Applehead137 wrote: Sat May 11, 2019 7:18 pm
Just wanted to share something that I found about the old Nepean Highway level crossing on the Mornington line. I found quite a few pictures on Flickr of some tours to Mornington and for one of them in 1981 , you see a old railcar next to the old Nepean Highway crossing. The crossing looks like it had a Mck&h teardrop bell. Plus two big white large old cantilevers on each side of the highway. The cantilevers look very similar to Murrumbenas cantilevers except not rusty. Also the crossing was gateless and I believe that I read somewhere that it used to have a wig wag before flashing lights. I don’t know what lights it had but they were probably Mck&h with extra long visors.
Nice find with the pictures!
I think the bell on the Nepan Highway crossing also appears to be on a median signal judging by the pictures.
Metro, why do you keep removing Mechanical bells?!
Applehead137 wrote: Sat May 11, 2019 7:18 pm
Westinghouse Langford’s picture when it had signals
The Teardrop in this photo looks like a US&S model! Great finds with these pictures, it's great seeing these classic crossings back in the days when gateless signals, incandescent lights and Teardrop Bells ruled the railways!
Last edited by chris96 on Mon May 13, 2019 5:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
Applehead 137’s latest video shows that Wooralla Drive on the Mornington Railway has now been automated! Or it can now be remote controlled, idk https://youtu.be/31yI8ny1lB8
It’s odd seeing the bell in the median strip. I’ve seen it at the old wodonga crossing on google maps and the Shanley street Wangaratta had a safetran bell in the median strip in the 70s ( I saw a picture of it ) before it was upgraded with gates in 1984. The bell at that crossing in Spotswood looks like it possibly could be a Us&s teardrop. I’ve never seen a US&S teardrop in Victoria. I saw a picture on Flickr of a old crossing signal at Belair station in SA which had A black US&S teardrop plus some really old McKenzie and Holland lights ( the first type used in the 1930s - 40s - 50s and 60s ) the ones with the back lights conected to the front ones. The picture was taken in like 1985 and some newer pictures show that it was replaced with a safetran bell and then replaced with a WCH bell
I found it really old when I filmed the crossing at Wooralla drive . I was expecting the train to stop at the crossing to turn on the switch . Lucky I started filming when I heard the whistle so I got the stared of the activation. The crossing would have been automated in the past couple weeks because when Redhen railcar SAR filmed it there was someone at the relay boxes to turn on the crossing.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-mgFxbJfc1w That was filmed a couple weeks ago. I couldn’t find any wires leading from the track to the relay boxes . I found a wire leading to the older and smaller relay box. The odd thing about that was that the wire was cut at the bottom of the relay box . I’m not sure when this happened. I think that someone in the train pushes a button the activate the crossing. That’s what the Yarra valley railway do.
Applehead137 wrote: Mon May 13, 2019 4:21 am
I saw a picture on Flickr of a old crossing signal at Belair station in SA which had A black US&S teardrop plus some really old McKenzie and Holland lights ( the first type used in the 1930s - 40s - 50s and 60s ) the ones with the back lights conected to the front ones. The picture was taken in like 1985 and some newer pictures show that it was replaced with a safetran bell and then replaced with a WCH bell
It used to have a Teardrop Bell? That’s sad it’s gone. Next thing you know the signal has UGL Lights and an Adjusted GS Type 1 on it! at least the wig wag is still there
Also, there is another example of those really old Mck&h lights at Fussell Place, Alberton (those ones don’t have the back lights attached though since the signal it’s on is for a side road) and there is 2 sets of them at the NRM in port Adelaide next to the book shop. One of the signals also has a WRRS bell.
Those are some amazing pictures, nice finds! I guess it's now confirmed that US&S Teardrops were indeed used in Australia! Too bad it's not there anymore.
The second bell on that signal is actually a Griswold/RACO not a Safetran (I can tell from the mounting piece). That's also a very rare bell too these days!
While on the subject of rare bells, I managed to film the last surviving Barker Technics Type 2 E-Bell today:
Applehead137 wrote: Mon May 13, 2019 7:54 pm
Nice to see that your back Chris 96 hopefully you can do more videos. I never really knew anything about barker tech ebells so that’s some interesting stuff.
Redhen rail car it seems odd for the bell being replaced . Maybe it’s on of those display signals that have a button to push and then it activates like the one at the NRM. Do tryouts think you will film the signals at Belair station? Speaking of the NRM I went there a couple times a few years ago but haven’t been there for a while. I remember the signals there . I think one of the signals ( the one with the bell ) looked like it had GRS XB/XD lights and the other one ( the bell less one ) looked like the lights were Mck&h. The mounting bots and lights look different on both signals , but I may be wrong . I saw that video of the crossing at Alberto that Mck&h Aust took last year . Those lights used to be very common on early installations but were replaced in the 1960s with the more bulky ones . The only ones I’ve found on street view were at Campbell’s creek fryers road in Campbell’s Creek ( pointing to a side road ) https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/12 ... a40e8cb5c0
The only other place if found them ( I went past this crossing a couple times before the signals were ripped out in 2012) was Rossiter road Koo Wee Rup. https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.199 ... 312!8i6656
This is actually my favourite crossing. I was quite sad when the signals got removed . I think this crossing was installed with signals in the 50s but I really have no idea. If anyone can give me more info about or find anymore pictures of this crossing it would be much appreciated .
Unfortunately I don’t think there are any buttons that can activate the signals. I think the 3 position semaphore there can be activated from the signal cabin, but I don’t know who owns the signal cabin or their contacts.
at least the wig wag is still there