The Fully-Renewed Level Crossing in Sunningdale, Berkshire
Автокөліктер мен көлік құралдары
Date filmed: 18/12/2021
Videos filmed at: 11:12 | 11:33 | 11:40
Route: London Waterloo to Reading Line
- Sunningdale Station
Location: A30 London Road, Sunningdale
Trains featured:
Lowering 1 (Starts at 0:13):
1) 2 Class 458s (South Western Railway) - 2:34
London Waterloo ➡ Reading
2) 2 Class 458s (South Western Railway) - 4:45
Reading ➡ London Waterloo
-
Lowering 2 (6:36):
2 Class 458s (South Western Railway) - 8:26
London Waterloo ➡ Reading
-
Lowering 3 9:08):
2 Class 458s (South Western Railway) - 11:00
Reading ➡ London Waterloo
A very large level crossing located on the very busy A30 within the village of Sunningdale near Ascot and Bracknell, Berkshire. This level crossing has a total of four road lanes going through it and is very heavily used by road traffic. In October 2021, this level crossing was fully-renewed as part of phase two of the Wokingham and Feltham re-signalling programme. The level crossing was fully renewed by Atkins and it uses Newgate 'Rising Arm' barriers, four full-length variants of these drive-up / drive-down barriers have been installed here in total. This the largest level crossing using this set-up of equipment installed in the country thus far. The whole level crossing set-up itself is now very new as of the time of filming and making this video, with the barrier skirts now fitted underneath the entire length of barrier (whereas previously they only stretched part-way from the barrier box to railings which separated the footpath from the road), and four new 'E2S' alarms have also been installed here, one for each corner.
There is also a total of four road lights (wigwags) here, two of which are on a traffic island between each pair of road lanes which run through this level crossing. The alarms are now quite a bit more audible than before, though they do all sound exactly the same. In April 2022, there are plans in place to move control and monitoring of the level crossing from the Feltham Area Signalling Centre to a Rail Operations Centre in Basingstoke, but this is yet to happen as of making this video.
Three separate lowerings are featured in this video. During the first lowering, the level crossing was lowered for over eleven and a half minutes for just two trains to pass, as it was initially lowered before the Reading-bound train had even stopped at the next station up the line (Longcross), and was left lowered even though the London-bound train had only just left Ascot when the first arrived into Sunningdale Station and cleared the level crossing! A lot of traffic built up as a result of this, and if it weren't for nearly six minutes of the first video being cut, this entire video at this length would probably cover just that one lowering with end-of-video pictures. Swathes of waiting traffic quickly built up as a result of these, arguably, avoidable delays added onto what was necessary.
Thanks for watching!
Пікірлер: 30
Great new Crossing and Video!! Those barriers look nice and new!!👍🏻😁
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks! That's because the crossing was fully renewed within a month or so before I filmed these
Excluding the E2S alarms, I really like this upgrade. They kept a lot of the old elements like the middle gap between both road sides and the pedestrian lights. I did prefer the old barriers but I don't mind the new ones. Overall, nice upgrade and video!
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
Ай бұрын
Definitely my favourite of all those renewals in that area. Thanks!
I love this upgrade! If Newhaven Town was upgraded, I'd expect it to look like this. Shame we lost some nice and rare barriers, but nice video of this renewal
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
Ай бұрын
Thanks!
Brilliant video they havnt done a good job on the barriers on how there hitting the floor
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
2 жыл бұрын
Cheers! I noticed that
Excellent video! Thanks for the update in the description.
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks! 👍👍
Wow really cool upgrade so there's no more quiet alarms anymore looks really nice great video
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you! I personally wish they used Yodalarms here, but I do like how the alarm sound here is more audible now.
Excellent 👍👍👍
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks!
wow nice one wasnt expecting this to upgraded
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
2 жыл бұрын
I'd known about it for quite a while before the upgrade happened. It's just one of the phases of the Feltham and Wokingham area re-signalling project. More in this area will get renewals in the coming years.
Great video 👍
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks!
🤨 ~ why are the alarms pointing into the crossing and not at the road sides, you’d think they would be aimed at the Road side
Great video! Guessing more of these Newgate gate mechs might be going into use in the future? I also have to wonder if the signaller responsible for this crossing had to run to the bathroom, but figured that one of the two trains might get close while they were in there, lol.
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you! It does seem to me like these'll definitely be appearing at future renewals at least in this area, or anywhere with major resignalling works using Atkins' new system. Given just how long the crossing was lowered, you might not be too far off, lol.
Looks great! It’s a bit of a shame the barriers are fully skirted now but safety is priority
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
2 жыл бұрын
I quite like the look of it too.
Did these get new wigwags or no since they look the same? did they just put new e2s alarms and didnt put new wigwags? -tudor
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
2 жыл бұрын
The whole level crossing was taken out and replaced with all new warning equipment. The wigwags here are in fact brand new as of filming, same with the barriers.
@TudorCrossings
2 жыл бұрын
Also. I looked on NR website, i saw a few crossings getting closed for works, example Mays Crossing. Did they get new stuff? Maybe You can film them
Right, so the barrier came down when the train was 3 miles away from the level crossing and in total you wait for nearly 10mins? No wonder people jump them.
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
10 ай бұрын
Typical practice is to keep the train seeing a green signal. However, even with that in mind the delay to road users at this location can be excessive by any standards.
@BigDuke6ixx
10 ай бұрын
@@SouthEastLevelCrossings tell me about it, I live in further down the A30. Has there ever been an explanation as to why the wait is so long?
@SouthEastLevelCrossings
10 ай бұрын
@@BigDuke6ixx Not sure whether there has specifically for the excessive waits here personally.