Presumably as the crossing barriers were down when the car driver turned from the road onto the railway track, there must have been a train 'about' at the time?
Indeed - and once the barrier has been demolished, two pedestrians (one a dog walker, I think, and one pushing a buggy?) encroach further with 3 barriers still down and the 4th ready to be potentially flung who knows where..
Do station staff have a big red button, or equivalent of, or do they have to ring the signalman and explain who they are, where they are, and what has happened?
They would need to contact the signaller, red buttons only on train GSMR (DLR has lineside devices)
I'm sure several sources did kick in, but would the crossing cameras only activate manually - are they not on for every use?
I don’t know about the situation at Cheshunt or the current rules, but it used to be that the camera was switched on when it was time to lower barriers and off when they were proved down. Normally the signalman would only switch it on again if there was a problem, such as indicator lights going on and off, or for some other special reason. In general, signallers control several CCTV crossings or have other duties and cannot spend their time continuously watching one crossing. There was, although technology has probably solved it, the problem of ‘screen-burn‘ if the monitor was constantly focused on one image.
It used to be, and almost certainly still is, that having a barrier knocked off will cause either the control panel indicator lights to flash or a buzzer to ring or both. I only worked barriers that were outside the box and controlled from within it, but even a gust of wind or an inquisitive child lifting one would cause the buzzer to go off. I expect that nowadays most have plenty of mechanisms to alert the signaller if something untoward happens, although it is possible (if unlikely) that a barrier could be removed so cleanly that it does not register.
I've been unfortunate enough to have been a passenger on a train that struck a parked car on a level crossing at line speed (100mph) only on that occasion the car was deliberately parked on the LC.
Does everyone need to know all the intricate details, every time, just so a group of railway fans have their curiosity satisfied?
Indeed. Does the average passenger really care exactly what it is? I'd wager not - "a large object on the track" is perfectly sufficient to understand why their train isn't going anywhere.
Also (I missed this the first time I replied), "man up" is a really toxic phrase to use. Especially in a post which wishes to "lighten the mood"!
Why? And for what purpose?
It is likely the information screen system has a limited number of auto messages, and 'car on track' is not among them, so they chose the nearest message that conveyed the nature of the problem. Its possible its driven by the Trust delay code, which would not have the detail to specify what the obstruction is.
