Date filmed: 03/10/2019
Location: Chapel Road, Southampton
Trains: Class 66 (DB Cargo UK)
A rather large and very noisy level crossing found within the depths of Southampton close to the city centre. It is used by only a handful of trains per day, and has very long half barriers with supporter arms, and a very rare alarm (one of only a handful of working Yodalarm YO5s left in the country at level crossings). This level crossing is also prone to misuse, and used to have no barriers.
In this video, there is something quite spectacular: the crossing activates as usual, but the barriers fail to lower. The 13:00 freight service on-time from Morris Cowley MAT had to crawl to a stop before the crossing, and the driver had to get out to deactivate the crossing via the emergency pedestal before calling for a response unit to fix the crossing. From my inference, the train was stopped there for nearly an hour (although I didn't have the time to stay). Despite the blaring alarms and the red lights flashing, along with the usual and additional signage, cars sped through and pedestrians walked on through as if the entire crossing wasn't working at all. This is not the first incident at formerly un-gated level crossings to happen or be caught on camera.
This situation is fortunately totally safe, as there is a very slow line speed here and the level crossing would signal to the train driver that it has a fault via a flashing red indicator, meaning that the train driver is able to stop and deactivate the level crossing safely and wait for a response unit.
Thanks for watching!