Rare Barriers at Huish Level Crossing, Somerset

Date filmed: Sunday the 17th of November 2024 Videos filmed between 15:42 and 16:18 Route: Bristol to Exeter Line (Cross Country Route) Between Yatton (YAT) and Worle (WOR) Stations Crossing type: Manually Controlled Barrier crossing with CCTV (MCB-CCTV) Filming location: Hewish, Weston-super-Mare (BS24 6RZ) A level crossing located just outside of Weston-super-Mare in the small village of Hewish, Somerset. To distinguish it from another level crossing on the West of England Line near Crewkerne, the level crossing's name has been given what's likely to be the old-fashioned spelling of the name of the village here. It's on a quiet no-through road which leads to little other than farmland, and is on the busy Cross Country route, namely the Bristol to Exeter section. Its alarms are both quite loud, and sound with old-fashioned tones as the barriers drop. The crossing is controlled from just up the line at St. Georges on the edge of Weston-super-Mare, believed to be by a crossing keeper with 'slots' on the signals to a larger signalling centre in Bristol. Remarkably, despite their condition and numerous major faults, the 'Western Region' barriers here are still clinging on and just won't seem to go. These are very large, bulky, and robust, and they've withstood the test of time all the way up until recently, but a renewal is still on the cards here even if it keeps getting deferred numerous times. There are just two here to cover the full width of road on both sides, and the motor sounds are quite loud owing to the barriers being so large. Both are missing the whole assembly which sits on the end of the barrier skirt to take the impact, and as a result these barriers hit the floor with an almighty crash every time the crossing is lowered, one on the Weston-bound side especially. 5 separate lowerings feature in this video, two of which were separated by as little as 5 seconds of barrier up-time as a faster train had passed a stopper at a nearby passenger loop near Yatton, and the barriers were not left lowered as you may expect. Owing to multiple sizeable delays and numerous cancellations, these were the last lowerings in daylight of the day with the next trains not for another half an hour, so this is all I stuck around for this time. Still, it was great to be able to revisit this crossing whilst it still had these legendary barriers. I hope you enjoy these videos, the last standalone (non special compilation) upload of 2024! See you tomorrow! Trains featured: Intro - 0:00 - Lowering 1 (0:25) 221 122 (Cross Country) - 1:38 1V54 Newcastle ➡ Plymouth | 51 minutes late - Lowering 2 (2:13) 220 034 & 220 021 (Cross Country) - 3:28 1V56 Edinburgh Waverley ➡ Plymouth | 3 minutes late - Lowering 3 (4:02): 220 014 & 221 141 (Cross Country) - 4:50 1S55 Plymouth ➡ Leeds | On-time - Lowering 4 (5:24): 800 302 (Great Western Railway) - 6:15 1C18 Reading ➡ Taunton | 4 minutes late - Lowering 5 - Just 5 seconds after the last! (6:41): 800 006 (Great Western Railway) - 7:33 2C81 Bristol Temple Meads ➡ Penzance | 10 minutes late - End-of-video picture showcase: 8:05 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!