Last night we stopped behind an artic at a crossing Pat will know, at Holme, south of Peterborough. The train passed, the barriers rose,and the artic moved off quite slowly.
I'm very cautious about following anything too closely on one of these so having trundled up to the open barrier I hung back until it was across the tracks and clearing the other side. A last glance at the lights and they were flashing! I had a moment of wondering whether they just hadn't gone off yet after the barriers lifted, and quickly dismissed that as in my experience they stop as the barriers rise.
Now I am not going to drive on to a crossing with lights flashing so I stayed put - a couple of seconds later the barrier nearly removed my front number plate, and a minute or so after that two trains flashed by, one in each direction.
Now we all know that there can be a second train, so you should never drive round half barriers (these were full width - so had I followed the artic I could have been stranded) - but what is the minimum interval for the barriers to be open?
I don't think I did anything stupid - quite the opposite - but I still feel as if I have had a near miss.
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