(Ft. Class 67-hauled Belmond British Pullman) Gillingham Level Crossing, Medway (Kent)

Date filmed: 03/11/2023
Videos filmed between 12:12 and 12:42

Route: Chatham Main Line
Gillingham (Kent) (GLM) is the closest station

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

Location: Ingram Road, Gillingham (ME7 1YL)

Trains featured:
Lowering 1 (0:00):
700 009 (Thameslink) - 1:14
9P21 Luton ➡ Rainham (Kent) | 2 minutes late
-
Lowering 2 (1:41):
67 024 (DB Cargo UK) & Belmond British Pullman - 2:29
1Z82 London Victoria ➡ Dover Priory "The Golden Age of Travel" | 1 minute late
-
395 003 (Southeastern) - 3:17
1C33 Ramsgate ➡ St. Pancras International (Via Medway) | On-time
-
Lowering 4 (3:49):
1) 375 804 & 375 715 (Southeastern) - 4:55
1S24 London Victoria ➡ Ramsgate | On-time

2) 700 009 (Thameslink) - 5:23
9P32 Rainham (Kent) ➡ Luton | On-time
-
Lowering 5 (6:01):
700 052 (Thameslink) - 6:34
9P23 Luton ➡ Rainham (Kent) | On-time

A video filmed over the course of half an hour (30 minutes) at this busy level crossing in Gillingham, one of Kent's 'Medway Towns', a crossing which is rather uniquely beside a medium-sized maintenance depot, and you can get good views of its mainline connection by standing on the footbridge here. Also seeing Rainham-bound Thameslink services, this level crossing on the Chatham Main Line is by quite a margin the busiest active public highway crossing in the whole of Kent for railway traffic, and you also get a couple of units moving between the depot and the station throughout the day (though I didn't see any this time).

The highlight catch from my time here is certainly the special lunchtime Pullman service seen in the second featured lowering here, and it was working a London Victoria circular trip via Dover Priory. It was being hauled by 67 024 in a rather nice cream and brown livery which matched the colours of its luxury carriages quite well, and as can quite clearly be heard it announced its approach with yet another loud horn! The rest of the featured trains were made up by Thameslink class 700s, Southeastern class 395 'Javelins' and class 375 'Electrostars', and you can also see a retro 'Networker' stabled just beside the main line to the east of this crossing.

The old signal box still stands beside this crossing even though it has been out of use since the mid-2010's, with control being moved just a hundred metres or so along the line to the East Kent Signalling Centre located within the glass building on the left as you look towards the station. The crossing is watched from there through CCTV and also had four LED pedestrian lights fitted during this conversion, and these flash completely out of sync with the main road lights as they're likely wired to a completely different 'flasher' relay. The alarms here are rather quiet despite the rather noisy environment - they could do with being at least a little louder during the day, and the LED road traffic lights date back to January 2018. As this is quite a busy urban location, a lot of environmental noise can be expected at times, so apologies about background noise in this video. The footbridge here is still rather unsightly with the wires there to prevent people escaping it and jumping onto the tracks proving a hinderance for lineside views unless you are right next to them. They're easy enough to stick a camera through, however.

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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