This list contains the UIC classification of goods wagons and their meanings. The description is made up of a category letter (in capitals) and usually several index letters (in lower case). The international system for the classification of

goods wagon Goods wagons or freight wagons (North America: freight cars), also known as goods carriages, goods trucks, freight carriages or freight trucks, are unpowered railway vehicles that are used for the transportation of cargo. A variety of wagon type ...

s was agreed by the ''

Union internationale des chemins de fer The International Union of Railways (UIC, french: Union internationale des chemins de fer) is an international rail transport industry body. History The railways of Europe originated as many separate concerns, and there were many border chang ...

'' (UIC) in 1965 and subsequently introduced into member countries. For example it was adopted in Germany on 1 January 1968 replacing the previous

German railway wagon classes The system of German railway wagon classes (''Wagengattungen'') was introduced in Germany in 1902 and 1905 by the Prussian state railways based on their system of norms, and was soon taken up by the other state railways (''Länderbahnen''). On the ...

that originated as early as 1905. The UIC classification has been amended several times since it began. Not all wagons are given UIC designations. In Germany the few remaining

guards van Brake van and guard's van are terms used mainly in the UK, Ireland, Australia and India for a railway vehicle equipped with a hand brake which can be applied by the guard. The equivalent North American term is caboose, but a British brake va ...

s and

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

goods wagons have retained their original classifications.

Category letters

The following table contains the complete list of standard category letters. Letters A, B, C, D, P and W are reserved for coaches. However, also S is used for coaches and this doubles a goods wagons class.COMMISSION DECISION of 11 August 2006 concerning the technical specification of interoperability relating to the subsystem ‘Traffic Operation and Management’ of the trans-European conventional rail system (notified under document number C(2006) 3593) (Text with EEA relevance) (2006/920/EC) These are covered in detail in the article on

UIC classification of railway coaches Railway coaches are classified under an international system developed by the UIC. This UIC classification of railway coaches replaced earlier national classification schemes in many countries, such as Germany. The coach class is expressed as a com ...

. Each goods wagons type is given a type number, whose first digit forms the fifth digit of the 12-digit

UIC wagon number Wagon numbers (or coach numbers) are key data for railway operations. They enable a railway wagon or coach to be positively identified and form a common language between railway operators, infrastructure companies and the state authorities. The ...

Index letters

International index letters

^*11 In the version of the classification scheme valid up to 1979 ''a'' meant bogie wagon, ''aa'' was not applicable to classes E,F,G,H,T,U,Z.
^*12 In version of the classification scheme valid up to 1979 there was also a load limit 40 t.
^*13 The index letter was not part of the original 1966 version and was not introduced until later.
^*14 In the DR the definition was initially just "length under …m", which referred to the length over buffers. As a result numerous wagons were given the wrong classification with the ''m'' missing.
^*15 In the original 1965 version ''m'' was only intended for classes E,G,I,K,O,R.
^*16 In the original 1965 version ''mm'' was only intended for classes K,O,R.
^*17 The index letter could be dropped in 1980, but was sometimes displayed beyond that date.
^*18 The index letter was introduced later than 1980.
^*19 Up to 1979 both wagons with metered as well as those with loose gravity discharge were designated with a ''d''.

National index letters

Country code 50: DR

Country code 80: DB

Country code 85: SBB

Footnotes and references

External links

Marking of freight wagons (UIC site)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uic Classification Of Goods Wagons Rolling stock classification systems Classification of goods wagons Rail transport standards Railway vehicles register numbers