Widdrington Level Crossing, Northumberland

Date filmed: Tuesday the 14th of May 2024
Videos filmed at: 13:58 | 14:04 | 14:09 | 14:16

Route: East Coast Main Line (ECML)
Widdrington (WDD) Station

Crossing type: Manually Controlled Barrier crossing with CCTV (MCB-CCTV)

Filming location: B1337 Grangemoor Road, Widdrington Station

A level crossing found in the village of Widdrington Station located a few miles north of Morpeth and Ashington in Northumberland. The village here takes its name from the little station, which sits beside this crossing and is sadly very under-served as it sees only one train per day northbound via Alnmouth, and only two trains per day southbound towards Newcastle. These are the only Northern services that are extended past Morpeth in a day, and they turn back at Chathill - quite a rural station - of all places. The line curves quite a bit here, and although this means a drop in permitted speed for trains compared to other sections, it does give some good scope for good views of the trains as they shoot past on this line, which is the well-known and important East Coast Main Line.

This level crossing is busy for road traffic and it has quite loud alarms, as well as old LED wigwags / road traffic lights and also ageing barriers with supporter arms, though the crossing is faring well for its age overall. It's controlled from Morpeth's signal box, which also has jurisdiction of as many as 9 other CCTV level crossings between the Plessey Crossovers, just north of Cramlington, and Acklington. A number of these, including this one, are believed to 'auto-lower' when a train is a set distance away - the lowering sequence begins automatically and the picture through the cameras turns on so that they can be monitored as they lower and checked to be clear before the signals are set to green for said trains. For such a busy and fast main line, and especially compared to other level crossings further south, these are very efficient for full-barrier crossings, and trains here only arrived within two minutes or so of the sequence starting quite consistently.

Trains featured:
Lowering 1 (0:00):
1) 801 203 (LNER Azuma) - 1:50
1S12 London Kings Cross ➡ Edinburgh Waverley | 2 minutes late

2) 801 204 (LNER Azuma) - 2:23
1E16 Edinburgh Waverley ➡ London Kings Cross | 4 minutes early
-
Lowering 2 (3:01):
803 002 (Lumo) - 4:16
1S93 London Kings Cross ➡ Edinburgh Waverley | 1 minute late
-
Lowering 3 (4:46):
801 208 (LNER Azuma) - 5:47
1S13 London Kings Cross ➡ Edinburgh Waverley | 2 minutes late
-
Lowering 4 (6:23):
221 119 & 220 008 (Cross Country) - 7:56
1V64 Edinburgh Waverley ➡ Plymouth | On-time
-
End-of-video picture showcase: 8:34

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: Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus in 4K 30fps

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