Token (railway signalling)

As a token is referred to as railway use an object whose possession entitled to drive on a single track section. Token Systems Command are or were common in the British Isles and in the former British colonies, 1940-1983 also at the Innsbruck central mountain railway.

Staff and Ticket System

In the oldest form of the token has the form of a rod (English: staff ) of wood or metal, which is labeled with the name of the section. The driver receives the baton from the station master or signalman in the main train station and gives it to the destination station again. Collisions effectively prevented - Since there is only one token for every single track section, be - correct application of the system.

The disadvantage is obviously that can not ride two trains after another in the same direction, but the rod must be returned from a moving train in the opposite direction to the starting point only. One solution to this problem is that all moving in the same direction trains will receive a written license except the last, instead of the rod; For safety reasons, the engineer upon receipt of the license will have to convince them that the bar is still at the initial station. The last train of the group is given the rod; only after a train may run in the opposite direction. This approach is referred to as staff and ticket system.

Electric Token Block

In this system, the tokens are stored (in the form of a circular disc, a key, or sometimes of a rod ) into two devices at the beginning and end of the single-track section. The devices are electrically connected, and it may be only a token outside the device are located. Thus, several trains can run in succession in the same direction, numerous tokens are available in each machine.

Radio Electronic Token Block

In this system, the token is no longer the subject, but an encrypted signal, which is transmitted from a control center by radio to a computer in the cab of the vehicle. The control that for each section only issued a token and then " taken back " after driving through the single-track section is done by the computer in the control center.