Felixstowe Beach Level Crossing, Suffolk

Date filmed: 13/03/2023
Video filmed at 16:32
Route: Branch line into Felixstowe South
- At the former site of Felixstowe Beach Station
- Closest timing point: Felixstowe Beach (on Real Time Trains)
Crossing type: Manually Controlled Barriers crossing with CCTV (MCB-CCTV)
Location: A154 Beach Station Road / Walton Avenue, Felixstowe
Trains featured:
Class 08 Shunter - Seen briefly in the distance at 0:28
Class 66 114 (DB Cargo UK) - 1:10
4L45 Wakefield Europort ➡ Felixstowe South DBC
A level crossing on a busy road located near the seafront in Felixstowe at the UK's biggest and busiest container port on the North Sea coast of Suffolk. This level crossing is located on a short freight-only branch line which takes freight trains between Felixstowe Beach Junction, where the passenger line diverges into the town's sole remaining active station, and the southern end of the port. It finishes a gradual slope down to take the railway down to near sea level as it enters the port. This line sees only a few trains per day, and this end of the port is considerably less busy compared to the northern end where most of a typical day's freight action takes place. The crossing seems rather tired and retro, with a barrier which grinded a fair bit just as it started to lower, but still works well enough.
In this video, the single-track level crossing controlled from Colchester Power Signal Box is seen lowering for an intermodal freight service from Wakefield to trundle into the port at the end of quite a long journey. It was held at Felixstowe Beach's disused platform for a good twenty minutes or so whilst some shunting within the port took place. I noticed this from Open Train Times as it indicated that some shunting was taking place just beyond the level crossing, but I eventually knew after a lot of patience that the level crossing was just about to activate as the website showed the route being set across the level crossing just before it was lowered. Had the shunting not been going on, the level crossing would've been lowered just after the train was slowed down at the nearest signal. The train still stopped over the crossing during its slow crawl over (presumably for a token exchange within the port), and took around two and a half minutes to pass.
Train details sourced from:
Real Time Trains: www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sear...
Open Train Times: www.opentraintimes.com/maps
Traksy: traksy.uk/live
Thanks for watching!

[@NWLevelCrossings]

Excellent Video and Crossing!👍🏻👍🏻 Great catch of the freight train too!👍🏻

[@SouthEastLevelCrossings]

Thank you very much!

[@YorkshireLevelCrossingChannel]

I love this crossing! Nice catch

[@SouthEastLevelCrossings]

Thanks!

[@NorthWestLevelCrossingsChannel]

Excellent video and Crossing 👍

[@SouthEastLevelCrossings]

Thank you very much!

[@ElectraProductions225]

Yes! Obviously had to comment on this crossing, brilliant video as always. Woodbridge when. 👀

[@SouthEastLevelCrossings]

Thank you very much! Unfortunately I didn't go to Woodbridge on this day. I may likely return at some point in the future, idk when though.

[@adamcrane3571]

Hello

[@SouthEastLevelCrossings]

👋

[@easternrailfreight]

Lovely catch. When you saw the shunting movement on OTT, did it show as **** or 1TO2? I know they use codes like that

[@SouthEastLevelCrossings]

Thank you very much!
It just said "shunt" in one of the berths in the port really, and then I saw a 66 in the distance which then returned back. Just as I was leaving, the crossing lowered again for the containers to shunt over the crossing. IIRC it showed up as a series of asterisks