Sam Hallas' Website
Britain's First Automatic Level Crossing
Once the hoopla of the press launch had died down the crossing was left to its own operation. As required by the Railway Inspectorate – and as became normal practice ever since – a temporary crossing keeper was left "in attendance" at the crossing. His function was to see that the equipment operated correctly and, as far as was in his power, that the public used the crossing correctly.
As Spath was no longer a Block Post and all the signals had been taken away, the crossing keepers had little influence over railway operations. They were encouraged to look out for motorists disregarding the red Stop signals at the crossing. On 27th April 1961 a Walter John Cope (38) of Balance Hill, Uttoxeter did just that. On 6th July he pleaded guilty before Uttoxeter Magistrates and was fined £8. The court heard that he had crossed against the red light and just cleared the descending pole as the train was only 150 yards away. The Magistrate launched into a passionate speech about endangering the lives of all concerned, and how it was a serious offence which deserved serious punishment – all of which was reported widely in the press, to the railway’s delight.
Spath Crossing with an Up Passenger train. Nick Allsop Collection
Not that relations with the local Judiciary remained rosy. After the eighth motorist appeared before the bench, the Clerk to the Court felt compelled to write to the railway, who passed the correspondence on to the Ministry. There was, it seemed, a widespread feeling that the signing was inadequate and the lights were too dim.
This reopened the debate on alternative signing. Matters were not helped by the fact that the Staffordshire County Council were the relevant Highways Authority. They clearly had their own ideas about how the level crossing should be signed – and in July 1961 proceeded to take down the signs prescribed in the Order made by the Minister of Transport and replaced them with their own. The 'prescribed' signs read "Train Operated Signals and Barriers Ahead". Staffs C.C. thought these signs too wordy and difficult for motorists to take in. Their idea was to replace the signs with the then standard sign for traffic lights – thereby confusing the issue even more as the crossing lights looked nothing like the red/amber/green signals depicted. Needless to say Whitehall took a very dim view of this and the council were instructed to replace the 'correct' signs forthwith!
Further criticism from Staffordshire County Council provoked a stinging response from W.F.Adams of the Ministry’s Traffic Engineering Branch. Mr. Adams believed that any problems were due to wilful disobedience by motorists rather than an inability to stop. He rejected out of hand a request for amber lights to be positioned in advance of the crossing. He did concede that the Ministry might consider amber lights if sighting problems required them but contended that was not the case at Spath. Similarly, a request that the Stop signals be repositioned or realigned vertically was dismissed as they would no longer be a "lawful traffic sign".
The suggestion that the Red signals were too dim was considered to have some merit. It was revealed that whilst the lights complied with the relevant British Standard for traffic lights, it was stated that "our established traffic signal firms give us signals which are substantially better than BS505". The internal memo suggested that an unofficial word with the railway might resolve this with a view to them using better lenses!
By July 1961, the railway was becoming anxious to withdraw attendance at the crossing as all was working well. Indeed the Ministry was close to granting permission when word reached them of a problem. As had been pointed out by London Midland Region in the original application, there were seasonal peaks at the crossing due to the proximity of Alton Towers. With a T-junction a mere 100 yards beyond, traffic tailing back over the crossing was inevitable – even in 1961. One has to feel sorry for the crossing keeper. As he would be unable to (officially) direct road traffic he would be forced to sit idly by and there would be nothing he would be able to do to prevent a potential tragedy.
The Ministry weren't happy at this situation and required the railway to maintain attendance and report as to how many occasions this problem was arising. Of course, as the only person who was there to record when this was happening was a railway employee, it is no surprise that in September LMR reported there had been no further occurrences and that they couldn’t understand why anyone had thought there was a problem in the first place! Consequently, on 26th September 1961 Col W.P.Reed OBE of the Railway Inspectorate consented to attendance being withdrawn, conditional on signs being erected which read "Do Not Stop On The Crossing".
In his original inspection Col McMullen had recommended that the operation of the crossing should be observed by a crossing keeper during periods of high wind or snow as he had doubts as to the equipment’s ability to work during those conditions. Thus the LMR provided attendance during the winter of 1961/62. They later applied for, and received, formal permission to dispense with this requirement.
This crossing never attracted the safety paranoia attendant at many subsequent installations. A particular example of which was the sit-ins and deputations to see Ernest Marples (the then Minister of Transport) which the half-barriers at Egginton Goods, near Derby, attracted. The Staffordshire Advertiser did print an editorial expressing some disquiet but this was simply resolved by soothing words to the Editor from the Ministry.
All the local residents had cause to complain about was the additional whistling from the trains, brought about by the two Whistle boards on either side of the crossing. The railway was sympathetic and the LMR’s General Manager wrote to the MoT to "suggest that one long whistle when the train is passing the whistle board should suffice and ask if approval could be given to this as a special case". The Ministry weren’t so understanding simply replying that "I feel we cannot withdraw the instruction to whistle, but the need may have been so emphasised to engine drivers that they may have overdone it".
The saga of the road signs continued into the Summer of 1962. Alterations had been made to the signs and British Railways wrote to the Ministry asking if it would persuade Staffordshire County Council to pick up the £139 bill!
After all that, the Ministry’s file on the crossing is marked thus; "26th May 1965; Leek - Uttoxeter (Churnet Valley) line closed. Track to be disposed of shortly. Spath Level Crossing now out of use". There may have been only just over four year’s worth of use of the crossing but the lessons that were learned in the implementation of it were applied to dozens of subsequent installations.
Until, that is, 6th January 1968 when a Scammell tractor drew a huge abnormal load toward an Automatic Half Barrier crossing at Hixon, coincidentally also in Staffordshire. From that day on, most of the lessons had to be learned all over again.
Sources:
Ministry of Transport Railway Inspectorate papers MT114/216, Public Record Office, Kew
Obstruction Danger by Adrian Vaughan, Guild Publishing 1986.
The Churnet Valley Railway by Basil Jeuda, Lightmoor Press 1999.
Thanks to Nick Allsop for providing the illustrations.
Text © Dave Harris. Photos: as attributed. Diagram: Redrawn SMH 2004