Headcodes
Vložit
- čas přidán 12. 09. 2024
- NOTE - when I was explaining the head codes, I think I may have got mixed up with my lefts and rights! I have mild dyspraxia and I struggle when explaining left and right. and only noticed on the premiere so apologise for any confusion.
the pictures are right and what they represent though.
back in the days where the computer chip was a fantasy and that pen paper and the signal box were king, how could you at a glance tell train classes apart? the answer was the humble head code! today we explore the codes, what they mean how how they have changed throughout the decades.
Headcodes have always facinated me ever since I've heard about them. I don't think we ever had anything like this in the US, mostly comminucation by telegraph and the like. We did have something similar in the form of classification lights, the small lights you'd see on the upper front of the engine. The DP1 Deltic had these two, in preparation to be an export. Anyway, the Class Lights didn't tell you about what the train type was or what is was carrying, but it _did_ tell a signaller what the train was on the schedule. Red lights indicated a regular timetabled train while White indicated a special or extra train, not part of the timetable. Green uniquely indicated an advance section. Basically, it was a timetabled train, but the actual train itself was long enough to require two sections. So a train with Green lights would indicate that the "rest" of the train was following, which would usually had Red lights to denote itself as the last section
Couple of things…
One, in America, we never had, to my knowledge, headcodes, as our headlamps were quite literally used for track illumination, you know, so the driver and fireman can see the large obstruction in the way.
And two, what headcode is represented by three lamps, one atop the smoke box and two on the platform, one left, one right? I’m asking, as a certain set of Lego Locomotives specifically the My Own Train engines, all used that headcode of three triangularly placed lamps, one on the smoke box and one to either side of the platform.
Anyways, good video. Rockatoa, Brickticks out!
Head codes are still used to this day . In the form of a four digit letter and number code allocated to every train movement on the network. In the sixties diesel locomotives would display this number on the front , that’s why older diesels were built with headcode boxes. If a train driver has to communicate with a signal man through the s.p.t or g.s.m.r , he will first quote the headcode number of the train he is operating that way the signal man can instantly identify that exact train.
Unlike other countries, headlamps as such, were not used as, by law, all railway lines had to be fenced. Headcodes are just what they are...headcodes (unless one has a cold in the head and nose - I have a head'code')
Be careful with headcodes - there were local ones that didn't mean the same as they did nationally and I'm not referring to the SR or the 2 character DMU headcodes either.
yeah I realised. it was a minefield but I hope I got it right. fingers crossed xx
@@DoncasterDrawn as an example on Teesside freight trains showing lamps on the buffer beam at the centre and above the left buffer or showing the letter M between Tees signal box and Skinningrove indicated trains going to or from Cargo Fleet Inner Junctions or the Eston Branch. These changes were applied to all freight trains irrespective of where they started from or where they were going. It means you have a hard time working out what a train might be from this period. They were in use from the 1920s until at least 1979.
The Somerset and Dorset Joint had its own, but used the BR ones when an inspection occurred or an instructional film was being made.
That was fairly succinct and accurate. I'd just like to add a few things, if you don't mind. 1. An ECS heacode would have the last 3 characters of the service ut would brvomexat the starting point. 2. Light engine movements can have no more than 2 brakevans and would either be 0 plus the train reporting number that the locomotive would be hauling or the regional or district followed by a 2 digit vide that represented the shed being headed to or from. 3. In the early days of reporting numbers and into the 1970s on BR trains could show the same letter in both directions so on the Darlington to Saltburn services were all 1N57.
thank you and thank you for the info :)
@@DoncasterDrawn check out Limit of Shunt ot the Barrowmore MRG, they've got a lot of interesting stuff on their sites.
@@DoncasterDrawn if you think headcodes are hard, try whistle codes. You had to know the correct code for each signal box, although IIRC some were standardised.
Interesting topic for a video but a very nice one.
thank you so much
@@DoncasterDrawn You're welcome.