Description
Limited edition Bath Junction to Midford single line token. It has been faithfully reproduced from an original in Aluminium.
This is the last tablet available and has a slight casting defect as shown, hence reduced price
The Tablets for each section were serially numbered. This replica is taken from no.20, which indicates that there must have been at least twenty Tablets for the Bath Junction – Midford section. This would enable several successive trains to be signalled through the section in one direction before a train was signalled in the opposite direction, without the Signalman running short of Tablets. Originally, Tablets were exchanged between Signalman and Driver by hand, requiring the train to slow to walking pace. As the number of express trains increased, the S&D adopted the Whitaker Automatic Tablet Exchange Apparatus, which enabled trains to pick up and set down Tablets at speed. Examples of the Tyers no.6 Electric Train Tablet instruments, and the Whitaker Automatic Tablet Exchange Apparatus, can be seen at the Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust’s museum at Washford, West Somerset.
(Description courtesy of Tim Stevens)