Meaning of terms such as Cancelled At Point of Entry (CAPE) etc

[Dr Day]

Must admit I always thought CAPE stood for Cancel and Put Away Engine, but that might be another backronym.

 

[MotCO]

The attached photo is an extract from the BR telegraph codes book. This page relates to train operating and CAPE appears halfway down.

None of the codes words are acronyms or derived from foreign languages.

Were the words chosen such that none could be misheard for another, in the same way that the phonetic alphabet was designed to avoid any confusion.

Edit- spelling correction

 

[Friary Yard]

Sometimes the reasons behind things can be lost in the mists of time and, as technology evolves, the memory for the reasons can be lost. These codewords were devised to keep the cost of telegrams to a minimum. Post Office Telegrams were charged by the word (or was it letter?). It is also worth remembering that telephones were not universal and so a Post Office telegram delivered by the messenger on his motorbike might be the the best way to pass a message.

The BTC 1958 Codebook runs to some 88 pages and starts with the following " The code words for phrases in regular use contained in this booklet must be used, where applicable, in telegrams over Railway or Post Office wires ...... brevity in telegrams is imperitive" Some of these words became so common , such as CAPE, that they entered railway language outside of messaging.

 

[Gloster]

A major reason for the various code words was that long ago messages had to be transmitted over the railway telegraph using a Morse code system and that the railway was reluctant to pay for more lines than they could get away with. If you have to spell out every letter of a message it is going to hog the line while other staff have to wait to send their messages. Using codewords reduces the time you spend on the line. It is much quicker to say ‘Walrus’ than ‘40 ton ballast hopper with side or centre chutes‘, or ‘Hanover’ than ‘The following train will be running in two parts’.

The words that were chosen were ones that not likely to be used very often in a message and even less likely to cause confusion if they did. Some were unintentionally amusing: ‘Funco’ for ‘Vehicle with funeral party and corpse.

 

[SargeNpton]

Sometimes the reasons behind things can be lost in the mists of time and, as technology evolves, the memory for the reasons can be lost. These codewords were devised to keep the cost of telegrams to a minimum. Post Office Telegrams were charged by the word (or was it letter?). It is also worth remembering that telephones were not universal and so a Post Office telegram delivered by the messenger on his motorbike might be the the best way to pass a message.

Costs of Post Office telegram was immaterial. The railway had its own internal telegraph network. Whilst only certain locations could send messages, just about every HQ, station, depot and signalbox had a printer on which they could be received.

The telegraph network lasted pretty much p until privatisation. As did the internal telephone network and internal post.

 

[Signal Head]

Vice isn't railway slang like a telegraph code, it's simply a rare use of Latin in via ferrea. It persists even today!

I used it in an email at work (rail industry) within the last year, then had to explain it to the recipient (older than me) who'd never heard of it.

 

[snowball]

People will perhaps be familiar with it in the phrase "vice versa", but it takes a bit of thinking to recognise that "vice" has basically the same meaning in that phrase.

 

[contrex]

Pre-agreed codes were used in international business, and apparently these were genuine: IDDOG - Ship in port, all hands down with scurvy, DIONYSIA - Amputation is considered necessary, BUKSI - Avoid arrest if possible, and BIINC - What appliances have you for lifting heavy machinery?

 

[Harpo]

Some were unintentionally amusing: ‘Funco’ for ‘Vehicle with funeral party and corpse.

Mmm. DOLE - No work for timber loader tomorrow.

FOOTEX was official. RUGGEX was fun - and I know where it started!

 

[Merle Haggard]

Mmm. DOLE - No work for timber loader tomorrow.

FOOTEX was official. RUGGEX was fun - and I know where it started!

And ... CRANKEX

///

Some may be aware of the code words allegedly used by the US Army when things have gone wrong ...

 

[Belperpete]

Were the words chosen such that none could be musheard for another, in the same way that the phonetic alphabet was designed to avoid any confusion.

And the what3words system used to identify your location.

 

[Kentish RYS]

And the what3words system used to identify your location.

Do you have a quote/source for that, as I have seen reports of issues with that not being the case for what3words?

 

[cardfile]

Do you have a quote/source for that, as I have seen reports of issues with that not being the case for what3words?

I believe W3W is very poorly designed in that regard, with word plurals and alternative spellings leading to credible but erroneous locations.

 

[Kentish RYS]

I believe W3W is very poorly designed in that regard, with word plurals and alternative spellings leading to credible but erroneous locations.

That is what I though, I'm not a fan of some of the places I see it used, the OS grid ref is fine for GB stuff and safety critical comms trained folks are trained to say letters & numbers safely

 

[Belperpete]

That is what I though, I'm not a fan of some of the places I see it used, the OS grid ref is fine for GB stuff and safety critical comms trained folks are trained to say letters & numbers safely

I wasn't aware of the problems with what3words, but it is far superior to OS Grid references, for example. OS may be fine for safety critical trained staff, but is very poor for the public, as it is so easy to get it wrong, numbers transposed, longitude and latitude the wrong way around, etc. What3words at least provides three easily remembered words.

Postcodes are an alternative, but you need to have somewhere that post can be delivered to have a postcode. One railway that I know has provided postboxes at all its stations and halts, so that they can have postcodes. But vast areas don't have a postcode. I once worked in a large office that didn't have a postcode! One of the previous businesses that shared the building moved out, and Royal Mail cancelled the postcode. We only found out a year or so later when a delivery company refused to deliver to us, as our postcode didn't exist.

 

[Harpo]

And ... CRANKEX

Yes. Very WR where ‘crank’ was a derogatory put down that was worse than ‘enthusiast’. The prefix ‘bloody’ added severity.

Some may be aware of the code words allegedly used by the US Army when things have gone wrong ...

SNAFU & FUBAR? Needed as an especially US degree of achievement?

 

[Merle Haggard]

Yes. Very WR where ‘crank’ was a derogatory put down that was worse than ‘enthusiast’. The prefix ‘bloody’ added severity.

SNAFU & FUBAR? Needed as an especially US degree of achievement?

Another WR 'code word' was GAFMO ; 'A reply quite soon would be really appreciated old chap'

SUSFU another US degree of achievement. But all three also apply to EMR Inter-City at the moment ...

 

[xotGD]

"Caped", as used by enthusiasts, has its origins in the official railway term CAPE, but the definition has widened to encompass cancellations bot throughout and part way through the journey. A bunch of cranks chatting on a Nedex* will know exactly what each other means. Likewise if one of them uses the word "dreadful" in the manner employed by enthusiasts.

*Nedex being the term I am more used to hearing than Crankex, but the two are synonymous.

Along similar lines, we have Beerex, Poshex, Popex, etc.

 

[Gloster]

It was quite common for a Boxer (*) to be passed down to signalmen south of Cogload/Taunton saying ‘Cape 1V80’ or ‘Cape 08.30 Newcastle’ (or ‘the Newcastle’) or whatever the train was. In fact the train may not have been cancelled entirely, but terminated short at Bristol (for example), but as far as we were concerned it was cancelled.

* - Boxer - ‘The following message will be passed from signalbox to signalbox’. This, along with Cape, was the most common codeword to be used as far as signalmen were concerned.

 

[KnobbyGB]

"Caped", as used by enthusiasts, has its origins in the official railway term CAPE, but the definition has widened to encompass cancellations bot throughout and part way through the journey. A bunch of cranks chatting on a Nedex* will know exactly what each other means. Likewise if one of them uses the word "dreadful" in the manner employed by enthusiasts.

Yeah I was one of those people many moons ago and I had no idea caped had an actual railway-origin. I thought it was just made-up slang. Oh, and it certainly didn't just apply to trains! For example. I have memories of someone who was quite annoying and wouldn't shut up being "caped into the sea" at Wick while sleeping on the beach one summer night waiting for the train back to Inverness. It's even a word I use to this day when talking to certain people.

 

[Horizon22]

Postcodes are an alternative, but you need to have somewhere that post can be delivered to have a postcode.

They are also nowhere specific enough for the purpose required here. One postcode could be a whole side of a street for example or a number of disparate buildings.

 

[45Fox]

FOOTEX was official. RUGGEX was fun - and I know where it started!

I can remember a few of those official excursion codes.

FOOTEX: Football Excursion.
ADEX: Additional Day Excursion.
MYSTEX: Mystery Excursion.

MYSTEX was denoted in the Special Traffic Notice: Destination not to be made known to members of the public. (Or very similar).

 

[6Gman]

I can remember a few of those official excursion codes.

FOOTEX: Football Excursion.
ADEX: Additional Day Excursion.
MYSTEX: Mystery Excursion.

MYSTEX was denoted in the Special Traffic Notice: Destination not to be made known to members of the public. (Or very similar).

Isn't ADEX Advertised rather than Additional? As opposed to an unadvertised Charter?

And HALFEX used to be widely used (Half Day Excursion) and I think EVEX (Evening Excursion) was also used.

 

[SargeNpton]

I can remember a few of those official excursion codes.

FOOTEX: Football Excursion.
ADEX: Additional Day Excursion.
MYSTEX: Mystery Excursion.

MYSTEX was denoted in the Special Traffic Notice: Destination not to be made known to members of the public. (Or very similar).

ADEX is an Advertised Day Excursion, i.e. one that was operated by BR (such as the old Merrymakers), and advertised to the public.

Private charters trains were described as PARSPEC.

 

[45Fox]

Isn't ADEX Advertised rather than Additional? As opposed to an unadvertised Charter?

I was wondering that myself after I posted.
Thanks for the confirmation.

 

[xotGD]

If a service was regularly used by someone we knew, then it would be referred to as an "EX". So the train that Jack travelled on would be the JACKEX.

 

[Adrian Barr]

"Caped", as used by enthusiasts, has its origins in the official railway term CAPE

I interpret Caped as functioning as a sort of past participle of CAPE. Technically it would be correct to say either "1S25 is CAPE" or "1S25 was CAPE" if the sleepers got cancelled, but it feels more natural to say CAPE'd if you are talking about an event that's already happened, as in "1S25 has been CAPE'd." I suppose it's similar to the way the word "cancelled" is used - saying a train "is CAPE" looks better written down (where it's more obviously used as a code word in capital letters) but can sound weird out loud because it feels similar to saying the train "is cancel."

CAPE is still used by rail staff (for example on a loco allocation sheet it might show CAPE instead of the loco number if the train is cancelled) but when spoken I hear it more often as "CAPE'd" - although it's probably just as common for staff to say or write "cancelled." I think the main reason it survives as a commonly spoken term (both by railway staff and enthusiasts) is that it conveniently replaces a frequently-used two-syllable word with a short and snappy one-syllable version. Alternatively, if you prefer to go down the route of cockney rhyming slang, you could say that a train has been "Nigel Manselled" - although you might get funny looks.

PINE is not a term I hear being used, although perhaps it's more common for passenger trains. For a cancellation part way through a journey on a freight train, it would be more common to hear something like "6Z66 is dying at Wembley" to indicate the train is being cancelled part-way through its journey. Although this is effectively slang (and would look odd in a written document) "dying at X" is quite useful as an expression which won't get confused with a cancellation throughout.

Except "vice" is a valid English word and not railway slang.

In addition to expressions like "diesel vice electric" or "5 car vice 10 car" to indicate the planned stock or formation has been replaced by something else, on the railway I associate the word "vice" in particular with expressions like "horn vice bell" to indicate types of AWS defect.

Another more obscure term from regular English that I encountered (albeit only once) on the railway was "stet" to indicate that the crossing-out (in pen) of a line in a document was to be ignored. Stet was written above it, used "to indicate that matter previously marked for deletion or revision is to remain unchanged."

The letters don’t necessarily stand for anything, originally they were just code words. Just about every type of tree, shrub or wood is in the full list, hardly any of the codes are initialisations of what they meant.

With the telegraph code words, there's a temptation to treat them as acronyms, but most of them either seem to be

1) seemingly random code words (like CAPE, along with long-forgotten terms in the link in post #6 such as GIRAFFE, OLIVE or OPIUM).
2) words with some vague relation to the thing they are talking about (like COTTON being related to explosives and RACOON being related to the movement of animals) .
3) a contraction of two words, such as BYRAG to mean "by arrangement" (as in "traffic may be accepted by arrangement only" - still used in cases where a yard is congested and cannot accept traffic other than previously planned services).

Many code words seem to have died out over time. It's been a few years since I've seen WALNUT REDE appended to the bottom of a document - perhaps he's retired.

However, one place that these telegraph code words survive in formal use is on the paperwork for exceptional load traffic, such as EXLO for "Exceptional load with speed or route restrictions only. To be signalled by the special is line clear 2-1-6."

A good example is the paperwork for pipe traffic from Hartlepool to Georgemas, which had a bumper crop of them (the first six apply generally and the rest to specific locations listed on the form). The continued reference to bell codes is interesting:

(1) AJAX: No train signalled 2-6-2 or 2-6-3 must be allowed on the running lines or sidings on both sides of the load. Train to be signalled by the special is line clear 2-6-2.
(2) BLOCSID: The adjoining lines to be blocked when working from running line to sidings and vice versa.
(3) BLOX: All adjoining lines to be blocked when using crossovers, junctions and running connections.
(4) CAWCROS: Extreme caution must be exercised when passing from main line to loops and sidings and vice versa and when in loops and sidings.
(5) CAWSTAB: Extreme care must be exercised when the load is recessed to ensure that it will clear structures and vehicles on adjacent tracks.
(6) GOBI: The above routes must be observed.

FABRIC Must not exceed speed of …………mph at or between…………
HAZARD Running lines or sidings on both sides of the load to be clear. To be signalled by the special is line clear 2-6-3
JOAN Running lines or sidings mentioned on the left hand side of the load looking in the direction of travel must be clear and no train signalled 2-6-2 or 2-6-3 must be allowed on the running lines or sidings on the right hand side of the load. To be signalled by the special is line clear 2-6-3
SAVO Crossovers at the following places must not be used …………
SULTAN Train conveying out-of gauge load must travel on ………. line as follows

 

[contrex]

Postcodes are an alternative, but you need to have somewhere that post can be delivered to have a postcode.

When I worked in Address Structure for TV Licensing, part of my task was weeding out locations that had postcodes but were not suitable for their database. I remember 'Water Tank', and 'Signal Box'. In cases of the former, we tended to get irate letters or phone calls from the nearest inhabited building, where the poor posties used to drop our 'reminders' off.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Aug 2026 ==

Wow, the fascinating world of railway codes!

 

[Gloster]

Stet is Latin and means ‘let it stand’. It is a printing term and means that an alteration that has been marked on should be ignored and the original left. (It has another legal meaning in Maryland (not East London) and I have used it as an example of a cryptic crossword clue: Southern offensive sticks (4).)

 

[cin88]

When I worked in Address Structure for TV Licensing, part of my task was weeding out locations that had postcodes but were not suitable for their database. I remember 'Water Tank', and 'Signal Box'. In cases of the former, we tended to get irate letters or phone calls from the nearest inhabited building, where the poor posties used to drop our 'reminders' off.

A former colleague of mine once told me that when he was a signaller at Bamber Bridge, they rigged up a dodgy Sky TV box (when such things were easily pirated) by scrambling onto the roof of an adjacent premises and mounting a satellite on a redundant aerial pole with said business being none the wiser. They almost got found out when one day a TV licence letter arrived at the box door and was brought to the attention of the notoriously strict local signalling inspector. My colleague initiated a mad scramble to remove all traces of the equipment and hide the box's illicit television with around 10 minutes to spare before a "surprise" visit from the inspector. Apparently the inspector was quite confused about the situation and found himself having to write to the TV licencing authority to tell them that the address was railway premises, and that televisions were not allowed there and thus no licence is required

On the subject of telegraph codes. In the aftermath of the disaster that was the May 2018 timetable, I ended up making CAPE and PINE a macro in Microsoft Word on account of the sheer amount times I had to write both out in my daily announcer's log.