Page 976 - Reading Mercury

Mr. Peter Ruff, clerk to the Wokingham Without Parish Council, put forward their
reason for objecting, and asked what would be the position if a car broke down—or if
there was an accident—across the line in such a position as to leave the barriers
unaffected.
Mr. H. Evans said that during daylight the visibility of 200 yards was ample to
allow trains to stop—in foggy weather they would be travelling more slowly. “But
what happens at night?” asked several members of the public. And to that no one
heard a reply.
Mr. John Ellis—prospective Labour candidate for Wokingham—said that he
objected to Wokingham being used as an experiment. Such experiments should be
carried out at isolated crossings, and then gradually brought into use in busier regions.
For the railway, Mr. Craig confirmed that four crossings of the new type were in use
already. They had proved successful, but he admitted that none of these were on
electrified lines.

th
Sat 11 July
RAIL BARRIER PROTESTS
British Railways are to have a man in attendance at the Star Lane crossing,
Wokingham until the authorities are completely satisfied that there will be no
recurrence of the failure of the automatic barrier on Monday and Tuesday.
This was said by the Mayor Cllr. J.E. Chapman at Thursday’s meeting of
Wokingham Town Council, together with Cllr. A.G. Skedgel, one of the borough
officials, had talks about the crossing, the previous day with Mr. W.P. Reid, of the
Ministry of Transport, following the failures on Monday and Tuesday of the barriers
to work properly.

BARRIERS FAIL A WEEK AFTER INSTALLATION
A week after they were officially in use the automatic barriers at the Star Lane level
crossing, Wokingham, failed on Monday. And then they failed again on Tuesday. On
Wednesday a top-level inquiry was held at the crossing, with the chief signals and
telecommunications engineer for the Southern Region and Col. W.P. Reid, the
ministry of Transport’s Inspector of railways, in attendance. This revealed that the
fault lay in a manufacturing defect in a piece of electrical equipment.
It was shortly before 11.45 pm on Monday, that a local man telephoned the
Wokingham police to tell them that the barriers were not working properly. Although
the flashing lights on the standard were working, the barriers failed to fall and the
crossing was open to trains and road traffic at the same time. Police rushed a car crew
to the crossing to take over traffic control and they remained there until the last train
had passed.
Railway officials were also called out, and by 9.50 a.m. on Tuesday it was thought
that the fault had been rectified. But at 2.23 p.m. the barriers failed a second time—on
this occasion in the safe position—and it was 6 p.m. before they were finally put right.
A spokesman for British Railways said that while the barriers had failed in the “up”
position train drivers were cautioned to approach the crossing with care.
Yesterday’s inquiry showed that the fault lay in a time element relay which
contained a manufacturing defect. When supplied these relays were sealed to prevent
tampering, and unknown to them this relay had a defect sealed in. As a result all other
relays of this type were being modified.
th
On June 24 a public meeting was held in the Town Hall—at the suggestion of the
M.P., Mr. W.R. van Straubenzee—at which British Railways officials explained the

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