Train staff and ticket box

Train staff and ticket box, with train staff, Hindlow and Harpur Hill, aluminium staff and wooden box, London & North Western Railway Ladmanlow branch (Cromford & High Peak R.), south of Buxton, Derbyshire.

Single line working is one of the more dangerous aspects of railway operation. Trains often travel in either direction over a single line section and can only pass at passing loops or stations. Signallers control access by issuing a staff or tablet, unique to a specific section of single line, to train drivers as authority to proceed. This ensured only one train was in section at any one time.

Where single lines might experience more than two trains travelling in the same direction in succession, a method of working was developed to ensure the single line staff is not taken to the wrong end of the section. Called ‘staff and ticket’, a train staff unlocks a box containing paper or metal tickets. The signaller issued individual tickets to give successive trains authority to enter the single line section. Both staff and ticket must be shown to the driver or guard before the ticket is accepted. The staff, retained by the signaller, is issued to the driver of the last train entering the section. It is then surrendered to the signaller at the exit, allowing the process to repeat in the opposite direction.

This London and North Western Railway example controlled access to a single line section between Hindlow and Harpur Hill Signal Boxes in the Peak District.