Post by Dave on Apr 16, 2010 18:41:01 GMT
I really have enjoyed my day driving around North Devon in the sunshine, so different to how it has been when all the snow and frost was around and its true that nice weather sure makes you feel a whole lot happier.
By lunchtime I was in Crediton and on the way out of the town on my way to Exeter I had to do a call I don’t call on all that often and to get to it I have to go across a level crossing that is on the Tarka line and more often than not, I always time it wrong when I do go to this call.
That was what happened to day, once as I got to the crossing and two when I had done the call and was on my way back to the main road. I have watched the chain of events so many times and have never really given them a thought until today.
The down train from Barnstaple stops just short of the crossing, then man who was in the box and had lowered the barriers electrically, reaches up and takes something from the driver, he then returns to his box waiting to operate the barriers again.
When the train is the up train from Exeter to Barnstable the man stands on the other side of the track and hands the driver something and not really being into trains, I have has I said, never really wondered what was going on.
That was until today and on the way to Exeter I was giving it plenty of thought and I remembered I had seen it done when Carol and I went on the tram ride at Seaton. Well most of that track at Seaton is just a single track so I came to the conclusion that the Tarka line must be a single line track and that the object that I now know is called the key, is used to ensure there are never two trains on the same track going in different directions.
It all looks like something from a time past and what I don’t understand is why in this day an age there is not some confiscated computer system that would control and know there the trains were on the track.
Anyway while I was sat there waiting I took two pictures while sat in the van, the first one shows the key being handed over and the second one seems to have gone a bit funny as I’m sure the post is not that bent.
By lunchtime I was in Crediton and on the way out of the town on my way to Exeter I had to do a call I don’t call on all that often and to get to it I have to go across a level crossing that is on the Tarka line and more often than not, I always time it wrong when I do go to this call.
That was what happened to day, once as I got to the crossing and two when I had done the call and was on my way back to the main road. I have watched the chain of events so many times and have never really given them a thought until today.
The down train from Barnstaple stops just short of the crossing, then man who was in the box and had lowered the barriers electrically, reaches up and takes something from the driver, he then returns to his box waiting to operate the barriers again.
When the train is the up train from Exeter to Barnstable the man stands on the other side of the track and hands the driver something and not really being into trains, I have has I said, never really wondered what was going on.
That was until today and on the way to Exeter I was giving it plenty of thought and I remembered I had seen it done when Carol and I went on the tram ride at Seaton. Well most of that track at Seaton is just a single track so I came to the conclusion that the Tarka line must be a single line track and that the object that I now know is called the key, is used to ensure there are never two trains on the same track going in different directions.
It all looks like something from a time past and what I don’t understand is why in this day an age there is not some confiscated computer system that would control and know there the trains were on the track.
Anyway while I was sat there waiting I took two pictures while sat in the van, the first one shows the key being handed over and the second one seems to have gone a bit funny as I’m sure the post is not that bent.
What you've witnessed is the age old "passing of the token" whereby a single track of railway is made fail safe by regulating that no driver may pass over it without being in possession of the token.....................often die stamped and therefore singularly identifiable as the token for that stretch of line.
