Indian Railways operates India's railway system and comes under the purview of the Ministry of Railways of Government of India. Indian Railways operates more than 4000 cargo and goods trains daily. It hauls variety of cargo to cater to various requirements and have specialized rolling stock corresponding to the cargo hauled. Indian Railways uses a specific wagon numbering system, adopted in 2003.

Classification Wagons are allocated 11 digit codes for identification. The first two digits indicate the wagon type, the next two digits indicate wagon ownership, the fifth and sixth digits indicate the year of manufacture, the seventh through tenth digits indicate unique wagon number and the last digit is a check digit.

Wagon type These two digits indicate the type of wagon. There are 243 types of rolling stock used for cargo operations. These include covered wagons, boxcars, flat wagons, flatbeds, open wagons, hoppers, containers, automobile carriers, defense vehicle carriers and tankers.

+Wagon type classificationClassificationPrefixTrack gaugeB Broad gauge M Metre gauge N Narrow gauge Wagon type B Bogie wagon BV Brake van V Brake/parcel van O Open wagon C Covered wagon F Flat car FK Flat car for container transport FU Well wagon LA Low flat car with standard buffer height LB Low flat car with low buffer height LAB Low flat car, one end with low buffer, the other with high buffer R Rail-carrying wagon T Tanker U Well wagon W Well wagon K Open wagon: ballast/material/refuse transport C Centre discharge S Side discharge R Rapid (forced) discharge, bottom discharge X Both centre and side discharge X High sided Y Low (medium) side walls L Low sided H Heavy loadCouplingC Center buffer R Screw T Transition N Air-braked M Military

Wagon type code + Open Wagon Code1011121314151617181920212224 TypeBOXNBOXNHABOXNHSBOXNCRBOXNLWBOXNBBOXNFBOXNGBOYBOSTBOXNALBOSTHSBOXNHLBOXNS

+ Covered Wagon Code303132 TypeBCNABCNAHSBCCNR

+ Tank Wagon Code4041424344454647 TypeBTPNBTPNHSBTPGLNBTALNBTCSBTPHBTAPBTFLN

+ Flat Wagon Code5354555657585960616263646566676869 TypeBLCSABLCSBBRNABRNAHSBFNSBOMNBRSTH BFATBLCABLCBBLLABLLBBRSBFUBRHNEHSBCLBCLA

+ Hopper Wagon Code707172737475 TypeBOBYNBOBYNHSBOBRNBOBRNHSBOBRALBOBSN

+ Well Wagon Code80818283 TypeBWTBMBWTDBKMMBWZ

+ Brake Van Code858687 TypeBVZCBVZIBVCM

Wagon ownership These third and fourth digits indicate the wagon ownership. This might correspond to specific railway zone or other entities.

Code Zone 01 Central Railway CR 02 Eastern Railway ER 03 Northern Railway NR 04 North East Railway NER 05 Northeast Frontier NFR 06 Southern SR 07 South East SER 08 Western WR

Code Zone 09 South Central SCR 10 East Central ECR 11 North Western NWR 12 East Coast ECoR 13 North Central NCR 14 South East Central SECR 15 South Western SWR 16 West Central WCR

No. Zone 24Ministry of DefenceMoD25Container Corporation of IndiaCONCOR26PrivateOthers

Year of manufacture These fifth and sixth digits indicate the last two digits of the year of manufacture. For example, a wagon manufactured in 2016 will have a code of 16.

Individual Wagon number Seventh to tenth digits indicate a unique four-digit individual wagon number. This is a running serial number from 0001 to 9999 with numbers from 0001 to 0999 indicating wagons used by departments of Indian Railways and numbers 1000 to 9999 are for other traffic.

Check digit The last digit is a check digit, which is calculated using a six-step algorithm as indicated below. Let the first ten digits be represented by C1 to C10 with C1 being the first digit, C2 the second digit and so on. Step 1 : Starting from the left, add all the characters in the even position. S1 = C2 + C4 + C6 + C8 + C10 Step 2 : Multiply the sum by 3 to get S1 x 3 Step 3 : Starting from the left, add all the Characters in the odd position. S2 = C1 + C3 + C5 + C7 + C9 Step 4 : Add the sum of step 2 to the sum of step 3 to get S4 = S1 x 3 + S2 Step 5 : Round this total up to the next multiple of 10. Step 6 : The check digit is the number required to the added to round up to the next multiple of 10. If the total is already a multiple of 10, the check digit will be zero.

For example, if the first ten digits are given by 3110169521 Step 1 : S1 = C2 + C4 + C6 + C8 + C10 = 1 + 0 + 6 + 5 + 1 = 13 Step 2 : S1 × 3 = 39 Step 3 : S2 = C1+ C3 + C5 + C7 + C9 = 3 + 1 + 1 + 9 + 2 = 16 Step 4 : S4= S1 × 3 + S2 = 39 + 16 = 55 Step 5 : Next 10th multiple of 55 = 60 Step 6 : Check digit = 60 - 55 = 5 Hence the eleventh digit is assigned as 5 for this particular wagon.

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