• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

How To Work out train Headcodes

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

bb21

Emeritus Moderator
Joined
4 Feb 2010
Messages
24,151
Historically (and by that I mean a few years ago) it was from websites such as Traveline North East.

These days there are a number of websites that can tell you headcodes, due to much better accessibility to such data. You can use trains.im and traintimes.im, for example.
 

Southern

Member
Joined
19 Jun 2005
Messages
502
Location
Folkestone, Kent
Good for seeing booked traction though...then again, when I tried to send in info on the workings of 460001 from my mobile yesterday, it wouldn't let me.
 

34D

Established Member
Joined
9 Feb 2011
Messages
6,042
Location
Yorkshire
Also (going back to GNER days) whenever east coast puts a temporary weekend timetable online it usually has headcodes on it
 

Schnellzug

Established Member
Joined
22 Aug 2011
Messages
2,926
Location
Evercreech Junction
I've often wondered why they don't do that generally, like the do in virtually every other country. It'd be useful for making sure you've got the right Train, surely, if they displayed it on information screens and on the Electronic displays by the doors on trains. Virgin tried to introduce a system of their own, didn't they, but it never really took off. If people can understand BA1523 or EZY2977, 1E23 or 1S39 shouldn't be too difficult to grasp.
 

Michael.Y

Established Member
Joined
14 Oct 2011
Messages
1,431
Yeah, that's a big problem for me - everybody else is copying exactly what I'm doing and not innovating and doing new things... but I have some tricks up my sleeve <D

As a fellow web designer, I sympathise, however in this case the genie is out of the bottle and you'll never be able to stop people implementing open data usage using bog-standard templates.
 

reb0118

Established Member
Fares Advisor
Joined
28 Jan 2010
Messages
3,194
Location
Bo'ness, West Lothian
The four digit codes (i.e the headcode) are for train reporting. The first figure is the classification, the second the destination indication, the third & fourth together are the identity number of the train.

There can be only one headcode at any one time in any particular region. Normally you find that a headcode is repeated twice in a day, once for a morning and once for an afternoon/evening service. (Note there will be other trains in other regions with the same headcode).

Certain destination letters are reserved for certain long distance class 1 express services that cross regional boundaries.

Although it is not hard and fast even numbers are used for trains on the Up line and odd on the Down.

Hope this helps.
 

Poggs

Member
Joined
28 Aug 2008
Messages
283
Location
London
As a fellow web designer, I sympathise, however in this case the genie is out of the bottle and you'll never be able to stop people implementing open data usage using bog-standard templates.

Well, no - but I have 18 months head start on the others, and a year's experience with real-time data... :)
 

Michael.Y

Established Member
Joined
14 Oct 2011
Messages
1,431
Well, no - but I have 18 months head start on the others, and a year's experience with real-time data... :)

[devilsadvocate] Faceparty, MySpace and Netlog had head starts on Facebook ;) [/devilsadvocate]
 

Eagle

Established Member
Joined
20 Feb 2011
Messages
7,106
Location
Leamingrad / Blanfrancisco
Also (going back to GNER days) whenever east coast puts a temporary weekend timetable online it usually has headcodes on it

Chiltern do that too.

Also XC Voyager services put the headcode on the screens on the side (VT and EMT use a different number on those screens), and both XC and VT's ticket stamps include the headcode on them.
 

The Planner

Veteran Member
Joined
15 Apr 2008
Messages
15,836
There can be only one headcode at any one time in any particular region. Normally you find that a headcode is repeated twice in a day, once for a morning and once for an afternoon/evening service. (Note there will be other trains in other regions with the same headcode).

Plenty of occasions where identical headcodes have turned up at the same time in the same place, always good for the wrong routing and delay minutes that one. Headcodes no longer have the same importance as they once used to, we are often asked now to change headcodes by signallers to help distinguish stopping patterns etc...
 

Poggs

Member
Joined
28 Aug 2008
Messages
283
Location
London
[devilsadvocate] Faceparty, MySpace and Netlog had head starts on Facebook ;) [/devilsadvocate]

I think you've mistaken me for somebody who wants to start a monopoly. The reality is I am somebody who wants to help everyone gain understanding and insight in to rail travel.
 

reb0118

Established Member
Fares Advisor
Joined
28 Jan 2010
Messages
3,194
Location
Bo'ness, West Lothian
Like 0B00? :P

Yes, I found that one out just the other day. We get a staff version of live departure boards on our blackberries and whist checking times for Leuchars it gave me an option for buses - clicking on it I found every bus has the same H/C.

I then checked for ferries at Fishguard, and yes they have H/Cs too. Can't mind off hand but there was definitely an "S" in there for SHIP I suppose?
 

Harbon 1

Member
Joined
30 Apr 2011
Messages
1,020
Location
Burton on Trent
Plenty of occasions where identical headcodes have turned up at the same time in the same place, always good for the wrong routing and delay minutes that one.

Is it not true that the actual headcode is 6 digits long? i read on here some time ago that we only see the 2 random digits for that train, whereas in reality there are 4?
 

reb0118

Established Member
Fares Advisor
Joined
28 Jan 2010
Messages
3,194
Location
Bo'ness, West Lothian
Is it not true that the actual headcode is 6 digits long? i read on here some time ago that we only see the 2 random digits for that train, whereas in reality there are 4?

The H/Cs on our diagrams have six digits i.e. the 13:17 Newgraighall to Edinburgh service is 2K03LF
 

The Planner

Veteran Member
Joined
15 Apr 2008
Messages
15,836
Is it not true that the actual headcode is 6 digits long? i read on here some time ago that we only see the 2 random digits for that train, whereas in reality there are 4?

Headcodes do show as 1Axxyy. The 1Axx digits are quite often not random, we sometimes differentiate stopping patterns with high numbers and low numbers to help out signallers. The last two yy I have no idea of any meaning, and can be anything we input.
 

Dreadnought

Member
Joined
1 Oct 2007
Messages
586
Is it not true that the actual headcode is 6 digits long? i read on here some time ago that we only see the 2 random digits for that train, whereas in reality there are 4?

On TOPS lists the train reporting code is actually 10 digits long. I know that digits 3,4,5,6 are the headcodes we usually see. I believe the last 2 are used to identify the day the train originally started in service as lists I have seen today have most of these ending in 05.
 

33056

Established Member
Joined
12 Nov 2007
Messages
2,414
Location
On a train somewhere in Europe
Plenty of occasions where identical headcodes have turned up at the same time in the same place, always good for the wrong routing and delay minutes that one.
Have seen two 6M64s at the same time in the past, heading towards each other :shock: We also used to have two 6M69s in the same area (but not at the same time) but only one of those runs now.

0S00 is used for certain ferries.
0S00 is a shunt move, which I think is common to most areas - unless you work somewhere that a lot of such moves take place then you get variations on a theme depending on what move is required :lol:
 

Poggs

Member
Joined
28 Aug 2008
Messages
283
Location
London
On TOPS lists the train reporting code is actually 10 digits long. I know that digits 3,4,5,6 are the headcodes we usually see. I believe the last 2 are used to identify the day the train originally started in service as lists I have seen today have most of these ending in 05.

A 10 character Train Identity is used in TRUST messages to identify an instance of a schedule running on a particular day of a month. This data is composed of the following:

- First two digits of the originating STANOX
- The Train Reporting Number
- '1', '2', '3', 'C', 'M', 'N' or 'O'
- A letter representing the departure time from the origin (see below)
- Two digits indicating the day in this calendar month the train runs

...and the unexciting table:


Between Letter Between Letter
0000-0059 0 1230-1259 L
0100-0159 1 1300-1329 M
0200-0259 2 1330-1359 N
0300-0359 3 1400-1429 O
0400-0459 4 1430-1459 P
0500-0559 5 1500-1529 Q
0600-0659 6 1530-1559 R
0700-0729 A 1600-1629 S
0730-0759 B 1630-1659 T
0800-0829 C 1700-1729 U
0830-0859 D 1730-1759 V
0900-0929 E 1800-1829 W
0930-0959 F 1830-1859 X
1000-1029 G 1900-1959 Y
1030-1059 H 2000-2059 Z
1100-1129 I 2100-2159 7
1130-1159 J 2200-2259 8
1200-1229 K 2300-2359 9
 

40fan

Member
Joined
7 Aug 2010
Messages
67
Location
Stoke-on-Trent
From Stoke-on-Trent

1A Manchester Piccadilly-Euston off peak time arrival
1H Euston-Manchester Piccadilly
1K Crewe-Derby/Derby-Crewe
1M Inter-regional train terminating at a London Midland region station
1N Northampton-Crewe/Crewe-Northampton
1O train to Southern region
1R Manchester Piccadilly-Euston peak time arrival
1U Euston-Crewe/Crewe-Euston London Midland service via Northampton
1V train to Western region
2H Manchester Piccadilly-Stoke/Stoke-Manchester Piccadilly
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top