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'0000' headcodes


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When did '0000' headcodes start being used & for how long did they last? Was there an overlap between proper codes still being used at the beginning and did they overlap with 'domino' headcodes at the end? I've got a Bachmann 47 with '0000' codes but my Bachmann 20 carries 7J29 (what was this?) and my 25 has 'dominos' My new layout is based on Wigan/Widnes/St Helens in the mid-to-late 70s. I'd like to be as accurate as possible without becoming too fastidious over minor details. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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When did '0000' headcodes start being used & for how long did they last? Was there an overlap between proper codes still being used at the beginning and did they overlap with 'domino' headcodes at the end? I've got a Bachmann 47 with '0000' codes but my Bachmann 20 carries 7J29 (what was this?) and my 25 has 'dominos' My new layout is based on Wigan/Widnes/St Helens in the mid-to-late 70s. I'd like to be as accurate as possible without becoming too fastidious over minor details. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

The use of headcodes was discontinued from 1976, after which all should have shown '0O00' but this frequently didn't happen. No idea what 7J29 was at the time but for your area it could have been a freight train destined for the North Manchester area.

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British Rail officially stopped using headcodes from 1st January 1976.

 

I have certainly seen photos taken on the Western Region in the summer of 1976 where some of the inter-regional trains had still had the headcode put on the loco (I'm guessing by the driver). On a large number of locos that summer you see 0000 but the blinds had a tendancy to vibrate so many wierd and wonderful combinations occurred. Quite a number of Class 50s seem to carry 1000 and some books say this is a tribute to the Westerns but I'm not so sure. The Westerns themselves started to get their own loco number in the headcode box from about March 1976 but 1071 for one was quite late and carried 1000 for a long time. The 50s started to get an abbreviated version i.e 5031 from August 1976. Again books said that "a small number" of 50s carried this in the headcode, I've made a list and so far I've found evidence of 32 of them with 5xxx plus 50038 carrying 0038/1038 and 50044 carrying 1044/0044 (no. 1 end shown first).

 

Dominos started to be applied to the Deltics from 1975 and the Western Region started about November 1976. There were monthly lists in the Railway Observer as to the different styles locos carried and any changes seen. I have noted that the Class 25s didn't really start to get dominos until mid 1977 and one of the 25s still had original headcodes in 1983. Probably by 1979 most of the locos used on passenger workings had dominos, freight locos took a little longer but I'd have to check to be certain.

 

So for a model in the mid to late 1970s I would say that either 0000 (or any vibrated version there of) or dominos would have been the norm.

 

Strictly speaking the code was 0O00 but the letter O was narrow anyway and looked like a 0.

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At the same time, many of the Western class, plus a few other favoured individual locomotives in some other classes had their numbers wound up in the headcode; e.g. D1041 would show 1O41.

 

EDIT: SNAP!!!! Posted at the same time as Flood - apologies for any duplication. :)

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Deltics were definately the first class to gain 'Domino' headcodes, though in 1974 as opposed to '75. :) A quick scout on Napier Chronicles brought up this...

 

Deltic - 1974

 

I stand corrected. I knew they were early - I never realised that they were that early.

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