Applehead137 wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 6:53 am
Odd finds with the WA lights in SA and all the stuff surrounding the safetran type 3. Speaking of bells , I’ve been think about how many mechanical bells are in Victoria. I’ve worked out that there are only 28 teardrop bells left in Victoria. If the one at boort is still there it would be 29. That is counting tourist railways and abandoned crossings. That’s pretty sad. 3 of those are cast iron . At least 5 are Westinghouse. So 1 on the north east line, one at Yarrawonga, 5 on the Portland line. Puffing Billy has 11 , VGR has 1 , Mornington railway has 2 . 6 on disused railways and one at Cunningham pier .
There’s only 9 WCH bells . VGR has 1 , 2 on the portland line , 3 on puffing Billy and 3 in West Melbourne.
There’s only 3 safetran mechanical bells that I know of unless the one at banarwartha is still the it’s 4. The one at Heywood and the 2 at the Caribbean gardens .
The WABCO is the worst with the one at the Caribbean gardens that doesn’t work and the one at Donald that barley gets used.
The only other one is at the emerald junk yard which is probably from derby road Maryborough.
That’s cool you are working out how many m bells are left in Victoria, I am trying to do the same for SA, though it’s sad to see the dwindling numbers of m bells, especially the teardrops. SA has 2 teardrops left (after 1 got replaced at the NRM, the Teardrop probably got stolen since NRM has regular theft issues unfortunately) and 1 is cast iron, plus both are not in good condition. The NRM one was the only one in decent condition. However, you know that NRM bell pile vacbag mentioned? If I can get footage of it, then this means I can add more teardrops to the list.
From my findings so far, nearly all m bells left in SA is actually the rarest version of the WCH 333 Bell, the one with the WRRS style base! There are actually only 9 Double Mount ones. There is also a WRRS bell, and of course, the FS bell. At the moment, I am close to finishing my findings, I think I may be done actually. Here is a list of m bells left in SA.
The Birkenhead bridge (a bridge that opens up for boats) has 4 double mount WCH bells, Marion Road, Plympton has 2 and the Tailem Bend Railway Museum has 1.
As for tourist railways (there are really only 2 tourist railways in SA, the rest are miniature railways) Steamranger has 5 m bells (3 WCH, 1 FS and 1 unknown) and Pichi Richi has presumably 2 WCH bells. (Which still exist according to recent videos)
The abandoned Mt Gambier Line has 3 WCH bells, the abandoned Rosewater loop line has 2 Double Mount WCH bells, 2 WCH WRRS Base Bells, and 1 WRRS Bells, and the abandoned Leigh Creek Line has 2 WCH bells (they may have been replaced or stolen by now).
The NRM (not including the bell pile since it’s not exactly confirmed yet) currently has 2 Safetran bells, and a WRRS bell in operation.
A Bluescope siding in Wingfield has a WCH bell, this bell is still here according to Mck&h Aust who filmed the crossing recently.
Some recent M bell losses include the Teardrop at the NRM, the Alexandrina Rd, Currency Creek/Canoe Tree Crossing, and the Hawker St, Ovingham which was the last Crossing on the Adelaide Metro Network (not including trams) that had m bells.
So it looks like there are approximately 30 m bells left in SA, this means they are not going to last long, so I am getting my footage of them while I can. If you are visiting from another state, I recommend you get your footage of them too.
plus it still works! 
I am going to visit this place again to do more filming soon. 