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Written by Brian Carter - 26 Jun 2004
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Location notes
Manea, Cambridgeshire. Situated on the Ely-Peterborough line.
Railway type and traffic
Passenger services: Central Trains class 158 and 170 DMUs, Greater Anglia class 150, 153 and 170 DMUs. Several per hour each way. Freight services: DB Schenker (mainly 66s, some 60s), Freightliner (66s), GBRf (66s), plus infrastructure services to and from Whitemoor Yard.
Environment
Open fields in the middle of the fens, close to an automatic half barrier level crossing.
Road directions
Close to Manea village: take the B1093 north through the village and turn right along an unclassified 'yellow' road about 1 mile from the station.

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Manea - Welney Road level crossing map co-ordinates
Parking
Park near the level crossing. You can sit in the car until the crossing is activated.
Public transport
Manea station has almost no train service. There are some buses to Manea village (probably from March); the local operator is Stagecoach Cambus, but the buses are probably very infrequent.

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Amenities
Thhere is a chip shop anda few other shops in Manea village, about 0.75 miles away. Otherwise, March is the nearest town.
Sun Compass
Sun Compass using Suncalc by brought to you by Vladimir Agafonkin:
It might be necessary to adjust the time to suit your visit, this link should open with the current day.
Manea - Welney Road level crossing

Googly map
Streetmap links
Manea - Welney Road level crossing general view map
Manea - Welney Road level crossing close up map

Windows Local Live Link - image quality may vary
Manea - Welney Road level crossing



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Railway Gen Group
Anglia Gen
Photographic notes
The line runs north west - south east, and the land is very flat - find a good spot along the road and shoot across the field. Looking at the signals (visible at the level crossing) will tell you which direction a train is coming from, and you can also see the level crossing barriers at Manea station.
Shots are possible in both directions from mid morning until the end of daylight - there are no problems with shadows at all. There may be shots from the north/east side of the line as well. The sun is on the nose for up (eastbound) trains until mid afternoon, and after that for down (westbound) trains. There are a few line side bushes which may affect shots of down trains.
A standard or short telephoto lens is best used.
It is also a good spot for videos - you can see a long way. The road is very quiet, so traffic noise should be unlikely, although the crossing has sirens.


General views - All photographs © Brian Carter unless otherwise stated
Fig 1 - Looking north west


Fig 1 - Looking north west

The photo was taken on 2nd February 2002, showing an eastbound working - the diverted Pathfinder Tours' 'Spinning Web' with 56111.

Fig 2 - Looking east


Fig 2 - Looking east

Early in the afternoon (before the sun had moved onto the nose, which it does eventually).

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