Halogen lights | Watford North Level Crossing, Hertfordshire
Dates filmed: Sunday the 5th of May / Monday the 14th of October 2024
Video filmed at 17:20 / 14:21
Route: The Abbey Line
Watford North (WFN) Station
Crossing type: Automatic half Barrier Crossing Locally-monitored by traincrew (ABCL)
Filming location: Bushey Mill Lane, North Watford (WD24 7DS)
A locally-monitored level crossing located on the community rail partnership-run branch line between Watford Junction and St. Albans Abbey, often referred to as the 'Abbey Line'. It's quite self-contained with the same unit running back and forth along the line all day, providing the whole line with an hourly service (or every 40 minutes in the peak). These videos were taken on two separate dates a couple of months apart, co-incidentally with similar weather conditions and the exact same unit working the service!
As is quite obvious, this is now a very rare example of a level crossing which still retains its halogen bulb-type road traffic lights / wigwags even in 2024! It is one of only a very small handful of crossings with this older type remaining anywhere on the main line, and how these ones still remain here in a fairly busy urban area is quite a mystery. They are quite bright and newer than quite a lot of the other remaining examples as the crossing in its current form dates back to circa (around) 2007. They're all quite high off the ground here too.
This semi-automatic level crossing on Bushey Mill Lane is the line's only public highway crossing, and it's activated manually by train-crew from a plunger on the station for St. Albans Abbey-bound trains, while they carry out station duties, and is activated automatically for returning trains. For both directions, drivers' crossing indicators protect the crossing, giving a flashing red light when the crossing is not active or has a fault, and a white flashing light when it's working as it should and it's safe to proceed, and it's up to the driver to use this to determine how to proceed. Trains can be seen all the way from just out of Watford Junction to after stopping at the next station up the line - Garston.
Trains featured:
Intro - 0:00
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Lowering 1 (0:39):
350 252 (London North Western Railway) - 1:22
2F19 Watford Junction ➡ St. Albans Abbey | On-time
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Lowering 2 (1:59):
350 252 (London North Western Railway) (2) - 2:45
2F20 St. Albans Abbey ➡ Watford Junction | On-time
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End-of-video picture showcase: 3:18
Train details sourced from:
Real Time Trains: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sear...
Open Train Times: https://www.opentraintimes.com/maps
Traksy: https://traksy.uk/live
Filmed on: Panasonic HC-VX1 in 4K 25fps
Thanks for watching!