McK&H.Aust wrote:
First it was the Siemems gate mechs playing up and now it's their e-bells. It's pleasing to see new m-bells being installed, it's almost like someone turned back the clock just a bit.
Good lord, can Siemens do anything right?! Originally they had failing flashers, then failing gate mechs and now even failing e-bells! Apparently their customer service is very poor too. It's no wonder why Western Cullen Hayes equipment is dominating most new installations in this country. Siemens better pick up their game or WCH may become the "industry standard" for Australian level crossing installations (apart from United Group's lights which seem pretty well made).
We know for sure that Siemens have already lost 2 customers (Metro and ARTC) as far as gate mechs are concerned, and they would both be big customers too. I like WCH equipment but the down side is it will become a little boring when we are seeing it on most crossings, a bit of variety is nice! The good thing is there are still lots of Safetran gate mechs surviving out there. https://extranet.artc.com.au/docs/eng/t ... 2-120A.pdf
Sadly one item of Safetran equipment which isn't surviving is their mechanical bells. The upgrade of Old Barnawartha Rd at Wodonga has been rescheduled for October 29-30 https://extranet.artc.com.au/docman/Doc ... 1797208282
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:34 pm
by TrickyMario7654
McK&H.Aust wrote:Sadly one item of Safetran equipment which isn't surviving is their mechanical bells. The upgrade of Old Barnawartha Rd at Wodonga has been rescheduled for October 29-30 https://extranet.artc.com.au/docman/Doc ... 1797208282
There's another at Hamilton-Port Fairy Road, Hamilton. Sadly, this one replaced a Teardrop bell sometime after 2008 (I remember seeing a video from 2014 showing the crossing with a WCH bell). Street View still shows the crossing with the old Teardrop bell. https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.763 ... 328!8i1664
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:27 pm
by McK&H.Aust
TrickyMario7654 wrote:
McK&H.Aust wrote:Sadly one item of Safetran equipment which isn't surviving is their mechanical bells. The upgrade of Old Barnawartha Rd at Wodonga has been rescheduled for October 29-30 https://extranet.artc.com.au/docman/Doc ... 1797208282
There's another at Hamilton-Port Fairy Road, Hamilton. Sadly, this one replaced a Teardrop bell sometime after 2008 (I remember seeing a video from 2014 showing the crossing with a WCH bell). Street View still shows the crossing with the old Teardrop bell. https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.763 ... 328!8i1664
I wonder if those WCH bells were installed because of a shortage of hybrid bells (maybe production had already stopped). Hopefully the m-bells on the Portland line will survive, it would have to be one of the last lines in VIC to have a good collection of m-bells.
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 7:03 pm
by chris96
I was in the Altona/Newport area today and had time to take a few photos of some items of interest. First off, the Maidstone St crossing has had all of its Westinghouse pedestrian boom gates removed and replaced with standard Magnetic Autocontrol swing gates. In addition, the lights facing a side road on the Werribee side of the crossing as well as the relay case have also been replaced It's hard to believe that earlier this year, this crossing still had most of its original equipment from the early 80's. Now it's completely trashed: DSC00934 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr DSC00935 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr DSC00936 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
Lastly (and perhaps most interestingly) are these signals installed in Metro's training yards at Newport. These are used to teach new employees how to maintain crossing equipment. They use a mixture of parts: DSC00939 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr DSC00941 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
chris96 wrote:I was in the Altona/Newport area today and had time to take a few photos of some items of interest. First off, the Maidstone St crossing has had all of its Westinghouse pedestrian boom gates removed and replaced with standard Magnetic Autocontrol swing gates. In addition, the lights facing a side road on the Werribee side of the crossing as well as the relay case have also been replaced It's hard to believe that earlier this year, this crossing still had most of its original equipment from the early 80's. Now it's completely trashed:
I can't believe Metro is getting away with replacing every single m-bell on the the network.
So many crossings have been completely ruined by both Connex & Metro over the past ten years (though the latter has caused more damage than the former).
Like Grange Road, Alphington. How did go from this in 2008 (where the only non-original things were the Safetran bell on the southern side and the red & white gate on the southern signal)... https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.778 ... 1664?hl=en
Hardly anyone gives a damn about level crossings down here, the premier even admits to hating old crossing equipment, calling the crossings up for removal "relics of the past".
Sorry for going on a rant, but I'm just about fed up with Metro, and the bell nazis.
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 1:56 am
by StuartHunt101
TrickyMario7654 wrote:
I can't believe Metro is getting away with replacing every single m-bell on the the network.
So many crossings have been completely ruined by both Connex & Metro over the past ten years (though the latter has caused more damage than the former).
Like Grange Road, Alphington. How did go from this in 2008 (where the only non-original things were the Safetran bell on the southern side and the red & white gate on the southern signal)... https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.778 ... 1664?hl=en
Hardly anyone gives a damn about level crossings down here, the premier even admits to hating old crossing equipment, calling the crossings up for removal "relics of the past".
Sorry for going on a rant, but I'm just about fed up with Metro, and the bell nazis.
Grange Rd would've been an awesome crossing to see 10 years ago. It was quite messy but unique, just like Station St at Fairfield
Haha I think we're all a bit fed up, but really there's nothing we can do to change it
Do you happen to have any level crossing bells, just out of interest?
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 2:42 am
by TrickyMario7654
StuartHunt101 wrote:Grange Rd would've been an awesome crossing to see 10 years ago. It was quite messy but unique, just like Station St at Fairfield
Haha I think we're all a bit fed up, but really there's nothing we can do to change it
Do you happen to have any level crossing bells, just out of interest?
The Hurstbridge line around 10-15 years ago had the most Teardrop bell out of all the suburban lines. In fact, every crossing between Clifton Hill and Heidelberg had at least one back in 2003. (2007 street view image of Westgrath Street shows crossing with e-bells, but this 2003 video has the crossing with a Teardrop & Safetran combo and the original gate mechs.)
Is it just me, or did the Ivanhoe crossing have two teardrops at the time? (Listen at 15:24, that certainly does not sound like a hybrid bell)
Quite amazing that the B&W gate at Grange Road lasted so long, considering that the road gets a rather large number of vehicles daily and no careless drivers (AFAIK) rammed into it (I remember seeing a picture of the replacement gate on that same signal broken in half after a car hit it).
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 7:32 am
by chris96
TrickyMario7654 wrote:
Is it just me, or did the Ivanhoe crossing have two teardrops at the time? (Listen at 15:24, that certainly does not sound like a hybrid bell)
It's defiantly a teardrop bell! If you pause at 15:26 you can clearly see it! I guess the hybrid bell that replaced it is a little newer than we thought.
Speaking of videos about crossing bells, I've just uploaded a video showcasing all the different bell types that have been installed in Victoria over the years. I was even able to get recordings direct from the chips in some of the E-Bells!
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 11:01 am
by freebrickproductions
chris96 wrote:
TrickyMario7654 wrote:
Is it just me, or did the Ivanhoe crossing have two teardrops at the time? (Listen at 15:24, that certainly does not sound like a hybrid bell)
It's defiantly a teardrop bell! If you pause at 15:26 you can clearly see it! I guess the hybrid bell that replaced it is a little newer than we thought.
Speaking of videos about crossing bells, I've just uploaded a video showcasing all the different bell types that have been installed in Victoria over the years. I was even able to get recordings direct from the chips in some of the E-Bells!
For some reason, it doesn't want to play when I try and embed it on this site, hence the link above.
There's an "&t=1s" in the URL (which tells the player on YouTube itself to start playing the video 1 second in), and anything after the video ID causes the embedder to throw an error and not play the video (which is an issue on YouTube's end, so nothing we can do about it). If any YouTube URL has an "&..." in the URL, then that & and anything after it should be removed for it to work. I've fixed it in your original post.
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:07 am
by TrickyMario7654
chris96 wrote:
TrickyMario7654 wrote:
Is it just me, or did the Ivanhoe crossing have two teardrops at the time? (Listen at 15:24, that certainly does not sound like a hybrid bell)
It's defiantly a teardrop bell! If you pause at 15:26 you can clearly see it! I guess the hybrid bell that replaced it is a little newer than we thought.
Speaking of videos about crossing bells, I've just uploaded a video showcasing all the different bell types that have been installed in Victoria over the years. I was even able to get recordings direct from the chips in some of the E-Bells!
Nice video, the raw sound the General Signals e-bell clips make are certainly different compared to what you hear usually on actual crossings.
Not counting tourist railways or crossings/Teardrops disused at the time (and including crossings that went out of service sometime after 2007), there were 118 crossings with Teardrops bells in use across the state of Victoria at least ten years ago (and almost certainly more). Plus, four crossings had two Teardrop bells, those being High Street, Wodonga, High Street, Shepparton, Mundy Street, Bendigo, and Liddiard Rd, Traralgon. Absolutely disgusting that we're only down to five crossings confirmed to have them in Victoria.
It's hard to believe that earlier this year, this crossing still had most of its original equipment from the early 80's. Now it's completely trashed: 
Are these a trial perhaps? 
