TOPS codes; what is each letter?

[F2Andy]

I am curious about what each letter is called, and Googling failed me.

The TOPS code is made up of three or four characters. The first is the GENKOC - but what does that stand for? General something I guess?

The second... what is that called?

The third is BRAKTY; that has to be BRAKe TYpe, right?

The fourth (not printed on the wagon, so and rarely seen) is AARKND. Again, what does that stand for?

[96701]

I can only speak for rail cranes. If the first character was A, then it was a crane belonging to the M&EE Department, if there was no first character, it belonged to the CCE Department.

 

If the next 2 letters were DR, it meant that it was TOPS reportable.

 

The last letter denoted the manufacturer, for example C = Cowans Sheldon / Clarke Chapman; P = Plasser; T = Taylor Hubbard.

 

I won't go into how the numbering system worked, but examples are:

 

ADRC 96701 - 76t breakdown crane

ADRT 81302 - Small Taylor Hubbard diesel electric used for electrification

DRT 81101 - Small Taylor Hubbard used for track work

DRP 81530 - Plasser 12t GPC for track work.

 

I know nothing about wagons except for A = air braked and V = vacuum braked.

 

Edited October 27, 2020 by 96701
tryping instead of typing.

['CHARD]

https://www.svrwiki.com/TOPS_codes#TOPS_carriage_and_wagon_classification_codes

 

[Bomag]

22 minutes ago, F2Andy said:

I am curious about what each letter is called, and Googling failed me.

The TOPS code is made up of three or four characters. The first is the GENKOC - but what does that stand for? General something I guess?

The second... what is that called?

The third is BRAKTY; that has to be BRAKe TYpe, right?

The fourth (not printed on the wagon, so and rarely seen) is AARKND. Again, what does that stand for?

 

TOPS codes varied depending on vehicle type. For example Coaches were 4  characters and NPCCS were 3.

 

For coaches and example could be AB1D - A for LHCS, AB for LHCS Corridor Brake, 1 for first class, D for Mk2D - which gives a Mk2D BFK.

For NPCC and example is NEX. N for NCPPS, NE for 100mph DH Brake Gangway, X for dual brakes.

For Wagons e.g. BDA, B is for bolster, D for the type of wagon and A for air brakes.

 

In addition you may see long reference which include diagram numbers, so for the MK2d BFK the code would be AB106. There may more than longer diagrams numbers for each type.

 

So for Mk1 SK the short TOPS code would be AA21. This incudes sub types, AA201, 202, 203, 204, 205 and 206    

[F2Andy]

Sorry if I was not clear. it is specifically the name of each letter; GENKOC , ???, BRAKTY and AARKND. What is the second one called? What do those abbreviations stand for?

[Wheatley]

GENKOC is Generic something or other, BRAKTY is Brake Type, AARKND something or other Kind. I think. Google suggests that the first two letters together make up the GENKOC.

 

BR had loads of acronyms like this, most of them connected to TOPS and all dating from the days when filenames could only be a few characters long which led to some interesting system or field names.

 

Not every letter had to stand for something. Also not connected to the former Telegraph Codes system which was a whole nuther level of sometimes bizarre creativity. 

 

I have a colleague who might know, I'll ask him Thursday when I'm back at work if no-one chimes in in the meantime. 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2020 by Wheatley

[Rivercider]

I was a TOPS clerk on and off from 1978 to 1999 and have to say I don't know the answer.

 

I would have a stab at General operating code for GENKOC.

I don't recall hearing a name for the second letter - just a sub-group code I suppose.

Brake type is obvious for the third.

AARKND might have the word 'additional' as well as 'kind' in the meaning?

 

cheers

[keefer]

Doesn't decipher the acronyms but may be of use to others:

https://www.ltsv.com/w_ref_codes_tops.php

 

The second character doesn't seem to have a separate name or code, just seems to be an extra signifier for (and part of) the GENKOC, so that more wagon types can be described i.e. instead of open wagons being O, they are O* where * can be any other letter

[The Stationmaster]

I suspect that AARKND is an original US group description which was never altered because there was no need to alter it.  It would translate as 'AAR (car) kind'  - AAR of course standing for Association of American Railroad and 'kind' translating effectively as 'type'.  Thus the full set of original codes made it possible to distinguish between home road car type or group and the AAR designation/amplification.

 

Can't be sure but it sounds very much to me to be the logical explanation particularly as 'CARKND' was used to describe the leading letter in the very early days of BR use of TOPS.

[keefer]

Similar to the AAR multiple-working system, which I think first featured in the cl.59/66 (and has subsequently been adopted for other classes)?

 

[SM42]

This indicates the second letter gives more detail to the GENKOC. What it is called, who knows?

 

https://www.ltsv.com/w_ref_codes_tops.php

 

Andy

Edited October 27, 2020 by SM42

[HGR]

When BR took TOPS it was 'adapted' somewhat to our particular operational needs. The BR usage of some of the data fields / codes sometimes don't correspond to the original American implementation.

 

The CARKND is the three-letter code generally displayed on the side of a freight vehicle in the data panel along with the vehicle number. The CARKND is made up of two letters that identify the type of vehicle CKINDX (which I seem to recall was short for CARKND INDEX), followed by one letter BRAKTY which identifies the type of train brake. As mentioned earlier up thread, GENKOC is the first letter of the code and gives a rough idea of the grouping of vehicle types. B = Bogie Steel, C = Covered, O = Open, V = Van, etc. Beware that the second letter of the CKINDX only applies within its own GENKOC, so there's no correlation between the usage of A / B / C, and so on in the second character position other than pure coincidence. In some groups, particularly wagons, there was an attempt to carry over some indication of the old telegraphic code for the vehicle type. Hence for example in group B which was bogie bolsters, many of them had the second letter as the TEL CODE suffix : BA = Bogie Bolster A (remember them ?) or more latterly Bogie Steel AB for the more modern air-braked sorts, BD = Bogie Bolster D, and so on.

 

As there can be many somewhat different designs of vehicle all with the same CKINDX or CARKND, an extra letter is added to make the four-letter AARKND. The meaning of this letter is unique to each CKINDX although there are some common themes albeit not universally applied. The generic 'basic' type is often given a last letter of 'C', with variations following on D, E, and so on. These variations could be different body types, different forms of vacuum brake, different owning or operating department, or many and various other differences. R could signify 'rebodied' as in the case of coal hoppers. 'M' could mean 'Metric' if applied to Bogie Steel AB, or 'Motorail' in the context of carflats, Milk Tanks were mostly 'M', or for MGR hoppers 'M' indicated fitted with canopy.

 

Around the mid '90s there seemed to be a spate of displaying the AARKND on wagons, usually privately owned, usually as the usual three-letter CARKND with the extra suffix letter tagged on after a dash / hyphen.

 

The two-letter CKINDX is also the first two characters of the Diagram Index for the vehicle, followed by a three digit number and one more letter. These are the pages in the vehicle diagram books on Barrowmore MRGs web-site. For each CKINDX, the number starts at 001 for revenue vehicles or sometimes 500 for service vehicles / departmentals if it's necessary to make the distinction. The final letter identifies a sub-type of the vehicle or a modification.

 

The above applies to wagons / freight stock, but for passenger coaching stock there is a further system within TOPS called POIS (Passenger Operations Information System). Coaching stock is given a CKINDX code as with other stock, and has a BRAKTY, accordingly if you wanted to book a passenger coach into a freight train consist you could blast in its CARKND. So NAV would be a gangwayed brake, vac fitted. ABX would get you a dual-braked corridor compartment coach with a guard's brake. Freight train lists will output passenger coaches in this way. Here you're not worried if it's a first class, second / standard, or composite but you are hopefully going to make sure its brake is the right type for the train it's going in. POIS however is interested in the class of passenger accommodation and the type or 'mark' of the vehicle, so you take the CKINDX and add a number to signify class (1 = 1st, 2 = 2nd, 3 = 3rd ... no sorry ... composite !, 4 = unclassified, and 5 = no passenger accommodation = NPCCS), then a number or letter signifying the design 0 = pre-nationalisation, 1 = Mk.1, A = Mk.2A, G = Mk.3, the odd one out being Mk.2 which is weirdly Z, and not 2. So a Mk.2D TSO would be AC2D. This is displayed at the lower left of the end of the coach, or maybe higher up if it has a data panel.