British Rail coach designations

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.

## 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:
|Code||Meaning|
| --- | --- | --- |
|B|Brake van (prefix)||
|Buffet (suffix)|||
|Battery (prefix for multiple unit vehicles)|||
|C|Composite (i.e. more than one class of accommodation)||
|D|Driving vehicle (prefix)||
|Disabled accommodation (suffix)|||
|E|Either class of accommodation||
|End vehicle (suffix)|||
|F|First Class||
|G|Gangwayed (e.g. BG – Brake Gangwayed)||
|Griddle (when following _R_)|||
|H|Handbrake||
|HM|Half-motor (prefix on multiple units) Used for vehicles with one traction motor where the Motor type vehicle in a class usually contained two||
|K|corridor||
|Kitchen (when following _R_)|||
|L|Lavatory (usually shown only in non-gangwayed or diesel multiple unit codes)||
|Lounge (prefix) (but see _SL_)|||
|M|Motor (powered) vehicle||
|Miniature or Modular (when following _R_)|||
|O|Open (i.e. no compartments, or no kitchen in Restaurant cars); _O_ not included in diesel multiple unit codes as all are Open||
|o|Semi-open (i.e. mix of compartments and open)||
|P|Pantograph (prefix for electric multiple units)||
|Pantry (suffix)|||
|Pullman (prefix)|||
|Parlour (suffix for Pullman cars)|||
|R|Restaurant||
|S|Second (later Standard) Class||
|SL|Sleeper||
|T|Third Class||
|Trailer (prefix for multiple unit vehicles)|||
|Trolley buffet (suffix)|||
|Tourist (prefix for hauled carriages; indicates 2+2 seating)|||
|U|Unclassified accommodation||
|Y|Four-wheeled vehicle*||
|Z|Six-wheeled vehicle*||
|colspan=2|* If no such suffix is shown, the vehicle is an eight or twelve-wheeled vehicle. The latter were not common, and were usually special saloons or restaurant vehicles.||

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.

## 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_".

|LNER Code|Description|LMS Code|
| --- | --- | --- |
|B|Brake||
|BC|Brake Composite||
|BCK|Brake Composite Corridor|CBB|
|BCL|Brake Composite Lavatory||
|BCV|BRUTE Carrying Van||
|BDMBS|Battery Driving Motor Brake Standard (Open)||
|BDMSO|Battery Driving Motor Standard Open||
|BDTCL|Battery Driving Trailer Composite (Open) Lavatory||
|BFK|Brake First Corridor|E|
|BFO|Brake First Open||
|BG|Brake Gangwayed|CBR|
|BGP|Brake Gangwayed Pigeon van||
|BGZ|Brake Gangwayed (6-wheels)|CR|
|BPOT|Brake Post Office Stowage Van||
|BS|Brake Standard|H|
|BSK|Brake Standard Corridor|CH|
|BSL|Brake Standard Lavatory|LH|
|BSO|Brake Standard Open|VH|
|BSOT|Brake Standard Open Trolley||
|BUO|Brake Unclassified Open||
|BZ|Brake (6-wheels)|R|
|C|Composite|BC|
|CCT|Covered Carriage Truck||
|CK|Composite Corridor|CBC|
|CL|Composite Lavatory|LC|
|CO|Composite Open|VC|
|DBSO|Driving Brake Standard Open||
|DM|Driving Motor||
|DMB|Driving Motor Brake||
|DMBC|Driving Motor Brake Composite (Open)||
|DMBCL|Driving Motor Brake Composite (Open) Lavatory||
|DMBFL|Driving Motor Brake First (Open) Lavatory||
|DMBS|Driving Motor Brake Standard (Open)||
|DMBSK|Driving Motor Brake Standard Corridor||
|DMBSL|Driving Motor Brake Standard (Open) Lavatory||
|DMBSO|Driving Motor Brake Standard Open||
|DMC|Driving Motor Composite (Open)||
|DMCL|Driving Motor Composite (Open) Lavatory||
|DMLV|Driving Motor Luggage Van||
|DMPMV|Driving Motor Parcels & Miscellaneous Van||
|DMS|Driving Motor Standard (Open)||
|DMSK|Driving Motor Standard Corridor||
|DMSL|Driving Motor Standard (Open) Lavatory||
|DMSO|Driving Motor Standard Open||
|DTBS|Driving Trailer Brake Standard||
|DTBSO|Driving Trailer Brake Standard Open||
|DTCL|Driving Trailer Composite (Open) Lavatory||
|DTCoL|Driving Trailer Composite Semi-Open Lavatory||
|DTCOL|Driving Trailer Composite Open Lavatory||
|DTS|Driving Trailer Standard (Open)||
|DTSo|Driving Trailer Standard Semi-Open||
|DTSO|Driving Trailer Standard Open||
|DTSOL|Driving Trailer Standard Open Lavatory||
|DVT|Driving Van Trailer||
|F|First|L|
|FK|First Corridor|CL|
|FL|First Lavatory|LM|
|FO|First Open|QL|
|FOT|First Open Trolley||
|GUV|General Utility Van||
|HB|Horse Box||
|IFV|Insulated Fish Van||
|LFK|Lounge First Corridor||
|M|Motor||
|MBRSM|Motor Brake Restaurant Standard Modular||
|MBS|Motor Brake Standard||
|MBSK|Motor Brake Standard Corridor||
|MBSO|Motor Brake Standard Open||
|MFLRK|Motor First (Open) Lavatory Restaurant Kitchen||
|MLV|Motor Luggage Van||
|MS|Motor Standard (Open)||
|MSL|Motor Standard (Open) Lavatory||
|MSLRB|Motor Standard Lavatory Restaurant Buffet||
|MSO|Motor Standard Open||
|OCT|Open Carriage Truck||
|PCP|Pullman Composite Parlour||
|PCV|Propelling Control Vehicle||
|PFB|Pullman First Brake||
|PFK|Pullman First Kitchen||
|PFP|Pullman First Parlour||
|PMV|Parcels & Miscellaneous Van||
|POS|Post Office Sorting Van|POR|
|POT|Post Office Stowage Van|PPR|
|PSB|Pullman Standard Brake||
|PTSO|Pantograph Trailer Standard Open||
|RB|Restaurant Buffet|BRC|
|RC|Restaurant Composite|Compo RKC|
|RCO|Restaurant Composite Open|VC Dining|
|RF|Restaurant First|First RKC|
|RFB|Restaurant First Buffet||
|RFM|Restaurant First Modular||
|RFO|Restaurant First Open|QL Dining|
|RG|Restaurant Griddle||
|RK|Restaurant Kitchen|KC|
|RKB|Restaurant Kitchen Buffet|BRC|
|RLO|Restaurant Lounge Open||
|RMB|Restaurant Miniature Buffet||
|RS|Restaurant Standard|Third RKC|
|RSO|Restaurant Standard Open|QF Dining|
|RU|Restaurant Unclassified|Common RKC|
|RUB|Restaurant Unclassified Buffet||
|RUK|Restaurant Unclassified Kitchen||
|RUO|Restaurant Unclassified Open||
|S|Standard|F|
|SCV|Special Cattle Van||
|SK|Standard Corridor|CF|
|SLC|Sleeper Composite|CSC|
|SLE|Sleeper Either Class||
|SLEP|Sleeper Either Class with Pantry||
|SLF|Sleeper First|SC|
|SLSTP|Sleeper Standard Twin-Berth with Pantry|SCT|
|SLO|Standard Lavatory Open (within carriage)||
|SO|Standard Open|QF|
|TBCK|Trailer Brake Composite Corridor||
|TBF|Trailer Brake First (Open)||
|TBFK|Trailer Brake First Corridor||
|TBSK|Trailer Brake Standard Corridor||
|TBSL|Trailer Brake Standard (Open) Lavatory||
|TC|Trailer Composite (Open)||
|TCK|Trailer Composite Corridor||
|TCL|Trailer Composite (Open) Lavatory||
|TCoL|Trailer Composite Semi-Open Lavatory||
|TCOL|Trailer Composite Open Lavatory||
|TF|Trailer First (Open)||
|TFK|Trailer First Corridor||
|TFKRB|Trailer First Corridor Restaurant Buffet||
|TFL|Trailer First (Open) Lavatory||
|TFLRB|Trailer First (Open) Lavatory Restaurant Buffet||
|TFLRK|Trailer First (Open) Lavatory Restaurant Kitchen||
|TFOLH|Trailer First Open Lavatory Handbrake||
|TGS|Trailer Guard Standard (Open)||
|TRB|Trailer Restaurant Buffet||
|TRFB|Trailer Restaurant First Buffet||
|TRFM|Trailer Restaurant First Modular||
|TRSB|Trailer Restaurant Standard Buffet||
|TRUB|Trailer Restaurant Unclassified Buffet||
|TRUK|Trailer Restaurant Unclassified Kitchen||
|TS|Trailer Standard (Open)||
|TSK|Trailer Standard Corridor||
|TSL|Trailer Standard (Open) Lavatory||
|TSLRB|Trailer Standard (Open) Lavatory Restaurant Buffet||
|TSo|Trailer Standard Semi-Open||
|TSO|Tourist Standard Open _or_ Trailer Standard Open||
|TSOL|Trailer Standard Open Lavatory||
|TSORB|Trailer Standard Open Restaurant Buffet||
|TSOT|Tourist Standard Open Trolley||
|TU|Trailer Unclassified (Open)||
|VFV|Ventilated Fruit Van||

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).

- See also: British Carriage and Wagon Numbering and Classification