Can anyone identify this Level Crossing in 1969 please? Probably in East Anglia

[Rail-Online]

Hi,

 

This image is needed for an upcoming book but we need to know where it is first!  The train is hauled by 6749 around 1969 and the phptpgrapher took similar shots of the same train on different days near Haughley Junction so this would be a logical starting place.  I guess the train originated at Immingham.

 

Any help really would be appreciated!

 

Cheers Tony

[iands]

It looks like an AHB crossing. Haughley is an AHB xing, as is Baylham and Wassicks which are either side of Haughley. Although it could further afield I hope this can narrow it down for someone with a bit more 'local' knowledge.

[beast66606]

Could be condensate tanks between North Walsham and Harwich ? - not sure how long they've been running, but that would put it on the main line between Norwich and Manningtree - do the Haughley Jcn shots show it coming off the Bury line or ?

[Wickham Green too]

Try the Signal Box Photos thread perhaps ? 😕

[beast66606]

1 minute ago, Wickham Green too said:

Try the Signal Box Photos thread perhaps ? 😕

 

There are no signal boxes in the shot 😕

 

If it is on the mainline then it's very likely  the area would have changed massively during the 1980s electrification, the road may be long closed, it doesn't look to be very wide, and the building would almost certainly have been demolished

[Rail-Online]

Thanks Guys,

 

Yes the road is very narrow, appears to go just to an Orchard.

 

Tony

[Michael Hodgson]

 

1 minute ago, beast66606 said:

 

There are no signal boxes in the shot 😕

 

If it is on the mainline then it's very likely  the area would have changed massively during the 1980s electrification, the road may be long closed, it doesn't look to be very wide, and the building would almost certainly have been demolished

Looks like a very a minor road in the middle of nowhere, so there might well have been no signalbox, but a crossing keeper's cottage.  AHBs started from early 1960s, and a road like this would have been a prime candidate for early conversion.  The cottage would typically have been sold into private ownership when the crossing was automated, and new owners often built an extension.  This example was perhaps too close to the line however.  But it looks still or at least recently inhabited (curtains, TV aerial)

 

Photo "around 1969" might be a little later.  The photo shows an amber lamp on the wig-wag.  They only came in after Hixon (Jan 1968, Public Inquiry report published July 68), and it took a little while to roll out nationally; only twin flashing reds when they first came in.

 

Looks like the route still had working pole route at the time.

[Michael Hodgson]

6 minutes ago, Rail-Online said:

Thanks Guys,

 

Yes the road is very narrow, appears to go just to an Orchard.

 

Tony

If it was a private road, it wouldn;t justify an AHB, must have been the Queen's highway.

[beast66606]

Looking for photos I found one of Westerfield (not the photo location of course) which has a very similar building which would seem to confirm the general area.

 

If you want and with your permission I can post it on a local* railway Facebook group where it might be recognised ?

 

* I live about 20 miles from Haughley

Edited June 29, 2023 by beast66606

[Wickham Green too]

12 hours ago, beast66606 said:

There are no signal boxes in the shot 😕 ...

But there are lots of signal boxes and/or level crossings and/or crossing huts on that thread ..................... as it happens, neither Haughley, Baylham nor Wassicks appear on Corneliuslundie's listing  -  sorry to waste your time responding. ☹️

[russ p]

That does look familiar.  I've sent a link to a mate who has always been based round here. I'm wondering if it's Gissing 

[beast66606]

4 minutes ago, russ p said:

That does look familiar.  I've sent a link to a mate who has always been based round here. I'm wondering if it's Gissing 

 

Not Gissing Russ, the crossing keepers house was on the down and on the approach to the crossing, there are still some bits of debris in the trees.

 

I suspect somewhere South of Mellis and North of Needham Market given the context of the other photos.

[russ p]

Other interesting thing in the picture is that there appears to have been a reduction of the barrier distance between the loco and the load . Earlier pictures often show two vans but this has a long wheelbase plate wagon.  I have a class A tank train of mixed 35 and 45 ton tanks I have a former fish van at ether end as barriers and thought it wasn't  really right but this proves its correct 

[russ p]

6 minutes ago, beast66606 said:

 

Not Gissing Russ, the crossing keepers house was on the down and on the approach to the crossing, there are still some bits of debris in the trees.

 

I suspect somewhere South of Mellis and North of Needham Market given the context of the other photos.

 

Is that building on up side Dave?  Just looking at telegraph pole bars

[beast66606]

40 minutes ago, russ p said:

 

Is that building on up side Dave?  Just looking at telegraph pole bars

 

Not sure, I'm guessing it's on the down ?, certainly the pole route North of Diss - where I can see it - is on the down. There are bits of poles left (sticking out of the ground) around Whitehouse Crossing, North of Gissing and Tivetshall.

 

I've posted on a local Facebook Group to see if anyone can provide any info. I'm currently looking at a 25" OS map for 1900 for inspiration.

Edited June 29, 2023 by beast66606

[beast66606]

Mill Lane Baylham has been suggested

 

https://goo.gl/maps/dwpNTReFHvTRznYH7

[Michael Hodgson]

37 minutes ago, beast66606 said:

Mill Lane Baylham has been suggested

 

https://goo.gl/maps/dwpNTReFHvTRznYH7

That's an original Mark 1 AHB concrete penguin - which is what I thought was lurking behing the telegraph pole in the original shot, and there's not that many of them still in use.   However the road looks a lot wider, the locs and fencing are different and the whole area is very much less wooded,  But a lot can happen in half a century, and the mature trees might have been cleared to make way for that industrial building.

[Johann Marsbar]

The trees in the background make me think of Baylham as well, just north of Claydon.    The trees feature in a few Dr Allen shots of steam on the GE main line.

[Jeremy Cumberland]

The 1971 1:10000 map on NLS (https://maps.nls.uk/view/189257387) shows a building immediately adjacent to the line on the down side at Baylham:

[russ p]

Been suggested to me that the cottage is GN. Did much of the east Lincolnshire line get CWR and AHBs?

[Rail-Online]

On the original, if I reduce the contrast you can see a HT Pylon in the far distance.  I think these were shown on OS maps - is there a run of Pylons  North of Baylham?

 

Tony

[Wickham Green too]

Possibly too far away ? : https://www.bing.com/maps?cp=52.142147~1.069125&lvl=19.2&style=x&pi=5.5&dir=329.1

 

[Johann Marsbar]

No pylons at Baylham - What was the photographers name as a matter of interest?  That might help pin it down easier if it's a "known" name in this area.....

[russ p]

9 minutes ago, Rail-Online said:

On the original, if I reduce the contrast you can see a HT Pylon in the far distance.  I think these were shown on OS maps - is there a run of Pylons  North of Baylham?

 

Tony

 

I couldn't see power lines on the 71 map when opened in full

[Michael Hodgson]

If you have the patience to sit through this it might give you a clue ...

 

 

 

And if it doesn't then there's the same approach to other counties ...