Date filmed: Thursday the 8th of August 2024
Videos filmed between 18:06 and 18:47
Route(s): West Coastway Line / Portsmouth Direct Line
- Bedhampton (BDH) Station
Crossing type: Manually Controlled Barrier crossing with CCTV (MCB-CCTV)
Filming location: West Street, Havant (PO9 1NL)
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Towards the end of the video, a section of track failed to properly clear behind a Portsmouth-bound stopping service. In this scenario, as the system could not provide itself a reliable report of whether the track section was occupied or not, it locked the level crossing barriers down and held signals over it at red as if assuming it were occupied or something was wrong. As a result, the next train over it had to come to a stand, the driver had to contact the signaller, a number of checks had to be made, and once both driver and signaller were satisfied all checks were met, the signaller gave the driver authority to pass the signal at red. The train would then sound the horn as a warning and proceed at a reduced speed as the driver examined the line to discover whether it was really a failure and the system being fail-safe, or whether there was actually, for instance, an obstruction or track defect. Thankfully, it was the former, though as the failure was within the safety margin beyond the signal that is required in case the train overshoots, the driver had to be talked past the signal before as well. While this was going on, another train on the adjacent line was brought nearly to a stand, and then cleared through last minute as to tell the driver to be cautious in the mean time. This had to be done for all subsequent trains until the problem was rectified.
This is just another example of trained professionals safely following strict procedures in the event of faults and failures, and the situation was perfectly safe. The worst outcome of the situation was the barriers were down for at least half an hour in the end. While this was going on, I reported the matter to Network Rail via live chat, and this is how I was told it was a track section failure, and they suggested taking an alternative route. In typical me fashion, I had to leave as soon as I reported and found out the matter due to it getting quite late and needing to head home. A response unit would subsequently arrive and tend to the matter.
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Some evening action at this very busy level crossing beside a busy and noisy road junction on the bottleneck through Havant where the West Coastway Line shares a section of track with the Portsmouth Direct Line as far as Portcreek Junction. Everything you see in this video happened within the space of about 40 minutes; The crossing is constantly raising and lowering as this line can see up to 16 trains an hour, and even more amazingly the crossing still retains its old 'GWE' barriers from the 1980s, although these are starting to show their age as the barrier boxes are turning pink and one barrier is becoming slow to lower. As you can also notice, one alarm is significantly louder than the other, and the quieter alarm can be heard sounding with an unusually high-pitched tone. I hope you enjoy this bumper assortment of railway action!
Trains featured:
Lowering 1 (0:00):
377 315 (Southern) - 1:05
1S55 Portsmouth & Southsea ➡ Brighton | 1 minute late
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Lowering 2 (1:32):
377 464 (Southern) - 2:28
1C57 Portsmouth Harbour ➡ London Victoria | 1 minute late
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Lowering 3 (2:58)
1) 450 114 (South Western Railway) - 3:58
2P66 Portsmouth & Southsea ➡ London Waterloo | On-time
2) 444 032 & 450 ??? (South Western Railway) - 4:25
1P53 London Waterloo ➡ Portsmouth Harbour | 1 minute late
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Lowering 4 (4:54):
387 206 (Gatwick Express, on behalf of Southern) - 5:46
1N50 Brighton ➡ Southampton Central | On-time
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Lowering 5 (6:11):
1) Class 377 (Southern) - 6:54
1C46 London Victoria ➡ Portsmouth Harbour | On-time
2) Class 387 (Gatwick Express, on behalf of Southern) - 7:14
1N51 Southampton Central ➡ Brighton | On-time
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Lowering 6 (7:34):
450 102 & 450 059 (South Western Railway) - 8:17
1G64 Portsmouth Harbour ➡ London Waterloo | 1 minute early
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Lowering 7 (8:59):
1) 450 058 & 450 025 (South Western Railway) arrive - 10:08
450 058 & 450 025 (South Western Railway) depart - 10:47
2P51 London Waterloo ➡ Portsmouth & Southsea | 1 minute late
Track section failure & Explanation - 11:12
Train gets authorised past a signal at danger - 12:54
2) 377 318 (Southern) passes cautiously - 13:08
1S50 Brighton ➡ Portsmouth & Southsea | Actual pass 7 minutes late
3) 377 131 (Southern) - 13:45
1C59 Portsmouth Harbour ➡ London Waterloo | On-time
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End-of-video picture showcase: 14:28
Train details sourced from:
Real Time Trains: www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/
Open Train Times: www.opentraintimes.com/maps
Traksy: traksy.uk/live
Filmed on: Panasonic HC-VX1 in 4K 25fps
Thanks for watching!