Australian Railroad Crossing Signals

[Applehead137]

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[SBMetro]

Great pictures, Chris! Good to see all of that equipment still hold on despite being disused. If those crossings were in Victoria, all of the signals would have been ripped out many years ago by VicRoads because of "safety concerns".

On a sad note, the Cardinia Road level crossing was removed earlier this month and the new road bridge has been opened.
https://levelcrossings.vic.gov.au/media ... f-schedule

Again, I traveled over this crossing daily on the way to school and I can't recall any sort of serious traffic hold ups occurring when the level crossing was active. In fact, we were rarely even stopped there despite crossing twice almost every weekday. Now Daniel Andrews want to build a skyrail to remove the remaining level crossings in Pakenham!

In the LXRA video as well as a few people riding past on trains, the crossing signals are actually still in place although the road bridge is open. It would be really interesting to see what will happen to them. Most likely they will be removed soon, but what if they integrate it into some large pedestrian crossing. We can only wish though.

[Applehead137]

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[Jack2003]

Ok I have a few things to share with you all. First off some sad news and that is the Appleton Dock Road level crossing in West Melbourne has had the hybrid bell signal knocked into and it now has been replaced with a new one consisting of a Safetran Type 3 ebell and older style Westinghouse clear LED lights. Here are some pics of the crossing, two of them taken by Applehead 137 and one taken by Tazzie Transport who isn't a member on the forum:




In other news the crossings at Old Geelong Road and Geelong-Ballan Road have now reciveved a second track and new crossing signals, so sadly it's RIP to the old ones. Geelong-Ballan Road now has a General Signals Type 2 and Safetran Type 3 combo, unlike the previous setup which had two Safetran Type 3's. Here are some pics of the new setups:







With the previous gated setup at Geelong-Ballan Road, the signal on the south western side was knocked over in a vehicle strike and another one was installed which was the signal that was on the south western side at Osborne Street, Maddingley. The General Signals Type 2 ebell on this signal had been replaced with a Safetran Type 3 when it was installed at Geelong-Ballan Road. Here are some pics of this signal:





Also this crossing west of Ballan that is for getting to one paddock to another now has it's boom gates installed.


Also Healesville-Kinglake Road will be receiving boom gates mid to late this year.

Clyde Road, Berwick has ben modified because of construction to build a underpass, the road has now been narrowed to two lanes, and the gated signals on the north eastern and south western sides have had their gate mechs and boom gates removed and have been placed onto temporary concrete foundations. The General Signals adjusted Type 1 ebell on the south western signal has now been replaced with an older model Safetran Type 3 ebell which is dying. If any of you choose to go and film it, you can only film on the southern side in the median strip, so unfortunately the crossing is pretty much impossible to film. Here are a couple of pics taken by Applehead 137:



Lastly some great news and that is the Camperdown-Lismore Road level crossing at Lismore still has it's hybrid bell. Here's a pic of the said crossing which I found on the Facebook group Train Tracker Victoria:


Anyway that's all from me

[Jack2003]

Anyway it's been more than three months since the last post on here and I have quite a few things to share. Firstly I have quite a bit of sad news. The Frankston-Flinders Road level crossing at Tyabb/Hastings on the Long Island branch has unfortunately had it's hybrid bells replaced with General Signals Type 3 electronic bells. One of them was dead when AH137 filmed there in January this year though. The hybrid bells were replaced between January and April this year. Here are a couple of pics taken by AH137 showing the crossing with it's new bells:



Some sad news out of Inverleigh where two crossings have had their hybrid bells replaced with Safetran Type 3 electronic bells. Those crossings being Railway Street and Mahers Road. They were replaced between January and April this year. Inverleigh-Winchelsea Road and Barwon Park Road however still have their hybrid bells. Here are pics of the two hybrid bell replacement crossings taken by Tazzie Transport:



However some good news now and that is the Gnarpurt Road level crossing in Lismore retains it's hybrid bell. Here is a pic of the crossing taken by Tazzie Transport in April this year:


More sad news and that is the Diamond Street and Railway Road level crossings at Eltham have had their Westinghouse gate mechs and Westinghouse incandescent lights and crossarms replaced with Western Cullen Hayes gate mechs and newer style Westinghouse lights and newer Westinghouse crossarms. Both crossings also had a dead General Signals electronic bell and the dead bells at both crossings have being replaced with General Signals Type 3 electronic bells. The General Signals Type 2 at Diamond Street orignally rang until the gates lowered, but since the upgrade it has now been reprogrammed to sound until the boom gates rise. Both crossings were upgraded between the 16th and 19th of April this year. Here are some pics taken by Tazzie Transport of what they look like now:

Diamond Street:








Railway Road:









While we're on subject of the Hurstbridge line it turns out Wattletree Road, Eltham which is unchanged for now has a Harmon incandescent light on the south western gated signal. This brings the total number of crossings on the Metro Rail Network which have Harmon lights to five. Here is a Google Maps Street View link showing the Harmon light: https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.703 ... 384!8i8192

Ligar Street, Bairnsdale was recently upgraded with boom gates. A pointless upgrade as well since it's in a residental area and there is hardly any traffic using it. Other boom gate upgrades which have taken place these last few months have been the four gateless crossings at Kerang (Wellington Street, Vaughan Street, Victoria Street and Murray Street) which were all upgraded in April. Murray Street and Vaughan Street were pointless upgrades since they're on residential streets and hardly se any traffic.

High Street, Seymour had it's Westinghouse Electric Barrier boom gate mechanisms replaced with Western Cullen Hayes ones earlier this year, but retains it's hybrid bells. It is also going to have it's pedestrian crossing upgraded with swing gates sometime this year.


Hallam Road, Hallam had it's south western gated signal replaced with a new one in March to accommodate skyrail, with everything else being reused except the Westinghouse gate mech which was replaced with a Western Cullen Hayes gate mech. One of the lights were replaced with a newer style Westinghouse LED light for some reason. The gateless signal was also removed with only the concrete base remaining. The signal on the north eastern side is unchanged though. Here are some pics of the crossing in it's current state taken by Tazzie Transport:




Colac-Ballarat Road, Irrewarra has had a new gated signal installed on the south western side of the crossing, as the previous one was probably involved in a vehicle strike. It had a Safetran boom gate mechanism, older style Westinghouse LED lights and an older model Safetran Type 3. Here is a screenshot of the crossing from last year from a video of Sam's Train Channel showing the previous gated signal:


Here's what the new signal looks like.(Picture taken by Tazzie Transport) It has a Western Cullen Hayes boom gate mechanism, newer style Westinghouse LED lights and a newer model Safetran Type 3:


Now for some very bizarre news. The disused Garden Street level crossing at Portland has had it's signal on the south eastern side replaced with a new one. The previous signal had a painted mast, McKenzie And Holland lights and a Westinghouse hybrid bell, which rather oddly replaced a teardrop bell sometime after 2010. Here is a picture of the crossing taken by McK&H Aust in May 2018 showing the previous signal:


The new signal has an unpainted mast, a different style black background stop on red signal sign and Westinghouse incandescent lights. The crossbuck and hybrid bell were reused however. Here is a pic of the crossing taken by Tazzie Transport in December 2020 showing the new signal:


I wonder why the signal was replaced? The mast was rusted so that could've maybe been the case, or the signal was involved in a vehicle strike, but we just don't know. It doesn't make sense to why it was replaced as the crossing is disused, and to make things more odd it even has ARTC fault stickers placed over the PTC fault stickers! Even if the mast was rusted, the next crossing down the line at Kennedy Street which is also disused has painted masts too and they are rusted and are still there! Go figure!

Lyndhurst Street, Bridgewater On Loddon has had it's hybrid bell rather oddly replaced with an older model Safetran Type 3, which makes it the third bell to be installed at this crossing in the last two years. Here are some pics of the crossing taken by me in April with it's current bell:






Lastly here are a couple of pics of Bendigo-Maldon Road, Maldon in the process of being upgraded with boom gates. The concrete bases, power cabinet, cable pits and relay box foundation have been installed at this stage. The project is being managed by V/Line:



Anyway that's all from me

[108CAM]

Current and former locations of black Westinghouse Hybrid Bells

Here are the crossings I know of that used to have black Westinghouse Hybrids
Webb Street, Narre Warren
Chandler Road, Noble Park
Rooks Road, Mitcham
Mitcham Road, Mitcham
Prospect Hill Road, Camberwell
Wallan-Whittlesea Road, Wallan
Napier Street, Bendigo
Finn Street, Bendigo

Here is the only crossing I know of that still has a black Westinghouse Hybrid bell
Single Street, Werris Creek

If anyone knows of any other crossings that have or had black Westinghouse hybrid Bells, Please feel free to let me know and I will add them to the list.

Continuing on with this post, here are some other bells I've seen that are painted in colours not normally seen
Murray Road, Preston (VIC) - Dark grey General Signals E-Bell
Poplar Road, Parkville (VIC) - Dark grey General Signals E-Bell
Shone Avenue, Wongawilli (NSW) - Silver Westinghouse Teardrop Bell

[TazzieTransport]

Prospect Hill Road, Riversdale, Victoria has Received a General Signals Type 3 E-Bell replacing one of its General Signals Type 2 E-Bells

[TazzieTransport]

Interestingly one of the dead bells at Bridport street, South Melborune has become alive! And all the 4 bells there are Barker Technic type 2 E-Bell's (which were only thought to be at Swallow street, Port Melbourne in the past)

This can be told, by the pitch of the speaker and the branding of the speaker which is Auto Telex instead of the TOA speakers type 1's use

[chris96]

Hi all! I'm back from yet another hiatus! Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been in Queensland for the past couple of months with work and unfortunately, I just haven't had the time to post (I'm also in an area the doesn't have any local crossing signals)

I do however, have something interesting to share! I was able to drive down to Tamrookum to check out the only known crossing in Queensland to have WCH E-Bells:
IMG_5554 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
IMG_5555 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
IMG_5556 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
IMG_5557 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
IMG_5559 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
IMG_5560 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
IMG_5561 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
IMG_5562 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
IMG_5563 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr

Sorry that I couldn't get any up-close images of the equipment. The crossing is technically on a private road and I didn't want to cause a fuss. The setup includes Alstom lights, WCH signal bases and of course, a WCH E-Bell. Here's a video shot at the crossing where you can hear the bell in action:


Here's the crossing on street view (not the easiest to see I know):
https://www.google.com/maps/@-28.149954 ... 312!8i6656

It was the strangest thing to see an E-Bell in QLD! I wonder if there are any other crossings like this lurking elsewhere in the state?

Interestingly one of the dead bells at Bridport street, South Melborune has become alive! And all the 4 bells there are Barker Technic type 2 E-Bell's (which were only thought to be at Swallow street, Port Melbourne in the past)

This can be told, by the pitch of the speaker and the branding of the speaker which is Auto Telex instead of the TOA speakers type 1's use

Wow, that's great to hear they've finally fixed Swallow Street's bells. They've been acting up for ages! I never realized they were Type 2's!

[TrickyMario7654]

Oh I really wanna deck Daniel Andrews now.
https://levelcrossings.vic.gov.au/media ... go-by-2025

HE'S REMOVING THE REMAINING CROSSINGS ON MY LINE!