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World War II headcodes

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World War II headcodes 19/08/2013 at 14:15 #48595
hotwellian
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Would anyone have any idea of the types of headcodes used during 1944 on both military, freight and passenger traffic on Western Region (GWR)? I am working on afictional 1944 timetable.
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World War II headcodes 19/08/2013 at 14:49 #48596
moonraker
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You'd be looking at the Steam Era headcodes I would imagine. They will be similar to the Kings Cross 1955 TT because you can't use the old system in SimSig.

Roughly speaking it's something like this -

Class A - Express Passenger

Class B - Secondary Passenger or stopping service

Class C - Parcels or Express goods Fully Fitted (Milk,Fish,Meat, Fruit & Veg etc)

Class D - Express Freight with at least One Third of vehicles fitted

Class E - Express Freight with at least 4 vehicles fitted behind the loco

Class F - Express Freight Unfitted

Class G - Light Engine(s) with/without brake van(s)

Class H - Unfitted through freight or Mineral

Class J - Mineral or stopping Freight Unfitted

Class K - As above


Using that as a guide you just substitute the letters for numbers really. Obviously Light Engines will be 0 and Classes J and K will both be 9. You can always say which class in letters a particular train is in the TT notes. Also worth remembering that in those days a lot more freight trains ran with unfitted vehicles hence the need for a brake van with a guard at the rear.


GWR Specific -

TRAIN CLASSIFICATION, HEAD LAMPS AND CORRESPONDING BELL SIGNALS
GWR 1936
Class of Train Headcode (white lights) Description of Train (Bell signal beats)
A -
o - o
Express passenger train (4)
Breakdown van train going to clear the line, or light engine going to assist disabled train. (4)
Empty coaching stock timed at express speed. (4)
Express streamline rail car car. (4)
B o
- - -
Ordinary passenger or mixed train (3-1)
Branch passenger train [Notes a,b]. (1-3)
Breakdown train not going to clear the line. (3-1)
Rail motor car, auto-train or streamline rail-car. (3-1-3)
C o
o - -
Parcels, newspapers, meat, fish, fruit, milk, horse, cattle or perishable train composed entirely of vacuum fitted stock with vacuum pipe connected to the engine. (5)
Express freight, livestock perishable or ballast train pipe with not less than one third of the vehicles vacuum fitted and pipe connected to the engine. (4-4)
D -
o o -
Express freight, or ballast train conveying a stipulated number of vacuum braked vehicles connected by the vacuum pipe to the engine and authorised to run at a maximum speed of 35mph. (1-2-2)
Empty coaching stock train (not specially authorised to carry "A" headcode) (2-2-1)
E o
- - o
Express freight, fish, fruit, meat, cattle or ballast train. (3-2)
Breakdown train not proceeding to an accident. (3-2)
F o
- o -
Through fast freight conveying through load. (1-4)
G -
- o -
Light engine or light engines coupled. (2-3)
Engine with not or than two brake vans. (2-3)
H -
- o o
Freight, mineral or ballast train or empty train carrying through load to destination. (3-4-1)
J -
o - -
Freight, mineral or ballast train stoppibg at intermediate stations. (3)
K -
- - o
Branch freight train (1-2)
Freight or ballast train or Officers special train requiring to stop in section. (2-2-3)
A o
o o o
Royal Train (4-4-4)


As for Inter-Regional probably best to stick with -

E - To LNER

M - To LMS

O - To S R

S - To Scotland

V - To GWR from another company

Last edited: 19/08/2013 at 15:36 by moonraker
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World War II headcodes 19/08/2013 at 18:37 #48599
jc92
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prior to 1960, the 4 character headcode didnt exist, and most WTTs listed trains with a number eg 253. so in essence you would need to make them up from a logical compromise

eg train 253 which is a class A train to paddington, could be 1A53.

"We don't stop camborne wednesdays"
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World War II headcodes 19/08/2013 at 19:19 #48601
Peter Bennet
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You don't need to use 4 characters in a trains TD - though the display will have a space. I seem to recall there used to be a problem with non-4 character TDs, or maybe it was TD that did not begin with a number, either way I think it was fixed.

Peter

I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs!
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World War II headcodes 19/08/2013 at 20:06 #48602
moonraker
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That would be extremely useful then Peter. You could use the old style system as per the actual WTT running numbers.
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World War II headcodes 19/08/2013 at 20:16 #48603
jc92
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" said:
That would be extremely useful then Peter. You could use the old style system as per the actual WTT running numbers.
but what you use for light locos on and off trains? normally you'd have 0A01 working 1A01, but you dont have that facility under the old system.

"We don't stop camborne wednesdays"
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World War II headcodes 19/08/2013 at 20:19 #48604
Lardybiker
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Should be easy enough to test on an up-to-date sim that use the loader such as Brighton. Open the sim with a blank TT and then create a train with a 3 character headcode. Use an entry point in the sim that has an approach berth and then add at least one valid location so the TT validates correctly.

All you then do is run the sim and see if the train enters with the correct headcode in the approach berth and check it steps along correctly.

Given the issues Peter mentions, you might want to add a second train with a different 3 character headcode starting with a letter and see if that enters and steps correctly.

I would do this test myself but I am not in a position to be able to run sims and won't be for a few hours yet but I am sure someone else can verify using the above if 3 character or less headcodes work or not.

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World War II headcodes 19/08/2013 at 20:24 #48605
headshot119
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" said:
Should be easy enough to test on an up-to-date sim that use the loader such as Brighton. Open the sim with a blank TT and then create a train with a 3 character headcode. Use an entry point in the sim that has an approach berth and then add at least one valid location so the TT validates correctly.

All you then do is run the sim and see if the train enters with the correct headcode in the approach berth and check it steps along correctly.

Given the issues Peter mentions, you might want to add a second train with a different 3 character headcode starting with a letter and see if that enters and steps correctly.

I would do this test myself but I am not in a position to be able to run sims and won't be for a few hours yet but I am sure someone else can verify using the above if 3 character or less headcodes work or not.
I've just tried it on Core Code 3.248 with a headcode of "A12" the train enters OK, and "A12" is correctly interposed into the approach berth.

"Passengers for New Lane, should be seated in the rear coach of the train " - Opinions are my own and not those of my employer
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World War II headcodes 19/08/2013 at 20:29 #48607
moonraker
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How about 3 numbers ? Like 253 as mentioned above ?
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World War II headcodes 19/08/2013 at 20:52 #48608
headshot119
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" said:
How about 3 numbers ? Like 253 as mentioned above ?
I've just entered three trains into the sim, The first was "123", the second "12, the third "1", all three enter correctly, and the headcodes step correctly.

"Passengers for New Lane, should be seated in the rear coach of the train " - Opinions are my own and not those of my employer
Last edited: 19/08/2013 at 21:04 by headshot119
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World War II headcodes 19/08/2013 at 20:59 #48609
jc92
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" said:
How about 3 numbers ? Like 253 as mentioned above ?
ive tested this previously with combinations of 1,2,3 and 4 digit headcodes and all work fine

"We don't stop camborne wednesdays"
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World War II headcodes 19/08/2013 at 21:08 #48610
headshot119
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I must admit it's a bit disorientating when you get one phoning in at a red.


"Passengers for New Lane, should be seated in the rear coach of the train " - Opinions are my own and not those of my employer
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World War II headcodes 19/08/2013 at 21:39 #48615
Danny252
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" said:
That would be extremely useful then Peter. You could use the old style system as per the actual WTT running numbers.
No such luxuries in GWR timetables at the time being discussed!

The potential problem with running numbers is that they give no hints as to routing - in "ye olde days", special routing bell codes would have made up for that, but obviously the Simsigger lacks such a feature (except possibly on those sims with special handling for AB, but I don't think any of those are set up for actual belling).

Last edited: 19/08/2013 at 21:44 by Danny252
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World War II headcodes 20/08/2013 at 09:01 #48621
moonraker
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Yes and as this would be fictitious then the actual running numbers would have to be made up. Hmmmmmmmm ... not going to be easy :dry:
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World War II headcodes 20/08/2013 at 09:52 #48623
kbarber
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" said:
That would be extremely useful then Peter. You could use the old style system as per the actual WTT running numbers.

That also gives you the option of the old Southern 2-character headcodes, though you'd need to set them up as <2 spaces> headcode <dash> pro number, as they usually indicated route and/or stopping pattern and thus repeated at annoyingly short intervals.

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