Back to the 1970s! Changing the headcode on a Warship loco before working a freight train

D832 Onslaught has always been a fave and looks great in immaculate BR blue. Here she works light engine off Bury depot before blasting off with a freight/parcels train.
Watching the second man change the headcode takes me right back to the 70s!

[@scottfw7169]

Thanks for this! As an American I've been interested in the headcodes thing since learning of it in British-published books in the public libraries in the 1970s & and this first time I've ever seen how the changing was done.

[@NedPooleD818]

Greetings from Dorset in the UK:-)) Glad you enjoyed the video. Headcodes were a really distinctive feature of BR locos until 1976 and made identification of the service really easy. I’ve seen most US locos also have illuminated number boxes but these tend to just show the loco fleet number - did these ever show the train number and if so how were these changed? I love the classic ‘E’ and ‘F’ units and I’m certain I’ve seen pics of these with different train service numbers in them. Thanks in advance for any info:-))

[@scottfw7169]

@@NedPooleD818 now that, the US number boxes thing, I have seen, do know, and have even put my hands on once. The numbers were changeable from the inside on diesels. The ones I know of were stencil painted glass inserts for the different numerals and letters. And yes, outfits such as Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, did sometimes use them to display train numbers. SP even had special triangular boxes with lighting made for mounting on steam locomotives to do just that (and it does exist as a manufactured detail part) if there was no other fitting large enough on the locomotive. That train number practice lasted on the SP until around 1967, I think. As radio and computer equipment became more widespread the need to display train numbers faded. For many years unscheduled "Extra" trains have been identified by number of lead locomotive. And I think on contemporary diesels the number is on one piece of glass in the fixture. I've been without hands-on experience of the thing since the end of the 1980s.

[@NedPooleD818]

@@scottfw7169Thanks - that’s really useful information. It was also the demise of the staffed signal boxes in the UK that reduced the need to identify trains by a headcode on the front. They stopped being displayed in 1976with marker lights taking their place. A shame as they were a very distinctive feature:-)

[@michaelward2082]

I used to change headcodes on Class20,Class 25, Class 31, Class 37, Class 40 and Class 47s at March Depot and around, 1974 to until it ended suddenly one day in 1976

[@NedPooleD818]

Glad you enjoyed the video. Not much fun I would imagine changing the headcode on the split box 37s and 40s perched on the buffer beam steps in the rain! Happy times though!