What is 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: {|class=wikitable !Code||Meaning |- |rowspan=3|B||Brake van (prefix) |- |Buffet (suffix) |- |Battery (prefix for multiple unit vehicles) |- |C||Composite (i.e. 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 |- |rowspan=2|G||[[Corridor (rail vehicle)|Gangwayed]] (e.g. BG – Brake Gangwayed) |- |Griddle (when following ''R'') |- |H||Handbrake |- |HM||Half-motor (prefix on multiple units)<br/>Used for vehicles with one traction motor where the Motor type vehicle in a class usually contained two |- |rowspan=2|K||[[Corridor (rail vehicle)|corridor]] |- |Kitchen (when following ''R'') |- |rowspan=2|L||Lavatory (usually shown only in non-gangwayed or diesel multiple unit codes) |- |Lounge (prefix) (but see ''SL'') |- |rowspan=2|M||Motor (powered) vehicle |- |Miniature or Modular (when following ''R'') |- |O||Open (i.e. no compartments, or no kitchen in Restaurant cars);<br>''O'' not included in diesel multiple unit codes as all are Open |- |o||Semi-open (i.e. mix of compartments and open) |- |rowspan=4|P||[[pantograph (rail)|Pantograph]] (prefix for electric multiple units) |- |Pantry (suffix) |- |Pullman (prefix) |- |Parlour (suffix for Pullman cars) |- |R||Restaurant |- |S||Second (later Standard) Class |- |SL||Sleeper |- |rowspan=4|T||Third Class |- |Trailer (prefix for multiple unit vehicles) |- |Trolley buffet (suffix) |-