British Railways coach designations were a series of letter-codes used to identify different types of coaches, both passenger carrying and non-passenger carrying stock (NPCS). The code was generally painted on the end of the coach but non-gangwayed stock had the code painted on the side. They have been superseded by TOPS design codes.
Background
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway developed systems of identifying railway carriages with alphabetic codes. When British Railways was formed in 1948, it adapted the LNER system.
Basic principles
The codes are made up from a combination of letters, some of which can indicate more than one word; their meaning can only be determined according to their position in the code or the presence of other letters. The letters are:
{|class=wikitable
!Code||Meaning
|-
|rowspan=3|B||Brake van (prefix)
|-
|Buffet (suffix)
|-
|Battery (prefix for multiple unit vehicles)
|-
|C||Composite (more than one class of accommodation)
|-
|rowspan=2|D||Driving vehicle (prefix)
|-
| Disabled accommodation (suffix)
|-
|rowspan=2|E||Either class of accommodation
|-
| End vehicle (suffix)
|-
|F||First Class
|-
|G||Gangwayed (e.g. BG - Brake Gangwayed)
|-
|H||Handbrake
|-
|HM||Half-motor (prefix on multiple units)<br/>Used for vehicles with one traction motor or engine where the Motor type vehicle of that class usually had two
|-
|K||corridor
|-
|rowspan=2|L||Lavatory (usually shown only in non-gangwayed or diesel multiple unit codes)
|-
|Lounge (prefix) (but see SL)
|-
|M||Motor (powered) vehicle
|-
|O||Open (i.e. no compartments, or no kitchen in Restaurant cars);<br>O not used for diesel multiple units as most are Open
|-
|o||Semi-open (i.e. mix of compartments and open)<br>Some books have used so in place of o, to avoid confusion with O
|-
|rowspan=4|P||Pantograph (prefix for electric multiple units)
|-
|Pantry (suffix)
|-
|Pullman (prefix)
|-
|Parlour (suffix for Pullman cars)
|-
|R||Restaurant
|-
|RG||Restaurant Griddle
|-
|RK||Restaurant Kitchen
|-
|RM||Miniature/Modular Restaurant
|-
|S||Second Class (Standard Class from May 1985)
|-
|SL||Sleeper
|-
|rowspan=4|T||Third Class
|-
|Trailer (prefix for multiple unit vehicles)
|-
|Trolley buffet (suffix)
|-
|Tourist (prefix for hauled carriages, indicates 2+2 seating)
|-
|U||Unclassified accommodation
|-
|W||Wheelchair Area
|-
|Y||Four-wheeled vehicle
|-
|Z||Six-wheeled vehicle
|-
|colspan=2|
|}
These letters (except Y and Z) did not usually apply to passenger-rated but goods carrying vans (e.g. parcels vans, horse boxes, milk and fish vans). Their codes were an acronym of their traditional railway description, e.g. GUV for General Utility Vans.
List of codes used
The following list lists those codes that were used on BR cross-referred to the comparable code used by the LMS, with the exception that the letter S ("Second", later "Standard") is used where until 1956 the letter T ("Third") was used. Suffix codes Y or Z are not shown, as these could apply to variants of any or all vehicle types.
In the LNER system, S stood for "Second", a class between First and Third (which became Second on 3 June 1956). The original Second was more or less abolished in the 1870s as a result of the Railway Regulation Act 1844, remaining only in limited use for special services, such as those meeting ships (which retained the three-class system from which railway classifications had originated). In May 1988 BR reclassified Second to Standard but this did not alter the code.
|Brake (non-gangwayed)
|
|-
|BC
|Brake Composite
|
|-
|BCK
|Brake Composite Corridor
|CBB
|-
|BCL
|Brake Composite Lavatory
|
|-
|BCV
|BRUTE Carrying Van
|
|-
|BDBS
|Battery Driving Trailer Brake Second
|
|-
|BDMS
|Driving Trailer Van
|
|-
|DVT
|
|-
|MLV or Parcels Van
|Trailer First
|
|-
|TFLRK
|Trailer Guard Second
|
|-
|TOV