Grain Level Crossing, Kent

Date filmed: 03/11/2023
Video filmed at 13:33

Route: Hundred of Hoo Railway (Grain Branch)
Closest timing point: Grain (Old Station) on Real Time Trains

Crossing type: Manually-operated Gates crossing (MG)

Location: A228 / B2001 Grain Road, Isle of Grain
Trains featured:
66 304 (GBRf - Ex-Direct Rail Services) - 1:45
6Y79 Angerstein Wharf GBRf ➡ Grain Foster Yeoman GBRf | 4 minutes late

A video of a single aggregates freight train, hauled by one of the Ex-DRS Class 66 'sheds' transferred over to GBRf in the last year, arriving at the Thames Port at Grain over this unusual manual crossing on this moderately busy road. This road is the only road connection to this massive industrial area and onto the village of Isle of Grain a few miles further up from the crossing. The level crossing still has two large swing gates which are operated by hand, with four LED road traffic lights provided for the safety of the crossing operators here. One alarm fitted on one of the cabinets next to the tiny crossing / signal box here provides the audible warning continuously throughout the sequence, though it oddly doesn't start sounding until the red lights show, and the lights with this alarm are completely separate to the gates here; notably as they don't stop sounding and flashing straight away when the gates are back across the railway, but not until a button on a small panel in the box is pressed to deactivate them. There has been talk of a full renewal here in the last few years, but here we are in November 2023 and there haven't even been substantial preparation works yet.

The signal / crossing box here is tiny and isn't even staffed the whole time. Instead, workers from the Thames Port qualified to operate it only attend when a train is due to pass. A token exchange happens here as part of the traditional system that ensures that only one train is on the single line from Cliffe at any one time (once one token is out you cannot extract another at either end) with in-bound trains needing to stop on the crossing to exchange the token (you can see it in one of the workers' hands if you look closely enough). There are even Semaphore Signals here, of the upper quadrant variety, which read over the crossing, further showing its age. It has likely survived as is for so long due to the fact that the line is freight-only and only used a few times a day, though it is currently busier than it has ever been due to the transfer of Plane fuel to/from Heathrow, frequent light locomotives to/from Tonbridge, and daily delivery of HS2 tunnel segments along-side Aggregates trains most days/overnight, just as examples. Additionally, there are flood gates a short distance up the line which are shut and locked with the extraction of a token when the water levels rise, which also locks everything else up as it's a line blockage. Even though the area is heavily fortified by flood defences, the low level of the track bed could still allow water through otherwise.

Seen at the very end of the video in an image is part of the interlocking here which prevents the signals being cleared to bring trains forward into gates that are across the railway - the Annett's Key slots. There are two of these at this crossing and each has two key slots: one to lock the gates across the road with an attachment fitted to each gate, and another for one of two keys (one for each gate) that need to be taken into the signal box and fitted into certain slots to prove to the system the gates are secure across the road, thus releasing the signals. Turning one key to release it locks the other, so either the gates are locked across the road or the crew are free to clear the signals with the keys in the slots in the box, though the one for out-bound trains most likely also needs a token extracted to be cleared if the line is clear of trains.

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: Panasonic HC-VX1 in 4K 25fps

Thanks for watching!