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Old December 14th 04, 02:14 PM posted to uk.transport.london
Jack Taylor Jack Taylor is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jul 2003
Posts: 634
Default London's closest pair of level crossings?


"Clive D. W. Feather" wrote in message
...

There's a level crossing (Helpston) right where the
Peterborough-Leicester line diverges from the ECML. I can't recall
whether it has one set of barriers or two, though.


That's Maxey Road, Helpston.

Most of the crossings between Peterborough and Helpston used to have a set
of GN gates and a set of MR gates (I don't recall there being two sets at
Woodcroft BICBW). I remember when I was a kid and my father used to take me
up to (what was then) Walton crossing, where the large concrete footbridge
now crosses the tracks, to watch A4s and Deltics in full flight. At that
location there was a GN signalbox to the north-east of the GN crossing and a
smaller MR box between the ECML and the Midland lines, both controlling
gated crossings. The space between the two crossings would accommodate, at
most, two or three cars and it was not uncommon to get trapped in the middle
with it being such a busy crossing (prior to the construction of Soke
Parkway in 1971 it was the main route across the ECML between Westwood
Bridge and Helpston. The crossing was one of the first in the Peterborough
area to be barriered, in about 1967 IIRC, controlled from the GN box
initially and then latterly from the new monitor box that was built on the
south side of the crossing between the former GN and MR lines, when the 1972
remodelling and resignalling of the Peterborough area took place.