current electric trains like 1F61 Ore to London Bridge via Eastbourne Southern Railway
Didn’t the Royal train have all four discs up?
That's correct, the Royal Train copied the previous headlamp headcode and showed all four discs on the front of a locomotive.
Until the 1970 timetable all up and down services from King's Cross use the headcode 1Axx for service. After this service fir Scitland became 1Sxx, Newcastle 1Nxx, Leeds 1Lxx and Hull 1Dxx. 1Axx was retained for trains to King's Cross from the Eastern region stations and 1Exx for those from Scotland. Source napier-chtonicles.co.uk.
It was not uncommon to see the wrong codes being displayed. Often caused by the winding mechanism getting stuck, or broken. I have seen one where the black code is not present at all on just one character! Plus the odd driver who couldn't be bothered to change the entire code or just one, or the numbers being between two numbers or letters! I saw an express full of passengers carrying the 5 of empty stock!