Keith, Some comments arising from the key token picture:-
1. All the references which I have seen to Tolcarn Junction have spelt the name without an ‘E’. Are there any other examples of this alternative spelling?
2. When key tokens started to become a ‘collectable’ item in the 1960s, then some (if not all) S&T departments used to cut the key end off before sale to ensure that they could not be re-used in ‘live’ railway equipment. Since then many collectors have re-attached new ends to ‘complete’ their keys, so one has to be wary when buying such things at auctions etc. As an aside, in the case of tablets from the ex-SR lines then the S&T resorted to stamping ‘NOT IN USE’ across the face, not that that would stop you putting it back into a tablet machine if you got the chance :-)
3. As regards “other tokens elsewhere”, it depends what you mean by “identical keys”? This is a good example of a standard ex-GWR Electric Key Token, albeit of the later alloy type rather than the earlier steel version – as such, they could be found across the entire GWR/BR(WR) system. There were (usually) only 4 different configurations of key end, this one having once been a ‘D’ as identified by the yellow paint, so there would have been many other places where similar ‘D’ keys could have been found – just with different names on them of course.
If you want to know more about such things in the West Country, then you might like to look at my website - West Country Railway Archives http://www.railwest.org.uk/
Regards, Chris Many thanks for this information Chris.
Many thanks also to Martin Duff for his reply as well.