Kingsferry Lift Bridge, Kent (Full Raise)

Kingsferry Lift Bridge, Swale, Kent over The Swale.
Location: Sheppey Way, Swale
Date Filmed: 14-04-2022
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Vessels:
General Cargo "CEMGULF"
Unique lift bridge over The Swale, connecting mainland Kent with the Isle of Sheppey. The current bridge dates back to 1960, and carries both a two-lane road and a railway line across. The Sheppey Crossing dual-carriageway bridge over the same water was built in and opened in 2006, but despite this the Kingsferry Bridge is still regularly used by traffic and trains. There are two LED wigwags, along with some very rare and unique vertical wigwags with white borders. In addition, there are four swing gates which automatically close and open, and these have magnets to secure them once closed, allowing the bridge deck to raise. For audible warnings, there are two bells which sound when the gates are closing and when the bridge deck is about to lower back down. A foghorn is also used which sounds when the bridge deck is fully raised. There are no set times of raise for the bridge as it opens for vessels on request. Cargo vessels use this bridge coming into and out of Ridham Dock. In the video, the full raise from start to finish was filmed.
Thanks For Watching!

[@amandasmith3303]

I hope those bells never get replaced by the other type of alarm,I love that tinny sound!

[@StagecoachMANALX300]

WOW! Fabulous video, incredible scenery and beautiful views as well as how amazing, it is to the boats go under the bridge too and the sole halogen wigwag - classic and vintage!

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Thanks very much 😁 It is definitely quite a unique bridge. I'm glad to finally catch a raise in full.

[@99owgiafcreategratismlm2]

Uleg

[@99owgiafcreategratismlm2]

@@UKLevelCrossingsChannel ldhsptqpp-

[@amandasmith3303]

That view though! As much as I don't like crossing bridges,that does look pretty spectacular!Great video!

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Thank you 😁 Yeah you can get quite a good view here, its higher than you'd expect

[@NWLevelCrossings]

Excellent Video!👍🏻 This is my favourite kind of lift Bridge!👍🏻😁 Well done for taking another shot of this but in full!👍🏻

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Thank you 😁👍

[@amandasmith3303]

Bells!!

[@TDSWar]

That reminds me of the Poole Harbour Bridge in Poole Dorset (the blue bright by the harbour with Level Crossing lights) I haven’t seen the bridge go up to let ships through but I’ve seen it down a lot

[@SouthEastLevelCrossings]

Awesome video! 😁 Great to see you've finally caught a raise in full. This is one cool bascule bridge, it is literally a 'lifting' bridge and really adds meaning to the term! 😄 I like the vertical traffic-light style wigwags there too, very similar to the ones at a level crossing in Minffordd.

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Thank you 😁 Glad to have finally caught this in full thanks to the vessel tracking. It is certainly a unique piece of infrastructure.

[@FLCollection620]

Cool

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Thanks 😊

[@Max-9632]

The vertical halogen wigwag is really rare to find and nice video

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

It is indeed, thank you 😊

[@HarryPat13Channel]

Just Realised that there is 2 vertical wigwags on the left

[@lm971120]

The warnings were not enough back in the day to prevent Frank Spencer from being stranded 😂

[@david-stewart]

Excellent I've never seen this 👍😊

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Thanks 😁 Glad you enjoyed

[@sophiemansell2789]

Interesting to see a Halogen and LED lights together!

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Yes, its a very unique sight here

[@sambee8982]

​@@UKLevelCrossingsChannelThey probably kept the vertical wigwags halogen because they couldn't get hold of an LED version perhaps? Who knows....

[@among_usfan_oh_lol]

Nice

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Thanks 👍

[@SN06BNF]

Don't Forget That The Vertical Signal Is Halogen

[@ALFATH5758]

Wow... Wonderful scenery 👍👍👍 best greeting from your new subscriber my friend 🤝🤝

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Thank you 😁

[@ianhill4585]

I remember I worked on the mainland some years ago working night shift, they lifted the bridge between 00.00 and supposedly 04.00 for maintenance, so I just stayed at work and kept warm. 04.00 came , the bloody bridge had stuck---- I got home indoors at about 6am, put my work bag down and just fell into bed. But I love this bridge really, 😁my dad was one of the engineers who helped build it in the late 50's early 60's. I have a special fondness for it. Jason Statham was filming on it recently for the film "The Tourist" and a series was filmed using the bridge ,the scene involves a car going into the water off the bridge, strangely the show was called "The Bridge". 😂

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Wow, that's cool. Thanks for sharing :)

[@cristobalcampos2011]

An halogen one and a led one thats strange but nice video

[@sambee8982]

Maybe the vertical ones remained Halogen because they couldn't get a vertical LED wigwag for it? Who knows....

[@aidenfraser5559]

Hi there Awesome footage of the bridge doing the full raise I was wondering if you knew what kind of bell it was when the wig wags were activated 😊😊😊

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed 😄 Unfortunately I'm not sure of the bell used. I will have to look a bit closer next time I visit

[@thebasingstokesupporter7001]

Yo.soo cool

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Thanks 😊

[@TheosTrainsWalesOfficial]

The bells take a while to activate, and why have they still not replaced the other halogen sets?

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Yeah, I thought they might activate as soon as the amber lights are on. I'm not too sure a narrow set of LED wigwags would fit in the same spot as the halogen vertical lights.

[@greengiant9706]

To be fair I’ve always wondered if the bells on the bridge are actually manually activated instead of automatically. From personal experience, sometimes they don’t activate at all, sometimes they only activate for a couple of seconds, sometimes they only activate on the initial road closure but not on the bridge drop/reopening of the carriage way lol. This is also the case for the Fog Horn which is used to give bigger ships the signal that the bridge is fully raised… I’ve heard the foghorn used at nighttime a couple of times but never heard it sound of a day time.

[@SN06BNF]

However, This Is Brilliant

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Thanks 😁

[@ArmiesOfWar]

The crossing light had a glich in it

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

It wasn't glitching, it was my camera making it look like it was flickering

[@pigeonsandtrafficlights8999]

What traffic light is that?

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Its a vertical wigwag

[@among_usfan_oh_lol]

Do you have information for the boat or vessel?

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

I have now included it in the description. It has a name.

[@among_usfan_oh_lol]

@@UKLevelCrossingsChannel oh ok

[@vastjonea]

Why are the wigwags flashing how they are?

[@david-stewart]

To warn drivers to stop 🛑. 😊

[@pineappleroad]

If you are referring to the LEDs flickering, its due to the frame rate of the camera not being in sync with the mains frequency

[@vastjonea]

@@david-stewart I was on about the wigwag lights flickering. My fault for not explaining it clearly.

[@vastjonea]

@@pineappleroad Oh. Thanks!

[@DexPlayzGames]

I just crossed it Lol

[@trainstramscrossingsuk]

Wait... Is that a railway on the left side?

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Yes it is. Thats the Sheerness Branch Line connecting Sittingbourne to Sheerness.

[@mattallen9564]

Yes, the train timetable takes priority too, Network Rail runs the bridge. There are published times when the bridge can be raised. It seems that trains pass one direction, then the other, then the bridge goes up. In my experience, if the trains pass me at high tide, when I'm cycling on or off the island, I have to pedal for dear life - otherwise I get stuck for up to 20 minutes.

[@K-o-R]

_train on the Sheerness side grinds to a halt_ "What happened to the power?!" Love how the bridge is absolutely silent in operation, then SCREEEEEEEEEECH for no obvious reason.

[@tomburnham5119]

A nice thought! The boring answer is that there's a feeder substation for the railway at Queenborough. No conductor rails on the lifting section so trains have to coast across.

[@samuelfellows6923]

The “screeeech” was a foghorn to indicate to boats to sail under it

[@samuelfellows6923]

I assume that the bridge is part of the train signing ~ imagine the train stopping at a red signal and waiting for a long time = driver; “sorry for the delay, the signal is red as the kingsferry lift bridge is up”

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

Yes, I'm pretty sure the signalling works with the bridge, so the nearest signals will be red when the bridge is up

[@greengiant9706]

I live on the Isle of Sheppey, and the bridge is actually owned and operated by Network Rail and not by National Highways/Highways England/Local Authority. This can be easiest seen with highway maintenance work and road resurfacing which takes place either side of this bridge. Highways maintain and resurface the road surfaces and signage from the roundabouts up until the approaches to the bridge on either side (this was done recently last year - the road surface whilst on the bridge is in terrible condition by contrast). Over night you will almost always see a network rail van or a personal car owned by a network rail member of staff parked up on the roadside just on the mainland side northbound approach to the bridge who sits in the bridges control room. I believe during the day they actually park their vehicles in Swale Train-station which is just on the southbound side of the road on the mainland side of the bridge.

[@UKLevelCrossingsChannel]

@Green Giant On previous visits I have seen the bridge controller come out and they are all usually wearing Network Rail gear. It would make sense that they control it as they would know the times trains are due across the bridge. Thanks for the info tho.