Class 325 train with weird headcode (scrambled)

[Saperstein]

Hi,

While waiting at Nuneaton, for a London Euston to Holyhead service ,to get me back to Chester this evening I saw 325008 passing platform 3 towards Crewe.

According to RTT

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/P92190/2019/06/17/advanced

It’s the 1621 Willesden Princess Royal Distribution centre to Shieldmuir Mail Terminal service.

Delayed by the trespass incident at Watford.

My questions are:

Why is the headcode shown as: 123E? I thought it had to be a
number, letter then two numbers?

There were blue lights on the side that looked liked BIL’s which confused me but it maybe just the picture - I retreated behind a pillar when the announcement warned of a fast train with my iPhone ready lol.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

View attachment 64590

Why is the headcode shown as: 123E? I thought it had to be a
number, letter then two numbers?

They are. The ones displayed on the open data feed are scrambled "for reasons of commercial confidentiality" except for GBRf operated trains, which display the real codes because GBRf use Real Time Trains officially as a tool for staff....

The blue lights, I think, are movement detectors in case the load breaks free in transit.

 

[yorkie]

See https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/realtime-trains-freight-headcodes.131018/#post-2576376

...It's not the headcode as such which needs to be kept secret,
it's simply that the FOCs (other than GBRf, obviously!) do not want
their trains to be easily identifiable/traceable, and scrambling the
headcode (and removing the FOC name too) is by far the easiest
way to achieve that...

...It's still down to "commercial sensitivity", but in a broader sense,
i.e. the transport/logistics sector as a whole, so the FOCs don't
want road/sea shipping companies to know how many trains each
of them operate on a given flow on a given day/week/month.

 

[Highlandspring]

Unscrambled headcode is 1S96.