Although on many lines the State Railway of Thailand uses electrical token instruments, on some lines it still makes use of a physical railway token, also known as a single track railway token and usually simply referred to as a token. It consists of an object in the form of a small tablet, ball or key, which the train driver is required to collect, either from the hands of the station master or —as seen here at the iconic Hua Hin  train station (fig.)— from a pole along the side of the track, before being allowed to enter onto a particular section of single track.

The token is placed in a pouch attached to a large —often pear-shaped— loop or ring, which allows for the easy and quick handing over of the token to the driver of an arriving or departing train, in order to enable the safe working of the single track railway.

The token, which clearly bears the name or number of the section it belongs to, thus travels with the train to the other end of the single track and can therefore not be handed over before physically arriving at the destination, after which it can —and only then— be passed on to any train waiting to travel in the opposite direction and hence avoiding the possibility of two trains traveling simultaneously on the same track in opposite directions. On the opposite side of the track stands a thematic street lantern with two golden swans called Hamsa and known in Thai as hongse (fig.).