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Unique Level Crossing in Minffordd - Quarry Lane Level Crossing, Ffestiniog Railway, Gwynedd
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- Опубликовано: 13 авг 2024
- A broken red light can be seen in the second of two videos featured. This was reported to the railway and passed onto their S&T (Signalling and Telecommunications) department to fix the issue.
Welsh name: Lôn y Chwarel
Date filmed: 27/06/2023
Videos filmed at: 10:54 | 11:22
Route: Rheilffordd Ffestiniog / Ffestiniog Railway
- Minffordd is the closest station
Crossing type: Automatic Open Crossing Locally-monitored by traincrew (AOCL)
Location: Quarry Lane, Minffordd
Trains featured:
Activation 1 (0:00):
Ffestiniog Railway No. 10 "Merddin Emrys" - 0:34
Porthmadog ➡ Blaenau Ffestiniog "Mountain Spirit"
-
Activation 2 (1:19):
Ffestiniog Railway No. 12 "David Lloyd George" - 1:42
Porthmadog ➡ Tan-y-Bwlch "Woodland Wanderer"
For more information about the railway: www.festrail.co.uk/
A pair of unique "Double Fairlie" steam locomotives are both seen passing this also-unique open level crossing on a very steep and narrow road in Minffordd, both heading towards Minffordd Station with the first continuing all the way up to Blaenau Ffestiniog and the second terminating short at Tan-y-Bwlch. The Ffestiniog Railway is the oldest narrow-gauge railway in the world (originally opening in 1836 with the company that owns it - Ffestiniog Railway Company - being established four years prior) and was once important for transporting slate from Blaenau Ffestiniog down to the harbour at Porthmadog. The preserved railway also runs the approximately 13 and a half miles between these two destinations, climbing to a total of over 700ft (213 metres) above sea level, with these unique double-ended locomotives specifically designed to haul trains up the steep gradients and around the tight bends of the route.
As for the level crossing itself, the warnings rather unusually consist of four white-bordered 'Mellor' traffic signals manufactured by Plessey Automation. Their application here is very unusual, and where each 'green' module would usually be there's a second red light. This is due to how narrow the road is here, as well as how little space there is for any warning / road traffic light, though there are plans to have these converted to standard portrait-oriented sets of lights at some point. This seems to keep getting deferred though, and how these remain un-changed (especially with the colourless white/grey borders) here well into 2023 is quite something! It dates back to the Mid-1980's in this form with the unusually-shaped crossing keeper's building still here, and has been vastly un-altered since. You can just about see a 'give way' sign poking up over the right-hand set of lights in the first clip too, rather curiously. The alarms here seem to make quite a racket despite this being a very quiet residential road. There's two alarms here which are both of different types: one E2S 'A100' alarm and a 'Yodalarm YA30' alarm, the latter of which isn't brilliantly audible but can just about be heard.
The very steep gradient of road on one side means that the two sets of lights there are tilted downwards at quite an angle, and it was a bit difficult to set-up the tripod on that side to film. The absence of barriers here is indicated by four 'St. Andrews Crosses', and this is a very quiet road; Only a few vehicles passed in the time I was here. Each video was filmed in 4K (Ultra High Definition) with the aid of a tripod keeping the video steady. As a bonus, the trains can be heard sounding their whistles numerous times throughout. Hope you enjoy!
Thanks for watching!
Brilliant video there, SELC&TC! Lovely to see it intact and another good video of this crossing.
Thank you very much, MPUK! 👍😁
It is indeed very nice to see it still in this form!
Great video and crossing! Glad to see that those classic & unique signals are still there, this would definitely be one I'd try to film if I were to make it over to the UK for railfanning, assuming it still exists with these unique wigwags at that time. Noticed the left-hand signal started-up a bit later than the right-hand one in the first video.
Thank you! 👍😁
Definitely great to see these still here and the crossing still un-changed. This part of Wales honestly has a tonne of crossings you wouldn't want to miss. I certainly noticed the ambers came on at different times in that clip too.
Brilliant Videos and unique Crossing!😁👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks very much!
Great catch!!
Thank you very much!
Nice one 👍
Thanks!
Very nice 👍 I really like this crossing
Thank you very much! I 100% agree, easily my favourite in the area along with Britannia Bridge and Harlech crossings.
Very nice!
Broken light at 1:24
Thank you! 👍
Indeed there was.
Excellent video and Crossing 👍
Thank you very much!
It's definitely unusual for Plessey Mellor traffic lights to be used as Wigwags on a level crossing, but I can imagine that if this level crossing gets upgraded to Unipart Rail LEDs in the future, I can imagine that they'll retain the traffic light shape rather than the standard landscape shape due to the narrow space....
The most they could get away with here would be the 'portrait' wigwag design I think if they didn't opt for this traffic light design. It's an unusual one
The left hand signal in the first video is very slightly out of sync with the right hand signal. No doubt the crossing is showing its age.
I did notice that.
Nice, halogens are still there also a broken red light
Indeed. 👍
I think these Mellor ones were used of old Mellors that were being replaced
Very likely. Heritage railways often get things like this donated to use.
@@SouthEastLevelCrossings Like Network Rail; they've donated their old NRS Halogen wigwags to heritage railways for them to use whenever Network Rail upgrade a level crossing to Unipart Rail LEDs....
Nice video and crossing
Thank you!
@@SouthEastLevelCrossings np
These were apparently supposed to be replaced years ago, glad they weren't!
Indeed. I believe their replacement has been pushed back numerous times.
Indeed. A combination of Covid, money and time has pushed Quarry Lane down the list, but the crossing is hanging on by a thread operationally, and is very nearly back at the top. I am reasonably certain that it will be re-done as part of the 2024-5 winter works programme (that's when I have it pencilled in to commission) - the altered Level Crossing Order is being applied for this year.
That crossing is in dire need of an upgrade. Also there is a broken red light on the second activation which needs looking into.
Great video though
Thank you! They've been meaning to do some kind of renewal on it for ages. From my understanding, that broken red got looked at quite quickly after I reported it.
Hello All, at 2.04, the last carriage of the train is lacking a tail light, or other form of end of train marker, which I understand is still a requirement, so is there any reason for this ?
I can only suspect it would've been dealt with internally, and it wasn't noticed quickly enough to stop the train before it went into section.
Strange how the signals work up/down instead of the more usual left/right.
It is very unusual, only two of which remain outside of private estates (including this one, the other at Marshbrook near Shrewsbury). It's now an out-dated design, and there were more examples of this in the past that have since been replaced by more common 'portrait-oriented' ones.
I am told there are some in the Isle of Man, but I will stand corrected, not been there for some years
That’s just a peek traffic light but modded with relays I think
Not PEEK, but Plessey 'Mellors' here. They're branded 'Plessey Automation' on the back
Hi just wondering could ya give me the location of this one? Google or Apple Maps
It's fairly easy to find. It's on Quarry Lane in Minffordd. Right opposite the road up to Portmeirion a few miles East of Porthmadog.
@@SouthEastLevelCrossings ah ok thank you very much! And fair play on getting 6k subscribers!!!
And how do yo u get the times of the train passing through Minffordd?
@@LCL2024 Timetables are on the Ffestiniog Railway's website.
It looks like Traffic light
They basically are, albeit the green module at the bottom is replaced by another red light 👍
Is the oldest level crossing yet?
Im just asking
Not quite. It was installed like this in 1991 I believe. Some (at least in part) date back to the 1970s or 1960s.
@@SouthEastLevelCrossings ok