Differences between Token and Staff

[fairysdad]

In the Okehampton reopening thread, this is mentioned:

For anyone who doesn't know the location, trains stop twice. On a down journey, first at Crediton station, then again beside the signal box to collect the token (to Barnstaple) or staff (to Okehampton).

I had thought that a token and a staff were the same thing but just different names (most likely depending on region) - but given that Crediton signal box has both depending on which line a train is headed northbound obviously not! So what is the difference between the two?

 

[Gloster]

It is many years since I had anything to do with this, so others may correct the following.

In the rules ‘token’ is used for anything that may be removed from an instrument and issued to a driver at one point, usually one end of the section, and returned to another instrument once the train is clear of the section. As long as there is only one train in the section at a time, trains can run alternatively in either direction or follow one another.

With a ‘staff’ nowadays (again in the rules) there can only be a single one for the section and it must be returned to the signal box (or location) the train started from before another train enters the single line; effectively it is only used in dead end branches where the train goes up and then comes back. It used to be normal to operate through single lines with a staff, but that was inflexible as after one train had gone in one direction, the next had to be in the other.

Physically, a token is a bit like a lumpy, old fashioned key made out of aluminium or some similar alloy (they can be known as ‘Key
Tokens’). A tablet, which is almost extinct, functions like a token but is a flat disc or similar, usually of metal. A staff, as now used, can be any suitable object from a hefty bit of metal with ground frame release keys built in to a piece of wood a foot or so long for ease of handing over. (*)

One thing they all have in common is that they will carry the name of the section, either engraved on the metal or on a plaque - usually brass - screwed to the wood. The tokens and tablets also have various manufacturing differences which ensure that only one of the correct configuration can go into a particular instrument and one signal box never has two instrument of the same configuration. Just to make it complicated, a staff could actually be an old token, but if it functions as a staff, then that is what it is called by the operators (though probably not by the S&T when they are looking for spare parts).

* There used also to be electric staffs, which functioned in the same way as tokens (and tablets) and would be referred to as tokens by the operators. They were metal rods of varying lengths, but are no longer used by Network Rail.

I hope I haven’t confused too much, but in essence there are two similar, but slightly different, meanings depending on whether you are dealing with operating rules or equipment technicalities.

 

[Randomer]

Essentially I've always understood it to be that they are effectively the same thing authority wise but tokens are machine controlled so that only one may be issued but are not physically unique (or computer controlled with radio for issue on RETB lines as used on the Far North Line.) Whereas staffs are only controlled by being unique and in physical possession.

Very broadly a staff can only be exchanged manually and generally only 1 will exist for the piece of line it covers which brings the problem of how to send it back to the origin to allow a new train from the same direction to occupy the piece of track it covers once the first has cleared the signalling block in question. Hence the introduction of things like a staff and ticket system which were banned on mainline trains following several accidents, somewhere in Northern Ireland being the big driver from memory. Nowadays pretty much only used on things like branch lines where only one train is worked at a time and seemingly dying out as procedures move towards working controlled by the signaller and interlocking or similar measures at the start of the branch to prevent another train entering. Made easier by modern communications, when train staffs were first used lineside telephones didn't exist let alone GSM-R.

A token can be exchanged by machine at multiple points but the machines are designed in such a way that only one token can be issued covering the track in question at a time, essentially a more modern implementation of a staff. Although even saying this some of the token machines in use currently must be getting on for a 100 years old.

 

[MarkyT]

Both are types of physical tokens required for access to and movement along a single line. A train staff is the simplest implementation of this concept, most often used for a simple dead-end stub branch line where a train entering the single line must return to the same location to leave it and is hence able to return the staff for use by the next train. Electric token systems of various types have multiple identical tokens available in the system distributed among multiple instruments that are configured to only allow one token to be withdrawn and used at any time. Hence the instruments for a particular section need to be linked to each other electrically by expensive dedicated cabling along the lineside, or by some more modern communications link, to synchronise their states. Instruments are usually located at each end of the appropriate single track, although sometimes they may be supplemented by additional 'auxiliary' or 'intermediate' instruments, for various purposes such as mid section ground frame lock-in. Train staff systems need no cabling and communications between the extremities because there is no need to link multiple instruments to ensure only one token is issued; there exists only one unique 'token' for the section. Sometimes, the unique train staff may still have a key incorporated or firmly attached that must be run through a key release instrument for each train to allow the signal giving access to the single line to clear. Electric tokens deployed on the Okehampton line could allow one or more trains or locomotives to be 'locked in' on the freight section beyond Okehampton to Meldon simultaneously with a passenger train moving between Okehampton and Crediton. The current staff system on the line is less flexible. If a train needs to be locked in beyond Okehampton today, the train staff needs to be returned to Crediton by road before another train can run from there. 'Staff and ticket' of various kinds can be used as an economical means of augmenting a simple staff system for running multiple trains without the need for the time-consuming road transfer, but is arguably more prone to human error, so can be useful for occasional movements but not for routine frequent operation on a modern passenger railway.

 

[fairysdad]

Thanks for that!

The short and very simple version appears to be then that while both are for restricting a section of single-line track to one train, a 'token' allows for multiple in one direction, while a 'staff' only allows for one train at all.

(I realised that is a very simplified version and probably doesn't cover the nuances involved!)

(Incidentally, when I was younger and first hearing about these things when I was starting to get interested in railway infrastructure, I thought a 'staff' was a person that had to travel on the train, as in 'a member of staff' - I suppose in some ways, a person could be used as a staff...)

 

[noddingdonkey]

A pilotman is effectively a human staff in many respects.

 

[Efini92]

Thanks for that!

The short and very simple version appears to be then that while both are for restricting a section of single-line track to one train, a 'token' allows for multiple in one direction, while a 'staff' only allows for one train at all.

(I realised that is a very simplified version and probably doesn't cover the nuances involved!)

(Incidentally, when I was younger and first hearing about these things when I was starting to get interested in railway infrastructure, I thought a 'staff' was a person that had to travel on the train, as in 'a member of staff' - I suppose in some ways, a person could be used as a staff...)

The rules differ slightly as well. Under token working the signaller can authorise a second train to pass the signal at danger for shunting purposes. Under staff working they can’t.

A pilotman is effectively a human staff in many respects.

Would it not be a human token? Person In Lieu Of Token.

 

[Tomnick]

Would it not be a human token? Person In Lieu Of Token.

Not really - it's closer to Staff and Ticket working, in effect. You can't restore your Pilotman to the instrument at one end of the section so that you can withdraw a second one from the other end, after all! Person In Lieu Of Token is merely an unofficial backronym.

 

[AndyW33]

Not really - it's closer to Staff and Ticket working, in effect. You can't restore your Pilotman to the instrument at one end of the section so that you can withdraw a second one from the other end, after all! Person In Lieu Of Token is merely an unofficial backronym.

That's where the identical twin pilotmen, both with official armbands, come into use! Sounds like something the 1876 vintage Somerset & Dorset, complete with its unauthorised mid-section signalbox on a single line might have done.

Seriously, there was something called a divisible train staff, marginally safer than staff and ticket. Show the driver of the first train the complete staff, then split it and give him half. When train out of section is received, give the driver of the second train the remaining portion of the staff. Enables two trains to follow in the same direction. Both halves must be reunited before something can pass in the other direction. When I say marginally safer, I'm thinking of the David L Smith story of the Glasgow & South Western, where the key to unlock the boxes in which the tickets were kept for staff and ticket working was built into the end of the staff, so you couldn't remove a ticket without the staff being present, except that the end of the standard fire poker issued to stations and signalboxes fitted the lock perfectly...

 

[Gloster]

That's where the identical twin pilotmen, both with official armbands, come into use! Sounds like something the 1876 vintage Somerset & Dorset, complete with its unauthorised mid-section signalbox on a single line might have done.

Seriously, there was something called a divisible train staff, marginally safer than staff and ticket. Show the driver of the first train the complete staff, then split it and give him half. When train out of section is received, give the driver of the second train the remaining portion of the staff. Enables two trains to follow in the same direction. Both halves must be reunited before something can pass in the other direction. When I say marginally safer, I'm thinking of the David L Smith story of the Glasgow & South Western, where the key to unlock the boxes in which the tickets were kept for staff and ticket working was built into the end of the staff, so you couldn't remove a ticket without the staff being present, except that the end of the standard fire poker issued to stations and signalboxes fitted the lock perfectly...

I think that some types of Divisible Staff could be used for more than two trains. I have seen a photo of one that had four or five parts, but the bottom bit had to be shown to the driver before he could enter the section: as long as he saw that bit he knew that no train could be coming in the opposite direction. The bottom bit and any unused bits would travel through the section with the last train before trains started coming from the other end of the section.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Very many years ago I was visiting a signalbox at a location that must remain nameless. It was the entry point for quite a significant freight-only branch controlled by a Train Staff. A freight was down the line, obviously in possession of the Staff. A second freight for the branch then 'turned up' as they seemed to be able to do in those days before electronic schedules. The signaller had access to a 'GPO' telephone and called the mess room at the far end, where the crew were taking their break whilst their train was processed by the customer. "Don't come back yet. I'm sending another train down."

I enjoyed a slightly wary and unofficial cab ride down the line on the second train with the crew apparently relaxed despite having no 'movement authority'. Upon arrival the staff was duly handed over from the first crew to the second crew and I returned almost immediately on the 'first' train. Nobody involved (apart from me) seemed to think that the circumstances were unusual.

Who said Train Staffs were 'inflexible?

 

[norbitonflyer]

It is many years since I had anything to do with this, so others may correct the following.

The tokens and tablets also have various manufacturing differences which ensure that only one of the correct configuration can go into a particular instrument and one signal box never has two instrument of the same configuration.

The Abermule disaster (100 years ago next month) demonstrates why that is important. A misunderstanding between the station staff resulted in the tablet that had just been brought in by an arriving train crew being handed back to them, in the belief it was a tablet for the next section. Unfortunately, a tablet had already been issued for that section. The resulting head-on collision killed the footplate crew of one of the trains, and fifteen passengers, one of whom was a director of the railway company.

As well as recommending that tablets be made more different from each other, the RAIB Inquiry recommended that the tablet machines be interconnected with the signals, so a signal could not be released to enter a section unless a tablet had been released from the machine at that end of the section.

 

[edwin_m]

The other thing that went wrong at Abermule was that the driver failed to check that the token handed to him was the correct one for the section he was about to enter. Considering they were most at risk if something goes wrong, I'd guess that drivers would normally be particularly diligent in doing this check.

This is a near-duplicate of another current thread: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...onal-token-working.211230/page-7#post-4893969