Back on duty at Cranbrook Road Crossing

Today was another day on the Kent and East Sussex Railway, this time back at the Cranbrook Road Crossing controlling the gates over the aforementioned Cranbrook Road.

A lovely day to begin with, sunshine and blue skies but the day ended with rain and winds. A little bit unusual today as there were a couple of extra workings that were not expected including a diesel moving light engine from Tenterden to Rolvenden and an extra working for the DMU taking this year's cohort of signalmen trainees on their trip down the line.

Operating the crossing and using a camera are pretty much mutually exclusive activities so I was limited to long distance shots as the trains come around the curve from Rolvenden. Here is the familiar Pannier Tank 1638 making it's way up the Tenterden Bank.

But the highlight of the day was the "Wealden Pullman" - the luxury Sunday Lunch Dining train which makes a trip up and down the line conveying passengers in plush conditions while eating a traditional Sunday dinner watching the wonderful Kentish countryside roll gently by.

The benefit for us lowly crossing keepers is that the train staff hand out goodies as the train passes the crossing. On the down journey a carton of soup all wrapped up with a bread roll was passed to me and on the up train a large bag of roast potatoes was collected at speed (much like the travelling post office trains used to do when collecting mail at speed)

Very much appreciated it was too, the soup was excellent and there were many more potates than I could managed so I took them home and reheated them for dinner - there were more than enough for 3!

Thank you to the staff of the Pullman for looking after the lowely crossing keeper so well!

Another lovely day on the railway.