Wateringbury Level Crossing

On the first day of 2019 there are some trains at the refurbished crossing at Wateringbury. A Class 375 in Southeastern livery heads out of the station towards Yalding before the crossing activates a minute later for a freight train. This consists of two Class 66s in Colas Rail Freight and Freightliner liveries with some wagons heading up to East Farleigh. Then from the other side, another Class 375 in Southeastern livery, this time stopping at the station before also heading to East Farleigh.

The recent upgrade here saw the manual gates ripped out and shiny barriers put in their place. The gates are in tact as can be seen and hopefully they'll go somewhere they can be appreciated. The unusual speed camera sign is the only thing amiss at this crossing, which is otherwise fairly standard. It cannot mean speed camera; perhaps traffic enforcement camera? Although there is no CCTV at this crossing; it's an MCB! Very unusual to have at the crossing itself nonetheless. I was surprised there was only four warning lights, as there are two tight turns directly adjacent to the crossing on one side. Perhaps the loud alarms are enough to satisfy these. I was also surprised that the bridge over the River Medway directly opposite the crossing did not snarl up with traffic as do the bridges up the line at Teston (B2163) and East Farleigh do, but perhaps that's because it has a weight limit of 3 tonnes and is down a winding lane that leads basically nowhere. Even though it's a quiet road I was interrupted filming about four times by people walking their dogs trying to keep up with their new year's resolutions that they'll probably have given upon by now. Anyways, the road is a decent way to avoid those other two bridges if you weigh less than 3 tonnes let's say that. And you get to see some noisy Canada Geese and Swans the Queen hasn't eaten.

Type: MCB
County: Kent