Truro Level Crossing, Cornwall

Date filmed: 13/09/2022
Videos filmed at: 09:46 | 09:58

Route: Cornish Main Line
Truro Station
(The level crossing is NOT used by services to Falmouth Docks)

Crossing type: Manually Controlled Barriers crossing (MCB)

Location: 50.264097, -5.062873
Trains featured:
Lowering 1 (Starts at 0:00):
Class 802 (Great Western Railway) - 2:22
Penzance ➡ London Paddington
-
Lowering 2 (Starts at 3:45):
1) Class 43 HST 'Castle Set' (Great Western Railway) - 6:34
Plymouth ➡ Penzance

2) Class 221 (Cross Country) - 7:22
Penzance ➡ Edinburgh Waverley

A fairly unique level crossing located next to Truro Station in Truro, Cornwall's only city and often regarded as its capital. The level crossing here is used for little other than station purposes as it leads to the main car park and provides step-free access between the platforms (as well as the entrance to a yard). This level crossing is fairly unique because there is a total of only two wigwags / road traffic lights here - just one per side! At first glance, it seems like there's space for two more despite this. Each wigwag, alarm and barrier of the pair of each present is located in the entry (left-hand) side of the level crossing on each side. The signal box here is active, and controls the movements of trains through Truro station via semaphore signals! One can be seen right at this level crossing and can be seen being operated from the signal box by a lever just after the level crossing gets lowered in the first video, and then again as the next train for that direction is announced on the station. It's nice to see classic signalling still about, but all of this may be gone within about a years time unfortunately as the line gets re-signalled.

Two lowerings are featured in this video. In the first, the level crossing was lowered for quite a long time as the train was to stop in the station for more than a minute or two. This would've prevented a late-arriving passenger with limited mobility from catching the train, but the signal protecting the level crossing is right next to it with no safety margin at all if the train's brakes were to fail and it didn't stop at the signal. In the second video, a nostalgaic sight of a Class 43 HST set (albeit a shortened one) is seen as the first train, before a Cross Country service on one of the longest train journeys you could take in this country arrives on a trip from Penzance to Edinburgh Waverley on a nearly 11-hour journey (though this particular one took twelve hours as it was over an hour late into the Scottish Capital). Just listen to all of those stops that get announced!

Thanks for watching!