A letter from France 1st October 2022.

TODAY I MANAGED TO STOP THE TRAINS ON THE MAIN LINE!

Not intentionally, well not really, but you see the local crossing barriers were stuck.

I had set out on my normal dog exercise trip with Mango and hey presto we found the crossing barriers in the down position. 

(We cross the main line from Tours to Nantes every morning on our excursion.)

No bells ringing but the lights were flashing happily.

A small van had approached the crossing ahead of us, the driver got out and had a look down the line and then sasheyed through the barriers carefully.

A note here, the line both ways is dead straight for miles or rather kilometeres here.

You can see anything coming possibly a minute before it arrives.

Why a minute, well it is a fast line here, not maximum for TGV's but everything seems to be travelling at at least 80 mph when it goes over this crossing.

Goods trains just a little slower.

Anyway it must have been about 10 minutes past nine when I arrived back at the crossing with Mango and the barriers still not budging.

I decided to press the emergency button at the crossing and a chap came on the line virtually straight away.

I explained the problem and the fact that the barriers had been down for at least half an hour without moving. 

I told him it was ok for the trains but not for the cars.

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