What kinds of block instruments are or were used in India?
In India, the most prevalent form of physical token system to be found in recent decades is the Neale’s Ball Token System and variants such as Neale’s Voucher Block, Neale’s Tablet Token, etc. Other systems such as Theobald Key Token, Webb and Thompson electric token staff, Tyer & Co.’s key token instrument (one-wire three-position instrument and others), etc., were also widely used. Robert’s Key Staff instruments were used to control single lines on the Mysore State Rly. and the Madras and Southern Mahratta Rly. Neale’s Ball Token came into wide use in the interbellum years just before Independence. Mr Neale, by the way, was an engineer on the GIPR. Most early block instruments followed British designs and practices. Neale’s token system was innovative when it was introduced, as it combined, for the first time, the token handling system with the block instrument operation into a single system. Tokenless block instruments aim to do away with the time-consuming process of manually excha
