Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

MD2020 wrote:Safetran type 3 ("smart") E bells are good. The ones from NEG (Safetran type 2) are good too, they also have an arrestor (voltage limiter) in them. I still like GS too and use them most of the time with very good success, but make all the excuses you want, I am through with WCH, their quality on bells, gate mechs, lightheads, brackets, etc. has really suffered in the past several years, and really even moreso lately. I don't need inferior parts at the crossings I maintain.

My beef with NEG bells are they are way to quiet, the bell itself is great.
Smart bells from invensys are great because their loud, I'd love to get ahold of one and tinker with it but they cost $600.
WCH is very different from other railroad signal companys I guess growing up and working around them I'm used to their issues.
I've always found it easier to work on a WCH bell than a safetran M-bell, but that's me and MY onion, which everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

We shouldn't have to work on bells, especially not ones a few years or less old, sir....

MD2020 wrote:We shouldn't have to work on bells, especially not ones a few years or less old, sir....

I'll give ya that much, but the bell could have been sitting in a maintenance yard for years before it got handed to you.
Also you can drop the sarcastic "sir" right now.

MD2020 wrote:We shouldn't have to work on bells, especially not ones a few years or less old, sir....

I'll give ya that much, but the bell could have been sitting in a maintenance yard for years before it got handed to you.
Also you can drop the sarcastic "sir" right now.

Nope, it was new from WCH, was in the brown box, straight from their factory, sir. I don't now how else to make it any more clear, their stuff is plain junk nowadays, I have 2 more they recently installed a few months ago that sound like they are going out as well.

MD2020 wrote:Nope, it was new from WCH, was in the brown box, straight from their factory, sir. I don't now how else to make it any more clear, their stuff is plain junk nowadays, I have 2 more they recently installed a few months ago that sound like they are going out as well.

Well then that's your luck with their stuff then, I can say I've had a ton of problems with safetran bells.
Although you and I both agree MI has got to be the worst all around.
I'm gutting four incandescent lights from MI and putting in good L.E.D. inserts.

Oh yea, MI was some junk. I used to trash MI lightheads, until LED inserts became widespread. Now I save them, because they are excellent for installing LED inserts into.

On that note, last set of WCH lightheads were falling apart in the installers hands, the pot metal was breaking on the elbow and on the shaft when they tried to tighten them up....

Don't get me started on their ridiculous disposable gate mechanisms they have been putting out the past 5 or 6 years... ...sir...

Kighty... you should go to England and visit the queen so she can knight you...

Then we can start calling you Sir TrainmanKight.

cabman701 wrote:Kighty... you should go to England and visit the queen so she can knight you...

Then we can start calling you Sir TrainmanKight.

Forget England with their farkled up country and police state, I'll stay here thank you very much cabbie.
Also Its pronounced Kite just spelled Kight.

MD2020 wrote:Oh yea, MI was some junk. I used to trash MI lightheads, until LED inserts became widespread. Now I save them, because they are excellent for installing LED inserts into.

On that note, last set of WCH lightheads were falling apart in the installers hands, the pot metal was breaking on the elbow and on the shaft when they tried to tighten them up....

Don't get me started on their ridiculous disposable gate mechanisms they have been putting out the past 5 or 6 years... ...sir...

Remember the "MAD" Detectors they came out with, If I had that shit in my case lightning would just magically blow the thing up, same thing if I had a DMD.
Speaking of DMD's I got two of them, man has detection equipment come a long way