This page covers the Standard Codes for Telegrams used across the railway network for many years.

Their purpose was not to disguise the content of the message but to abbreviate it: the shorter the message, the less it cost to send it. This principle applied as much to the railways' own internal telegraph service as to that of the General Post Office, because each individual word had to be tapped out in Morse code by a telegraph operator.

I have transcribed a fair chunk of a very battered and dog-eared codebook dated 1st July 1958. I have not gone so far as to type out the actual Index of Code Words since the page numbers would be meaningless on a website and it is far quicker to use the Search function built into many browsers (Ctrl+F in most of them).

OK, here we go. There now follow the

 

STANDARD CODES
to be used in TELEGRAMS on
RAILWAY BUSINESS

This Code Book supersedes all previous issues

 

PREFACE

The code words for phrases in regular use contained in this booklet must be used, where applicable, in telegrams over Railway or Post Office wires but not in telegrams to members of the public.

Brevity in telegrams is imperative and attention should be drawn to any case in which this instruction has been disregarded.

A message which does not in itself indicate that a telegraph answer is to be sent, must not be acknowledged by wire unless "Ack" is added at the end of the telegram.

In telegraphing, all Code Words must be signalled CAREFULLY and DISTINCTLY.

In telephoning, all Code Words should be SPELT OUT. If difficulty is experienced in identifying any particular letter or word it must be verified by the following analogy:-

A for Andrew			N for Nellie
B for Benjamin			O for Oliver
C for Charlie			P for Peter
D for David			Q for Queenie
E for Edward			R for Robert
F for Frederick			S for Sugar
G for George			T for Tommy
H for Harry			U for Uncle
I for Isaac			V for Victor
J for Jack			W for William
K for King			X for Xmas
L for Lucy			Y for Yellow
M for Mary			Z for Zebra

ABBREVIATED RAILWAY TELEGRAPHIC TITLES

The following abbreviations must be used in the addresses of railway telegrams instead of inserting the full name:-

  e.g. Mr. Smith, Goods Agent, Newtown, would be

G Newtown

and a multiple message to the Station Master, Goods and Parcels Departments at Newtown, should be shown as under:-

S G & P Newtown

To be continued when the Stores send the round tuit I asked for months ago....
In the meantime, you can look up many of the common code words in the uk.railway FAQ.

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This page was last updated in May 2006. Comments on this site, or notice of any broken links, are always welcome: let me know.

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