The new footbridge over the railway in Market Harborough

A footbridge has finally appeared to replace the foot crossing at Little Bowden that Network Rail closed without notice four years ago.

If I understood them correctly, Network Rail's concern was that the warning lights would sometimes be triggered by traffic leaving the sidings at Market Harborough. As some of these workings never reached the crossing, it was feared that people might start ignoring the lights.

Those sidings have now been removed as part of the straightening of the line through Market Harborough station, so that problem has gone. But the crossing remains closed and we now have the footbridge.

It is not a thing of beauty and manages to appear at once overengineered and inadequate to its purpose. Unlike the old crossing, it cannot be tackled by bikes, wheelchairs, prams, pushchairs or arthritic knees.

But it has given us a new vantage point for railway photography.

Now see what the crossing looked like in the 1980s.