Renewing Seaward Way Crossing Frank Courtney and John Jenkins tell the tale
Seaward Way Crossing opened in 1990 and was worked automatically, operated by the approaching trains. The signalling installation was complicated, had become difficult to maintain and the crossing equipment was life-expired. The decision was therefore taken to renew the entire installation. The tide has turned against level crossings in the last 25 years and renewals are examined closely by the Office of Rail and Road. In the case of Seaward Way, a fully-controlled crossing with four barriers to fully fence in the The road traffic is held at the old Seaward Way Crossing on 16 August 2021 to allow No. 7828 Odney Manor to complete a light engine move from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead. Photo: Tim Edmonds.
WSR JOURNAL – WINTER 2021
railway was required to replace the automatic crossing with just half barriers. This needed a lot of detailed work to get a design acceptable to the regulators and fitted our operating needs. At Minehead a number of shunting and engine run-round moves caused the crossing to operate and it was these unnecessary moves that we wanted to avoid in future. To do this we have provided an additional down direction shunting signal and up main starting signal between the signalbox and crossing. The latter is a handsome GWpattern lower quadrant signal that will enhance the view from both the station platform and the busy footpath alongside
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