Tempsford Level Crossing, Bedfordshire (With a VERY faulty alarm!)

Date filmed: Saturday the 25th November 2023
Videos filmed between 16:21 and 17:16

Route: East Coast Main Line (ECML)
- Between Sandy and St. Neots Stations

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

Location: Station Road, Tempsford

Here's a decent variety of high speed services seen passing this quiet level crossing near the village of Tempsford, Central Bedfordshire. The level crossing is located quite a way beyond the village down the no-through road which runs through it, and is in quite a rural-feeling location; the road here is very quiet and the crossing actually sees more trains than anything else! The lights on one side are facing inwards towards each other due to the T-junction on that side, and decent trackside views and good lighting make this a good location to see railway action - even after dark. With the recent closure of Peterborough's Power Signal Box, it is believed that this level crossing may now be controlled as far as 150 miles away in York. As can quite clearly be heard, one of the alarms here (a new one as well) has become incredibly faulty as of very recent and produces a really strange-sounding tone - for a yodalarm, that is, though it is still an alarm making an alarm-y sound when the barriers lower. This is what it's meant to do!

These videos were taken throughout 55 minutes at this location in the late afternoon as the day darkened into night - darkening so early as it was late November. The most interesting catches include one of Grand Central's recently-inherited Class 221 'Voyager' units, as well as a rare working of an Intercity 225 set (with 91 114 "Durham Cathedral") on an alteration to the planned diagram (the list of services a particular train / crew is planned to cover whilst out of the depot), covering a Newark Northgate service in place of an unavailable Azuma. However, the view of this latter train was quite badly blocked by a slower and un-interesting Thameslink Class 700 it happened to overtake here. I was well and truly "bowled"; Just my luck. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Trains featured:
Class 700 (Thameslink) - 0:00
9J47 Peterborough ➡ Horsham | On-time
-
Lowering 1 (0:44):
801 222 (LNER Azuma) - 1:12
1A36 Leeds ➡ London Kings Cross | On-time
-
Lowering 2 (1:49):
801 212 (LNER Azuma) - 2:37
1D21 London Kings Cross ➡ Leeds | 3 minutes early
-
Lowering 3 (3:07)
1) Class 700 (Thameslink) - 3:50
9J44 Horsham ➡ Peterborough | On-time

2) 91 114 "Durham Cathedral" - NL06 - 82 208 Intercity 225 Set (LNER) - 4:02
1B88 London Kings Cross ➡ Newark Northgate | On-time
-
Lowering 4 (4:28):
801 226 (LNER Azuma) - 5:10
1B87 Newark Northgate ➡ London Kings Cross | 1 minute late
-
Lowering 5 (5:43):
801 206 (LNER Azuma) - 6:15
1A37 Leeds ➡ London Kings Cross | On-time
-
Lowering 6 (6:41):
221 142 (Grand Central) - 7:09
1D81 London Kings Cross ➡ Bradford Interchange | 1 minute early
-
800 111 (LNER Azuma) - 7:34
1S27 London Kings Cross ➡ Edinburgh Waverley | 1 minute late
-
Lowering 7 (8:07):
801 227 (LNER Azuma) - 8:34
1D22 London Kings Cross ➡ Leeds | On-time
-
Lowering 8 (9:03):
1) Class 700 (Thameslink) - 9:33
9J46 Horsham ➡ Peterborough | 4 minutes late

2) 700 007 (Thameslink, on behalf of Great Northern) - 9:55
1P80 London Kings Cross ➡ Peterborough | On-time

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

Thanks for watching!