Date filmed: 23/06/2021
Videos filmed at: 12:32 | 12:39 | 13:04 | 13:08
Route: South Western Main Line
- Poole is the closest station
Location: High Street, Poole
Trains:
Lowering 1 (0:00):
2 Class 444s (South Western Railway) - 1:50
London Waterloo ➡ Poole
-
Lowering 2 (Starts at 2:49):
2 Class 444s (South Western Railway) - 4:48
Poole ➡ London Waterloo
-
Lowering 3 (Starts at 5:59):
Class 444 (South Western Railway) - 9:20
Weymouth ➡ London Waterloo
-
Lowering 4 (Starts at 10:05):
Class 444 (South Western Railway) - 13:00
London Waterloo ➡ Weymouth
This video features four different lowerings filmed at the notorious level crossing located within a pedestrian precinct on the high street in Poole's town centre. This level crossing was once a regular 'road' level crossing until the precinct was constructed at this end of the high street, and this level crossing is now only used by pedestrians and a very small handful of authorised maintenance and cleaning vehicles. This is the most misused level crossing in Dorset, with numerous pedestrians blatantly ignoring the warnings during pretty much every lowering despite the footbridge located right next to it (though this footbridge is small and narrow and often gets very congested with users), and the fact that this level crossing is controlled and operated sixty miles away in Basingstoke doesn't help this matter. This level crossing has been wanted to be permanently closed removed for numerous years now, but given the location and situation of the level crossing and its surroundings, a viable solution has proven tricky to find.
All level crossing equipment here dates back to 2013, and despite the fact that all but a very small proportion of its users are pedestrians, there are four full LED wigwags at this level crossing. Each of these is accompanied by one LED pedestrian light on the mast which supports it (four in total), and two long barriers located directly opposite each other block off the entire width of high street for trains to pass. The audible alarms here are fairly loud, and there are two of these; one located next to the footbridge with another located closest to one of the barriers. The railway line between this level crossing on the high street and Poole's Railway Station is quite curved, and trains make a lot of wheel slip and screeching noises when they pass into and out of Poole Station over here.
The four lowerings featured in this video happened within forty minutes, though each pair of lowerings was only separated by a few minutes at the very most. Three minutes have been cut from the wait for the train in the first video, as the level crossing had lowered very early. The barriers took quite a lot longer than usual to lower during the fourth lowering as somebody began crossing even with the warnings sounding and took a while to clear.
Thanks for watching!