Re: (erielack)OT L&WV aka Laurel Line Tunnel Question

[bob gillis <robertgillis_@_verizon.net>]

Staff and tokens are the same thing.

bob gillis

Dlw1el2_@_aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 3/10/2006 8:40:53 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, 
> robertgillis_@_verizon.net writes:
>  
> Frank
> Bob Gillis explanation is pretty much correct, except instead of 
> tokens, the STAFF system used WOODEN STAFFs, that a conductor or in 
> the case of the Laurel Line, the motor man, would remove from a large 
> metal cabinet.  The cabinets were electrically connected so that only 
> one STAFF could be out of either machine at any given time.  Thus, 
> only one train in the tunnel at any given time. When you cleared the 
> tunnel, the motor man would return his STAFF into the machine at the 
> exiting end, and now a STAFF could be granted at either end, to the 
> next Laurel Line car.
>  
> Bob Bahrs
>
>     Frank P Adams wrote:
>
>     >On page 4 of the Henwood "Laurel Line" book it says that the
>     gauntlet track
>     >thru the south Scranton tunnel was protected by an "electric
>     staff system
>     >consisting of a staff box located in an operator's booth at each
>     junction"
>     >It goes on to say that each box had 40 staffs and over time they
>     became bent
>     >or damaged.  In 1915 a canvas bad was installed so conductors of
>     south bound
>     >trains could throw the staff into it to be retrieved later "by
>     the operator
>     >and returned to the machine"
>     >
>
>     A token system has a machine at each end of a track section where
>     only
>     one train is allows at a time. The tow machines are interlock so only
>     one token can be taken out at a time. A train approaching this
>     section,
>     takes a token from machine A, proceeds through the section and
>     inserts
>     the token back into machine B.  No another train can take a token and
>     proceed in either direction.
>
>     This system AFAIK was developed in Great Britain  Later token systems
>     allowed the token to be picked up and returned at speed.
>
>     I guess there was a signalman at the south end who would insert the
>     token back into the machine.  The motrmen were probably trying to
>     insert
>     at speed and di not let go fast enough.
>
>     >
>     >Does anyone know exactly what this system was and how it
>     operated?  Remember
>     >the Laurel Line used an electrified third rail.
>     > 
>     >
>
>     This has nothing to do with the token system
>
>     bob gillis
>
>     >Thanks,
>     >
>     >Frank
>     >Colorado Springs, CO
>     >ELH&TS #52
>     >ELHS #2116
>     >
>     >
>
>  




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