Crossing Keepers

Evening all

A bit of a random post by me so I apologise now. Whilst channel hopping last night I came across a programme on TV called 'Railway Lives'. A role that came up was that of a crossing keeper. The job looks totally stress free and not especially difficult (although of course it is no doubt highly safety critical)
Does anyone on here do this paticular job at all?

Ben

I did this for a number of years at several locations....it was actually my first entry into railway work. It's is of course highly safety critical like most railway jobs and as you say there is not much to it knowledge wise.

Stress is going to depend on the individual as well as the location. A crossing in a village with 4 tph is not going to induce much stress. A crossing on the mainline with upto say 18 tph on a busy road and it tends to create friction between you and the people you are apparently holding up.

I worked such a crossing and I use to dread school arriving and departing times as the road traffic would increase significantly and it happened to coincide with a large amount of rail activity and the gates would often be closed for 30 minutes. We were forever getting abuse or honks of the horn etc etc. Some would even come to the gate box to have a go.

Very vulnerable and exposed to such things and it is quite a lonely job. Physical assault was rare but did happen on occasions, thankfully not to me though.

Crossing Keepers have to do the NWR 12 week residential signallers training course at Watford or Leeds. A lot but not all come in viewing it as an entry level job as the positions tend to be grade one. On the face of it seems easy but it is a proper safety critical role carrying responsibilty. An incident that springs to mind to demonstrate the reponsibilty is when a crossing keeper left the crossing gate open at Crofton Old Station No.1 Level Crossing, near Wakefield and a train ran past, this features as an RAIB Report
http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/reports_2007/report162007.cfm
As the previous poster stated at busy locations you meet some motorists that have walked off stupid street 'why are you holding us up!' I guess you quietly think well ok Sir I'll open the gate and you can take your chances!' Littlehaven Crossing just down from Horsham is one example that comes to mind last time I was down there a few years back there was a crossing keeper working.

The 12 week residential course must be a new thing as this was never so during my time (I left at the start of 2008).

I know the crossing your referring to as I use to live 5 minutes away in Roffey. Does this crossing still employ a keeper these days then? I'm assuming vacancies for this type of work very rarely come up?

GB how did you find the job?

Ben

I started as a crossing keeper back in 2003 at Selby. I didnt have to do a 12 week residential though. The job was ok, got quite busy running back and forth to the gates sometimes. Worked my way through the signalling grades to a PSB now. Its a good entry level job as most, but not all are grade 1.

Think it depends on the crossing some grade 1 can be trained on the job.

I think most, if not all, grade 1 crossings are trained on the job. I think the only crossing keepers that may need to do a course is those that oversee multiple crossings at a time....though not quite sure on that and sitting the 12 week signallers course does seem over kill.
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Crawley Ben said:

GB how did you find the job?

Click to expand...

That part was easy. My dad was/is a signaller and knew the local management

There were a couple of vacancies on the NR website for crossing keepers, although it was advertised as a signalling job. Seems to be a good way of getting onto the railways, although with the closures of boxes, many of these jobs will be going in the near future.

Anyone who does apply for a crossing keepers job should try to work their way up internally as soon as they are appointed. As a general rule, i think the higher grade you become, the safer your career is. I genuinely dont think the mass closures will happen as advertised. My first box was Broomfleet, and they have been closing all the boxes down there for the last 30 years.

What sort of money can be made from shift work as a signaller? I have been invited to do a Safety Critical Communications Test for the role.

The ones that NR were advertising last week were in the region of £20k, which is a bit less than a Grade 1 signaller. A lot of it apparently depends on how much overtime you are willing to work.

As said, alot of it depends on your grade and how much overtime you do. Sundays are not in the working week so you can automatically add 2 of the 4 sundays to your overtime unless you do not want to work them.

The last 9 months of my Network Rail employment I did alot of overtime. I was a grade 2 relief that also got an added 18% flexibility allowance. In the end I earned before tax about £35k. Not bad considering the p.a pay was about 19k.

The extra money is there if you wan't it.