Choppington Level Crossing, Northumberland

Date filmed: Tuesday the 14th of May 2024
Video filmed at 10:50
Route: Blythe & Tyne Railway
- Closest timing point: Hepscott Junction (on Real Time Trains)
Crossing type: Automatic Half Barrier Crossing (AHBC)
Filming location: A1068 Choppington Road, Choppington (NE62 5TG)
An automatic half barrier crossing on the freight-only single-track line between Bedlington and Morpeth, found just outside of the village of Choppington. There are fairly long barriers here for this fairly busy road, and the alarms stop sounding when the barriers are down. As can be heard, one alarm still sounds quite faulty and has done for some years now. The barriers themselves here used to have tension cables despite not having supporter arms, but this is no longer the case since a barrier renewal here in the last few years. The barriers also seem to lower a little earlier in the sequence than typical, with a smaller time gap separating the red lights starting to alternate and the barriers starting to fall. Until the 1960s, there was a station here of which nothing remains, not even a timing point on Real Time Trains.
This line is typically infrequently-used, seeing only one or two return trains per week coming off of the East Coast Main Line toward the Blyth area and these can be seen during daylight for only a few months of the year. However, from April this year until completion, major re-signalling work on the Northumberland Line, ready for it to hopefully open to passenger trains in the next few months, means that the coal trains to/from Lynemouth Power Station have to be diverted via this line to use the East Coast Main Line to avoid these works. Trains are running top and tailed and turn around at Bedlington, where they then pick up the now re-signalled section up to Ashington and on to Lynemouth.
One delayed example of these trains with top & tailed tugs (class 60's) is seen trundling through in this video, let through before the one timetabled before it could even leave Bedlington as it had to clear the main line. I was waiting here quite a while for it, such is the nature of freight trains and lesser-used lines...
Trains featured:
60 095 & 60 087 (GB Railfreight) Top & Tailed Coal train - 0:53
6N86 Tyne Coal Terminal (GBRf) ➡ Lynemouth Power Station (GBRf) | 21 minutes late
Train details sourced from:
Real Time Trains: www.realtimetr...
Open Train Times: www.opentraint...
Traksy: traksy.uk/live
Filmed on: Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus in 4K 30fps
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