Why "V" for Western Region?

[Merle Haggard]

The problem was deciphering the code words if you didn't have access to a copy of the code book. It was only after a friendly C&W Examiner took pity on me and presented me with a much thumbed copy that I found out how I was expected to respond to messages ending "WALNUT, REDE"!

By the by, does anyone know if cancelled trains are still described as "caped"?

WALNUT is 'Make all necessary arrangements as far as you are concerned' and REDE is 'Arrange and advise all concerned'. An acknowledgment to the sender is only required if there's an ACK at the end.

WALNUT REDE was used at the end of STRAD telexes setting out details of specials, working in the Freight Trains Office for a while I used it them a lot.
To test whether these code words were regarded as just part of the wallpaper of messages and skipped we (young, bright and perhaps a little immature ...) tried ending messages with WALNUT REDE BANANA to see if anyone asked what we meant. No one did.

 

[33017]

The problem was deciphering the code words if you didn't have access to a copy of the code book. It was only after a friendly C&W Examiner took pity on me and presented me with a much thumbed copy that I found out how I was expected to respond to messages ending "WALNUT, REDE"!

By the by, does anyone know if cancelled trains are still described as "caped"?

CAPED is still widely used, as are PINE and CALVIN, although the latter seems to be falling out of favour.

SKUNK is my favourite.

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

I think the OP got the reason that V was used in the first post; W could easily be confused with M, particularly if the W was condensed to fit into the aperture as others have mentioned.

Signalmen in mechanical boxes were expected to look out and read the headcode of passing trains to confirm identity; imagine a Brush type 4 (class 47), for example, hammering towards you in the darkness with all four characters bunched together and odd bits of light shining out from the edges of ill-fitting blind reels. You needed letters that were easily distinguishable.

CAPED is still widely used, as are PINE and CALVIN, although the latter seems to be falling out of favour.

SKUNK is my favourite.

At my current TOC none of the old codes are in official use, although CAPED is still used colloquially in conversation among staff.
Previous experience elsewhere suggests they are dying out as the staff old enough to have used them on a daily basis retire.

I recall as a young train announcer being told over the phone "Ilkley is caped". I thanked the caller and turned confusedly to my colleagues, my mind full of visions of a class 308 standing there in a superman outfit!
Luckily they were able to tell me what it meant

 

[Taunton]

There was one of the Ian Allan pocketbooks of the 1960s, "Railway Headcodes", which had all of this, the various different approaches, the systems still using position lights on the front, even those on the Underground, etc. Like most Ian Allan publications it was essentially just a reproduction of various BR internal documents, all pulled together and nicely summarised and formatted, such that even railway professional staff would have them on their desks instead of the equivalent unwieldy internal books.

Examples here:

Section 017: ABC British Railways Headcodes 1961-68 - Richard Cunningham

The British Railways Headcode ABCs were a very sporadic series, only five editions being produced between 1961 and 1968. All the scans were reviewed and updated in August 2020. I hope collectors will enjoy the dramatic improvement in quality.

daverowland.smugmug.com

 

[Gloster]

As a signalman in the early 1980s the only ones that I can remember being used regularly were BOXER (The following message to be passed box to box…) and CAPED. Occasionally we had HANOVER (The following train is running in two parts…) and URE (Special attention to be paid to the running of the following train…); the latter was regarded as ‘member of the board wants to get home for his tea’.

I understood that the choice of words was so that no two words sounded like or, presumably, could easily be misspelled (in telegraph days) so that it might be confused in a message with another codeword. Clarity of understanding was always important on the railway.

 

[Taunton]

"Telegraphese" was in common use in other businesses and to an extent the general public from times when telegrams were the main electronic communication and they were charged by the word. There were also specific single-word codes for delivery addresses, being likewise charged by the word. Harrods shop in Knightsbridge was well known for being "EVERYTHING LONDON". The 'What3Words' location system is reminiscent of this a century on!

 

[Rescars]

Fun aspect of "telegraphese" was that ++++EVERYTHING WAS IN CAPITALS AND UNPUNCTUATED STOP++++ Do that in text or email today and you get accused of shouting!

 

[TheHovisKid]

Inter-regional conventions are still followed - for example the Caledonian sleepers are 1S25, 1S26 going north and 1M11, 1M16 going south

Would thymetbhave once been 1A not 1M?

 

[jfollows]

See my attachments in reply #12
1A were services from/to points in the same region, for LM Western lines that meant Euston from Carlisle but not Glasgow.
If that answers your question?

 

[Taunton]

Does anyone know if any of the Scottish (ex Caledonian) semaphore route coding ever got translated into numerical code?

Was there a correlation between these and the Glasgow Blue Trains 2-character display, as the steam services moved directly to these?

Yes, the WR/GWR system carried on locos was amended from 3 numbers to the 4 character code but omitting the train class (although I think only used on Class 1 trains) . The original stencil holders were used so the letters had to fit, so W could be a problem.

It was remarkable that the WR were early adopters of displaying the newly introduced head codes.

The old WR system was digits only; when they changed to 4 characters new stencil plates had to be made for letters as well, which were thus notably less battered than the numbers were. There was some correlation - the Cornish Riviera had been 130, when changed to 4-character it became 1C30, and if hauled by a King instead of a Warship it now displayed C30 on the smokebox. C was the West of England Division, following the longstanding GWR sequence of divisions - 81 for London sheds, A for division code; 82 for Bristol sheds, B for division, 83 for WofE sheds, C for division, etc.

 

[LickeyIncliner]

And the "inter-regional" letter codes don't really exist any more, with S and I think M being used for some domestic services in England.

The codes used for trains to/from East Anglia (via March and Ely) seem particularly confusing (or confused). Everything going east (passenger and freight), whether originating from Peterborough or from much further away, has L as the letter in the headcode - as if East Anglia was a separate region with code L. Westbound freight nearly all has M, E or V corresponding to their destination - as one would expect if East Anglia was a separate region (there are one or two oddities). Westbound passengers trains terminating at Peterborough are E, again consistent with Anglia being a region. But those for Birmingham are N, whilst all the terminating points on or near the EM route (Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Derby) seem to be R.

Can anyone explain the logic of this?

 

[Western Sunset]

Wasn't Anglia, indeed, a separate region for a short period?

 

[Harpo]

as if East Anglia was a separate region with code L.

Anglia was a separate region at privatisation and at the start of Railtrack although the latter rolled it back into the York empire again at the end of the 90s.

 

[Merle Haggard]

Anglia was a separate region at privatisation and at the start of Railtrack although the latter rolled it back into the York empire again at the end of the 90s.

Goes back a while; was called 'Great Eastern' before Anglia. Coaches received 'GE' prefixes possibly late 1960s (time flies when you're old, so not certain o exact date)

 

[Taunton]

Goes back a while; was called 'Great Eastern' before Anglia. Coaches received 'GE' prefixes possibly late 1960s (time flies when you're old, so not certain o exact date)

It was indeed branded as such, but in official terms the BR Regions had been fixed in the 1947 legislation. This is what caused the difficulty in the late 1960s when the Ministry decided to merge the ER and NER to deliver some head office cost saving without initially realising they would have to get Parliamentary approval, then there was shilly-shallying about doing so. The government announced it would happen in 12 months time, then took 11 months to think about this before doing so, during which there was no budget allowed to spend anything on the required items, then finally said it was still to happen, on the initially announced date.

Gerry Fiennes, head of the ER and to be head of the combined Region, in "I Tried to Run a Railway" describes it all, with a single sarcastic "Ha-Ha". Apparently it was this single sentence comment about the Grandee civil servant in charge that led to the message passing down "Get rid of him".

A couple of TOC heads in recent years have said "Nothing ever changes ...".

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Goes back a while; was called 'Great Eastern' before Anglia. Coaches received 'GE' prefixes possibly late 1960s (time flies when you're old, so not certain o exact date)

BR's Anglia Region was created in 1988 - the 'GE' designation was for a lower level of line management, but still within the ER.

Anglia caused a lot of problems for some of the older BR mainframe IT systems, as the regions were 'hard-coded' and required quite extensive work to fix.

 

[Western Sunset]

Then there were the "Divisions" of the LMS / LMR. So steam trains, back in the day, particularly on excursions or extras, would appear with paper train numbers stuck onto a board fixed to the smokebox door. So a "W" would appear (Western Division), an M (Midland Division), etc.

But we're going a bit off my original question, as threads tend to do...

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

The codes used for trains to/from East Anglia (via March and Ely) seem particularly confusing (or confused). Everything going east (passenger and freight), whether originating from Peterborough or from much further away, has L as the letter in the headcode - as if East Anglia was a separate region with code L. Westbound freight nearly all has M, E or V corresponding to their destination - as one would expect if East Anglia was a separate region (there are one or two oddities). Westbound passengers trains terminating at Peterborough are E, again consistent with Anglia being a region. But those for Birmingham are N, whilst all the terminating points on or near the EM route (Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Derby) seem to be R.

Can anyone explain the logic of this?

The codes for Birmingham, Liverpool etc. are picked to avoid confusion with other services in those areas.
So whilst M would be expected because they are both on the Midland region, the headcode 1M is used by Crosscountry services to Manchester Piccadilly from places such as Bristol and Bournemouth, which pass through Birmingham on their way.

So (for example) if Norwich to Liverpool was also 1M, there would be a risk of the signaller at Piccadilly getting confused and putting a terminating Crosscountry into platform 14 or a Liverpool into the main terminal platforms.

The Peterborough terminating services you mention are class 2 trains, and in their case the E in combination with the class 2 headcode is a local code.
So at Peterborough 1E is a London-bound express from the Scottish region, but 2E is a terminating local service from the Ely direction.

 

[Gloster]

Goes back a while; was called 'Great Eastern' before Anglia. Coaches received 'GE' prefixes possibly late 1960s (time flies when you're old, so not certain o exact date)

GE was used as the regional prefix on Great Eastern section general stock, but not on special stock such as catering vehicles, between 1961 and 1964. If I remember, it also appeared on some Clacton EMUs.

Source: Parkin’s Mark 1 HMRS book.

 

[Harpo]

As ‘Great Eastern’, Anglia was subservient to the Eastern Region at York.

This included Liverpool Street control which once had a Thomas The Tank Engine frieze showing all the engines coupled together. A handwritten caption said ‘They’ve been ordered to the GN’, a reference to York’s usual way of getting out of the shot at Kings X.

 

[etr221]

Fair point.

Yes, the WR/GWR system carried on locos was amended from 3 numbers to the 4 character code but omitting the train class (although I think only used on Class 1 trains) . The original stencil holders were used so the letters had to fit, so W could be a problem.

It was remarkable that the WR were early adopters of displaying the newly introduced head codes.

The train class was indicated by the headlamps used, to make 4 charcters.

There is a BR LMR document describing the new "4 Position Train Identification System" dating from its introduction available at http://www.barrowmoremrg.co.uk/BRBDocuments/BRB_4_Position_Train_indicators2.pdf .

 

[Merle Haggard]

The train class was indicated by the headlamps used, to make 4 charcters.

There is a BR LMR document describing the new "4 Position Train Identification System" dating from its introduction available at http://www.barrowmoremrg.co.uk/BRBDocuments/BRB_4_Position_Train_indicators2.pdf .

Sorry, the point I was making was that I was under the impression that the GWR/WR stencils were only used on Class 1 trains.

As an aside, there's an article in the Railway Magazine around 1936 (which inevitably I can't find again) about the introduction of the stencil head codes. The original intention was that there were only used on Summer Saturday holiday trains to and from the West, because of the high number of variations of route and calling pattern. Presumably before then delays caused drivers stopping to query the route were common, and signallers having difficulties with identification when trains arrive out of order.

Possibly found so useful it was adopted more widely.

The LNWR used a similar system long before the GWR but with paper number pasted onto a board carried by the top lamp-socket.

 

[cadder toad]

Was there a correlation between these and the Glasgow Blue Trains 2-character display, as the steam services moved directly to these?

Interesting question. Scottish Region working timetables used to have the full list of 2-digit codes and how they were formed. I'm sure. I thought I'd seen a list on the web but cannot now find. The north bank electrics were substantially on former North British Railway lines so the steam trains wouldn't have used the Caledonian semaphore codes.

 

[Temple Meads]

CAPED is still widely used, as are PINE and CALVIN, although the latter seems to be falling out of favour.

SKUNK is my favourite.

CAPED and PINE I'm familiar with, but could someone explain CALVIN and SKUNK please?

 

[Rescars]

CAPED and PINE I'm familiar with, but could someone explain CALVIN and SKUNK please?

Someone will have immediate access to the Code Book! When was the last one published I wonder? My well-thumbed copy (post #30) was a BTC edition dated 1962 IIRC. Remarkable how long-lived some of this jargon appears to be.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Sorry, the point I was making was that I was under the impression that the GWR/WR stencils were only used on Class 1 trains.

As an aside, there's an article in the Railway Magazine around 1936 (which inevitably I can't find again) about the introduction of the stencil head codes. The original intention was that there were only used on Summer Saturday holiday trains to and from the West, because of the high number of variations of route and calling pattern. Presumably before then delays caused drivers stopping to query the route were common, and signallers having difficulties with identification when trains arrive out of order.

Possibly found so useful it was adopted more widely.

The LNWR used a similar system long before the GWR but with paper number pasted onto a board carried by the top lamp-socket.

Yes, there were numerous incidents of trains being wrongly signalled for the down though at Exeter St. Davids, due to misidentification, and therefore unable to make their scheduled call. In the reverse situation, non-stop services were being platformed in error. Late running and out of course working was endemic on Summer Saturdays at Exeter, so headcodes were a valuable improvement.

 

[D1537]

Someone will have immediate access to the Code Book! When was the last one published I wonder? My well-thumbed copy (post #30) was a BTC edition dated 1962 IIRC. Remarkable how long-lived some of this jargon appears to be.

Most of it can be found here (note: not a secure HTTPS site)

Some of the others that have endured are EMCARS and FOOTEX.

 

[Taunton]

Yes, there were numerous incidents of trains being wrongly signalled for the down though at Exeter St. Davids, due to misidentification, and therefore unable to make their scheduled call. In the reverse situation, non-stop services were being platformed in error. Late running and out of course working was endemic on Summer Saturdays at Exeter, so headcodes were a valuable improvement.

The summer Saturday sequence of trains was advised forward by Norton Fitzwarren box, the key point where four tracks reduced to two, with messages to the main boxes ahead and to control, but doubtless in the hectic atmosphere of the day not everything got through. One of the Taunton clerical staff would be sent down to the box to help with this, the signalman being very occupied with both incessant main line traffic plus needing to cross both Minehead and Barnstaple Down services right across the layout. A particular issue was poorly performing locos, more often than not a grimy Grange 68xx, which whistled for a banker from Wellington, who if the banker was still returning from Whiteball would put the train in the loop and it would get overtaken.

Shortage of the big number stencils, or more particularly their frames, was another issue, leading to using up a whole stick of chalk on the smokebox door - and hoping it didn't rain!

 

[Gloster]

Yes, there were numerous incidents of trains being wrongly signalled for the down though at Exeter St. Davids, due to misidentification, and therefore unable to make their scheduled call. In the reverse situation, non-stop services were being platformed in error. Late running and out of course working was endemic on Summer Saturdays at Exeter, so headcodes were a valuable improvement.

Southbound there was a platformless through road at St. David’s, so only non-stop trains could use it. If a train that was due to stop at St David’s was signalled through it, there would be a delay as the train came to a stand, the driver spoke to the signalman (“Excuse me, Mr Signalman, but I believe you are under a misapprehension as to which train I am driving”), the road was reset and the train got moving again: this could be anything up to ten minutes. The routing code (3-3-3 for the train rather than 4 (*)) was started by Cullompton until it closed in 1969, but thereafter it was done by us at Hele & Bradninch.

Northbound there wasn’t a platformless through road, but the gates might still be open to road traffic, so there would again be a delay while the cars and pedestrians were stopped before the signal could be cleared for the train to restart. Even this could easily be five minutes delay.

* - To be fully accurate, when the train passed Hele we sent 3-3-3 immediately after Stoke Canon Crossing had acknowledged the Train Entering Section. Stoke Canon then asked on to the next box (Cowley Bridge Junction or Exeter Middle) as 3-3-3 rather than 4. As my time there was post-headcodes, we had to hope that if trains were out of order, the BOXER messages had been passed down to us.

 

[Harpo]

there would be a delay as the train came to a stand, the driver spoke to the signalman (“Excuse me, Mr Signalman, but I believe you are under a misapprehension as to which train I am driving”)

A masterful translation into 21st century language missing only that they’d doff their caps to each other!