Use of headcodes on Southern Region to denote calling patterns

[Deepgreen]

Moderator note: split from

Why do Elizabeth Line trains still skip stops in the Western Section

Is there a reason why off peak services still skip certain stops. I understood this was for pathing but since the GWR services now almost all use the fast lines until Slough/Reading (the Didcot Pakrway service specifically), why do they still skip?

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Obviously not a solution now, but this is the sort of thing the old SR headcodes facilitated - people knew their two-number codes and caught the right trains accordingly.

For example, 24 (Waterloo to Shepperton), and, I think, 15 (Waterloo to Horsham) - used to miss out Vauxhall and Earlsfield in the '70s, whereas most of the other suburbans called there.

The headcodes were a very quick way to determine the calling pattern.

 

[ThreeIfByAir]

Obviously not a solution now, but this is the sort of thing the old SR headcodes facilitated - people knew their two-number codes and caught the right trains accordingly. For example, 24 (Waterloo to Shepperton), and, I think, 15 (Waterloo to Horsham) - used to miss out Vauxhall and Earlsfield in the '70s, whereas most of the other suburbans called there. The headcodes were a very quick way to determine the calling pattern.

The Paris RER does something very similar -- there's a pronounceable four-letter code that denotes the stopping pattern, which means that commuters in the know can say 'oh, that's an EOLE so it won't stop at Rosa Parks'. (not a real stopping pattern -- I THINK!)

 

[cle]

That stuff is incredibly archaic - headcodes were innovative in an era before screens and tannoys. Let alone trains which tell you the next stop.

In our era of over stimulation, there isn’t really an excuse for missing your stop.