German railway wagon classes
The genus characters were used by the German railway companies to identify the characteristics of their goods and passenger carriages. These letters indicate the main technical characteristics of each car.
The term is usually composed of two parts: the front -standing main characters genus consists of at least one uppercase letter (rarely also with lowercase letters within the meaning of an abbreviation ) denotes the genus of the car and thus enables the coarse assignment to a specific type of car. Then usually follow one or more sub-class characters, which are always lowercase, encode the exact properties of the wagons. The entire string of major and minor characters is called genus genus characters. The DB 1952 changed the nomenclature: The former principal class characters was called henceforth group characters, the sub-class character only secondary characters.
In two German railway administrations, DB and DR, this system was by no later than January 1, 1968 superseded by the UIC - marking for passenger coaches and freight wagons. In many cases, both names were written some years. To distinguish between the international designation was preceded by a point on the wagons of the DR.
Today you can find the German generic characters still regularly to narrow gauge railway wagons, since they usually did not get UIC marking, as well as many historic vehicles.
- 5.4.1 Covered wagons ( classes G / GG, N)
- 5.4.2 bogie wagons ( genus H / HH)
- 5.4.3 Open wagons ( genera K / KK, O / OO, VO, X / XX)
- 5.4.4 flatcar ( genera R / RR, S / SS)
- 5.4.5 Kühlwagen ( genus T / TT )
- 5.4.6 crate car (type V)
- 5.4.7 Tank cars ( genera ZM, Z / ZZ)
Development
Were genus symbol for freight cars and about 1890 for passenger cars circa 1902 introduced by the Prussian state railways, and later used by other the other regional railways. Again had a lot of countries and private railways their own designation systems. After the founding of the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the formerly Prussian system in 1921 in Germany was quite authentic. Over the years, time and again, adjustments and changes that time can not be always accurately determine in detail. This sometimes leads to contradictory information about the validity periods of the genus characters in literature. In the following tables always the earliest occupied year for the introduction and the last known year is given for the end of validity in these cases.
- (DWV ) = German state railway carriage association of 1909 until 1921.
- (DR ) = German State Railroad ( 1920-1945 ) By 1921 to 1945.
- (DR ) = German Reich railway from 1949 until 1994.
- (DB ) = German federal railway from 1949 until 1994.
Main genus characters for coaches
- Labeling of passenger - bogie wagons to 1927:
Until at least 1902, no distinction was made. Later, the last letter of the main genre was doubled (eg BC → BCC), except were the genera Post, Salon, sleep and food.
- Marking the number of axles of passenger cars from 1928:
If > 2 was an indication of the number of axes as the main generic characters trailing digit. A four-axle BC car no longer BCC but BC4 was called henceforth. This also made it possible to make three or more axles coaches identified.
Main genus characters for freight wagons
- Labeling of bogie wagons:
Here, the main genus character was usually doubled ( eg, S → SS). Only with DGW and ZM was dispensed with distinction, while BT, H, Pwg, V and VO existed no bogie wagons. The main characters genus RR was only used by the DR for the RRym - car; all other bogie flat wagons belonging to the main generic ' SS
In addition to generic characters for coaches
From 1962 ( DB)
Preference compartments ( more legroom )
In addition to generic characters for freight wagons
Description of cargo weight
Two - and three-axle wagons
Four - and multiaxial cars (including HH- cars)
Description of load length and load area
Description of properties with importance for the composition
Description of specific properties of individual types of cars
Covered wagons ( classes G / GG, N)
Bogie wagons ( genus H / HH)
Open wagons ( genera K / KK, O / OO, VO, X / XX)
Flatcar ( genera R / RR, S / SS)
Notes:
- All designations of Y eliminates the sub-class characters A, L, M, R and S.
- In the freight cars of the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the terms with y were from 1965 no more and instead the corresponding other sub-class characters - a, l, m (> 50 t) / mm (> 80 t) and s - used. Whether the renumbering was done consistently, is not known. Partly also, both versions were written in parallel.