The London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway both developed a system of identifying carriages by means of alphabetic codes. When British Railways was formed in 1948, it decided to adopt the former LNER method of carriage classification. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS1) was a British railway company. ... LNER timetable for Autumn 1926 detailing the resumption of services after the General Strike. ... British Railways (BR), later rebranded as British Rail, ran the British railway system, from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies in 1948 until its privatisation in stages between 1994 and 1997. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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, or the presence of other letters, in the code. The letters used are:

These letters (except for Y and Z) did not usually apply to the wide variety of 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. A corridor is a passageway in, and generally between, railway passenger vehicles. ... A corridor is a passageway in, and generally between, railway passenger vehicles. ... A pantograph is a device that collects electric current from overhead lines for electric trains or trams. ...

List of codes used

The following list lists those codes that were actually used on British Railways, 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") is used. Suffix codes Y or Z are not shown, as these could apply to variants of any or all vehicle types.

In the original LNER coding system, S stood for "Second", an intermediate class between First and Third (which later became Second). 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 the 1980s, BR renamed Second to Standard. Many of the classifications listed below are no longer used, and some did not survive until the designation "Standard". The Railway Regulation Act 1844 was a British Act of Parliament introduced as a means of providing a minimum standard for rail passenger travel. ...

Note that in modern usage, composite semi-open vehicles are classified Cso - the s signifying that the Standard portion is open (implying that the First portion is compartments with corridor). A Brake Post Office Stowage Van is a type of rail vehicle built for use in a Travelling Post Office (TPO). ... DBSO 9710 at Norwich station on 31st January 2004. ... This article is about British DVTs, which are a type of railway control car. ... The First Corridor type of railway carriage was one of the standard mid-20th century designs; coded FK by the LNER and BR, and CL by the LMS. The layout of the coach was a number of compartments, all of which were first class, linked by a side corridor. ... NOA 95758 at Cheltenham Spa on 9th January 2004. ... NAA 94335 at Plymouth on 29 August 2003. ... NSA 80390 Ernie Gosling on display at Doncaster Works open day on 27th July 2003. ... A Post Office Stowage Van is a type of rail vehicle built for use in a Travelling Post Office (TPO). ... The Standard Corridor (previously Third Corridor) type of railway carriage was one of the standard mid-20th century designs, and was coded SK (previously TK) by the LNER and BR, and CF by the LMS. The layout of the coach was a number of compartments, all of which were standard...

• See also: British Carriage and Wagon Numbering and Classification