Australian Railroad Crossing Signals

[TrickyMario7654]

Just noticed that this crossing on the disused Mount Gambier line in Penola, SA still has its signals intact as of December last year!
https://www.google.com/maps/@-37.383424 ... 384!8i8192

A closer look at the signals from 2010. I assume the nearby Penola Bypass cutting the road in half is part of the reason why these signals have survived to this day, as the pretty much non-existent traffic doesn’t justify the hassle of removing them.
https://www.google.com/maps/@-37.382917 ... 312!8i6656

Also, this nearby passive crossing also still has hazard triangles at it.
https://www.google.com/maps/@-37.384700 ... ic&g_st=ic

It would be great if someone documented these gems.

EDIT: Found another crossing further down the Mount Gambier line at Kalangadoo which still has signals intact.
https://www.google.com/maps/@-37.565497 ... 384!8i8192

EDIT 2: Robe Road, Penola still also has signals at it, you can make them out in the distance of the first link.
https://www.google.com/maps/@-37.375425 ... 384!8i8192
https://www.google.com/maps/@-37.374773 ... 312!8i6656

EDIT 3: Judging by satellite view, I think the signals might also be present at this crossing too:
https://www.google.com/maps/@-37.853723 ... 312!8i6656

Yes, Yahl Road still has signals present. I noticed most crossings on the rail trail section in Mt Gambier had signals removed, hopefully the ones remaining stay a bit longer.

On a separate note, I don't know if its been said here yet but I visited all Gawler line crossings last week and every single one of them has LED lights now, mostly UGL LEDs apart from Womma Road Womma with Westinghouse LEDs, Commercial Road Nurlutta with WCH LEDs, Kings Road Parafield with WCH LEDs, and Pym Street Dudley Park with WCH lights with Westinghouse? LED inserts.

I actually noticed that the signals were still present at Yahl Road using the Look Around feature on the Apple Maps app on my phone (Apple's answer to Google Street View). I suggest checking out the feature as it contains much more updated images (usually from late 2019-early 2020) of numerous crossings in regional Australia that Google haven't been to in like 10-15 years. Having said that, Google do appear to be making more of an effort in revisiting areas that they haven’t been to in over 10 years, so that’s something.

[McK&H.Aust]

Mildura seems to be stuck in a time capsule when it comes to what is protecting their level crossings. Despite being a major regional city, there’s only three gated crossings across the whole area, those being the Calder Highway, Cowra Avenue, and the Benetook Avenue & 11th Street crossings. Obviously the fact that there’s been no regular passenger trains since 1993 is likely why there’s so few gated crossings in Mildura, though it still feels so weird to see so many gateless crossings in such a large regional city!

Hardly worth upgrading the crossings for 3 trains per week, nice to see money hasn't been wasted on pointless upgrades. I'd like to say that was a result of V/Line being sensible but I'm sure their upgrade agenda will include Mildura eventually

[McK&H.Aust]

There have been more bell replacements on the Portland line, all 3 cases involved hybrid bells being replaced with Siemens e-bells.

Henty Hwy, Condah https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.969 ... ?entry=ttu

Darts Rd, Portland North https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.315 ... ?entry=ttu

Cashmore Rd, Portland https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.321 ... ?entry=ttu

At Cashmore Rd the replacement bell is one of the new "scratchy" sounding models. None of the other crossings have been changed.

[TrickyMario7654]

Mildura seems to be stuck in a time capsule when it comes to what is protecting their level crossings. Despite being a major regional city, there’s only three gated crossings across the whole area, those being the Calder Highway, Cowra Avenue, and the Benetook Avenue & 11th Street crossings. Obviously the fact that there’s been no regular passenger trains since 1993 is likely why there’s so few gated crossings in Mildura, though it still feels so weird to see so many gateless crossings in such a large regional city!

Hardly worth upgrading the crossings for 3 trains per week, nice to see money hasn't been wasted on pointless upgrades. I'd like to say that was a result of V/Line being sensible but I'm sure their upgrade agenda will include Mildura eventually

Three trains a week? I swear there’s at least one or two trains a day that go through Mildura. I’m pretty sure I heard the horns of more than three trains while staying in Mildura.

There have been more bell replacements on the Portland line, all 3 cases involved hybrid bells being replaced with Siemens e-bells.

Henty Hwy, Condah https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.969 ... ?entry=ttu

Darts Rd, Portland North https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.315 ... ?entry=ttu

Cashmore Rd, Portland https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.321 ... ?entry=ttu

At Cashmore Rd the replacement bell is one of the new "scratchy" sounding models. None of the other crossings have been changed.

Aww, that’s sad to hear. Still, who’s willing to bet these e-bells will die soon and end up getting replaced? Glad to hear the Teardrop bells are untouched, so there’s that.

[freebrickproductions]

There have been more bell replacements on the Portland line, all 3 cases involved hybrid bells being replaced with Siemens e-bells.

Henty Hwy, Condah https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.969 ... ?entry=ttu

Darts Rd, Portland North https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.315 ... ?entry=ttu

Cashmore Rd, Portland https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.321 ... ?entry=ttu

At Cashmore Rd the replacement bell is one of the new "scratchy" sounding models. None of the other crossings have been changed.

Aww, that’s sad to hear. Still, who’s willing to bet these e-bells will die soon and end up getting replaced? Glad to hear the Teardrop bells are untouched, so there’s that.

The "scratchy" ones feature a newer, theoretically higher quality, speaker, so I doubt it'll die as quickly as the older ones that used cheaper, lower quality speakers.

[RedhenRailcarSAR]

Hi all. I got back into filming crossings earlier this month and ended up getting plenty of footage while in Victoria and the northern part of South Australia. I have edited the first video which covers the Nunn Street, Benalla crossing. This is the last mainline Victorian crossing with a teardrop bell installed, but my visit revealed that the bell is unfortunately no longer in working condition. The teardrop here is also the older cast iron variant with the detachable base so the loss of this bell is quite significant for the crossing community.
Thanks to SBMetro and Tazzie Transport for a good trip as well as helping out with driving and footage.

[TrickyMario7654]

Hi all. I got back into filming crossings earlier this month and ended up getting plenty of footage while in Victoria and the northern part of South Australia. I have edited the first video which covers the Nunn Street, Benalla crossing. This is the last mainline Victorian crossing with a teardrop bell installed, but my visit revealed that the bell is unfortunately no longer in working condition. The teardrop here is also the older cast iron variant with the detachable base so the loss of this bell is quite significant for the crossing community.
Thanks to SBMetro and Tazzie Transport for a good trip as well as helping out with driving and footage.

Oh dear, this isn’t good. I remember seeing a video from 2004 where the teardrop bell sounded quite sick, so it’s amazing it wasn’t replaced then and it has survived all these years. Fingers crossed they can get it working again.