Steam over Groombridge—Token Exchange on the Fly

On our visit to Britain’s Spa Valley Railway last month, we laid over at the intermediate station of Groombridge, and made photos of the excursion train returning from Eridge.

Part of this exercise was to document the token exchange as the locomotive passed the platform.

In traditional fashion, the Spa Valley Railway is divided into manual block sections. Permission to pass each section is authorized by a specific token that is released from the electrically interlocked token-aperatus and passed by an authorized member of station staff to the locomotive crew. I detailed the concept of a token exchange in my first book on railroad signaling.

I made these photos using my Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm lens.