Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

TBH, I can't say I'm surprised that the Lex-Cs were (unfortunately) replaced. They ain't exactly the most visible of lights out there, and it seems like y'all's railroads are much more interested in upgrading everything to LED than over here.

freebrickproductions wrote:and it seems like y'all's railroads are much more interested in upgrading everything to LED than over here.

I wonder if the reason for that is due to Australia having 8" lights as the modern standard.

ToledoRailfan wrote:

freebrickproductions wrote:and it seems like y'all's railroads are much more interested in upgrading everything to LED than over here.

I wonder if the reason for that is due to Australia having 8" lights as the modern standard.

Quite possibly. 8 inch lights are gonna be harder to see over larger distances and at higher speeds than 12 inch lights. Case in point would be Queensland, which has lots of 12 inch lights in use, and they also have lots of incandescent lights still as well (IIRC).

McK&H.Aust wrote:Yes it seems that war has been declared on vintage crossing equipment in Australia

I plan to travel along all of the lines in Adelaide, so if there are any old lights left, I will find them. Luckily there are still plenty of interesting crossing setups, plus some old gate mechs to keep me going. It seems to be the norm when looking at crossings on GSV, take the amount of vintage equipment you see and reduce it by about two-thirds to get the final number

Geelong is looking quite interesting, found this crossing with semaphore signals and the nearby signal box must still be in use
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.111 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.111 ... 312!8i6656

I've seen it posted somewhere before, but this is an interesting private crossing nearby https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.111 ... 312!8i6656

If that's the case, I think you should also film this crossing in Salisbury as I recall hearing it's up for removal.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-34.763 ... 312!8i6656

This particular crossing was also the sight of a collision between The Ghan and a bus in 2002, killing four people. Here's a report into the accident...
https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/1996510/r ... 02_001.pdf

I've got some bizarre news to report. Some of you may recall that earlier in the year I traveled to Maryborough, Victoria to take pictures of the new signals with WCH E-Bells on the Maryborough to Ararat line. While there, I spoke to a signal maintainer who told me that WCH equipment was going to be the norm in Victoria from then on.

Well, I was in Maryborough again today and for some ridiculous reason all of the WCH E-Bells have been replaced with Safetran Type 3's! Not only that, but all of the gates and gate lights have been replaced too!

Here are some before shots (taken in Feb) and after shots (taken today):


Moonlight Flat:

Before, with WCH bells and gate lights:


After, with Safetran Type 3 E-Bells and Unipart Rail gate lights:
DSC01394 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
DSC01390 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr

Close up of the replacement bells (one of them is an older model that has been recycled):
DSC01391 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
DSC01392 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
DSC01396 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr

Also, all of the crossings now have signs on each side identifying where the axle counters are located:
DSC01398 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
DSC01397 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr


Derby Rd:

Before:
DSC01212 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr

After:
DSC01405 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
DSC01399 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr

Close up of the replacement bells (again, one of them is an older model):
DSC01404 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
DSC01402 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr


Mariners Reef Rd:;

Before:
DSC01180 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr

After:
DSC01407 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr
DSC01408 by Christian Nolan, on Flickr

So much for having WCH E-Bells in Victoria I can't explain how confused and annoyed I am about this situation. How on earth does something like this happen? Those WCH E-Bells and gate lights were fully installed, operating and ready for service and yet they were ripped out and replaced before the line had even opened! This has to be one of the dumbest things i have ever seen our railways do and is probably their biggest waste of taxpayer money to date. Does anyone have any ideas as to what the hell happened?

chris96 wrote:I've got some bizarre news to report. Some of you may recall that earlier in the year I traveled to Maryborough, Victoria to take pictures of the new signals with WCH E-Bells on the Maryborough to Ararat line. While there, I spoke to a signal maintainer who told me that WCH equipment was going to be the norm in Victoria from then on.

Well, I was in Maryborough again today and for some ridiculous reason all of the WCH E-Bells have been replaced with Safetran Type 3's! Not only that, but all of the gates and gate lights have been replaced too!

Also, all of the crossings now have signs on each side identifying where the axle counters are located:

So much for having WCH E-Bells in Victoria I can't explain how confused and annoyed I am about this situation. How on earth does something like this happen? Those WCH E-Bells and gate lights were fully installed, operating and ready for service and yet they were ripped out and replaced before the line had even opened! This has to be one of the dumbest things i have ever seen our railways do and is probably their biggest waste of taxpayer money to date. Does anyone have any ideas as to what the hell happened?

That is very strange indeed. The only reason I could think of for replacing the WCH e-bells is maybe they haven't been "officially" approved for use in VIC because they're new to the network, some kind of silly bureaucratic reason like that anyway. It still doesn't explain why they would change the gate lights, although I know that the remote monitoring and fault reporting equipment used at crossings can be a bit touchy and generate false "lamp failure" alarms which result in the signal maintainers being sent out on a wild goose chase. Maybe some brands of lights work better with the monitoring equipment that they're using, but that is a total guess on my part.

Those older Safetran Type 3 e-bells look quite new, wonder where they came from? The axle counter signs are standard in NSW to let the track maintenance crews know where they are, so they are not damaged by machinery etc. They also let the drivers of Hi-Rails know they are approaching an axle counter crossing, because apparently they don't properly operate the axle counters, this can result in an axle "miscount" which means the crossing won't de-activate.

chris96 wrote:

trainman7 wrote: Geedville Rd, Taperoo has now been changed to United Group lights and Safetran type 3 E bells

One of the M-Bells at Geedville Rd had only been installed sometime between 2007-2013 (replacing the original bell). In fact, in the 2013 image it looks brand new:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-34.804 ... 312!8i6656

The original bell in 2007:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-34.804 ... 328!8i1664

I hope that some of those GRS lights went to tourist railways/collectors instead of in the trash. I wonder how many of them are left in existence these days? I found one sitting in a shed in Old Tailem Town last year:

While it's been completely discarded, at least it's still in one piece.

I don’t think there are many other GRS lights left in Australia which is a shame. There were a few left on Queensland sugar cane lines but that’s about it. As much as I hope the GRS lights went to a heritage organisation, it is very unlikely. From my experience in seeing ARTC practices of disposing old equipment, there are two things that are to likely to happen.

The first is that they will be stored out in the elements for years and even decades. The second is that the old stuff will be scraped within months and possibly weeks. However I have managed to get some interesting things from the ARTC (From the help of my Dad!) such as 2, black and white, wooden wishbone gates with WRRS lantern lights and Westinghouse LED lights just to name a few things!

chris96 wrote:I've got some bizarre news to report. Some of you may recall that earlier in the year I traveled to Maryborough, Victoria to take pictures of the new signals with WCH E-Bells on the Maryborough to Ararat line. While there, I spoke to a signal maintainer who told me that WCH equipment was going to be the norm in Victoria from then on.

Well, I was in Maryborough again today and for some ridiculous reason all of the WCH E-Bells have been replaced with Safetran Type 3's! Not only that, but all of the gates and gate lights have been replaced too!

Here are some before shots (taken in Feb) and after shots (taken today):


Moonlight Flat:

Before, with WCH bells and gate lights:


After, with Safetran Type 3 E-Bells and Unipart Rail gate lights:



Close up of the replacement bells (one of them is an older model that has been recycled):



Also, all of the crossings now have signs on each side identifying where the axle counters are located:



Derby Rd:

Before:


After:



Close up of the replacement bells (again, one of them is an older model):




Mariners Reef Rd:;

Before:


After:



So much for having WCH E-Bells in Victoria I can't explain how confused and annoyed I am about this situation. How on earth does something like this happen? Those WCH E-Bells and gate lights were fully installed, operating and ready for service and yet they were ripped out and replaced before the line had even opened! This has to be one of the dumbest things i have ever seen our railways do and is probably their biggest waste of taxpayer money to date. Does anyone have any ideas as to what the hell happened?

My guess of why they were (stupidly) replaced is that they weren’t officially approved by V/line. ARTC did a similar thing when they started installing (unapproved) Westinghouse lights.

trainman7 wrote: My guess of why they were (stupidly) replaced is that they weren’t officially approved by V/line. ARTC did a similar thing when they started installing (unapproved) Westinghouse lights.

I think that is the most likely reason (I was going to say logical reason lol).

I wonder if the signals were installed by a contractor who mostly does work for other track owners (such as ARTC) where WCH equipment is regularly used. They probably installed the WCH e-bells without knowing that they were "illegal" on V/Line tracks.

McK&H.Aust wrote:

trainman7 wrote: My guess of why they were (stupidly) replaced is that they weren’t officially approved by V/line. ARTC did a similar thing when they started installing (unapproved) Westinghouse lights.

I think that is the most likely reason (I was going to say logical reason lol).

I wonder if the signals were installed by a contractor who mostly does work for other track owners (such as ARTC) where WCH equipment is regularly used. They probably installed the WCH e-bells without knowing that they were "illegal" on V/Line tracks.

If that's the case, then how does it explain this?

chris96 wrote:While I was visiting Mariners Reef Rd, I was fortunate enough to speak to a very nice signal installer who told me that VicTrack are cutting ties with Siemens due to their poor customer service and high failure rates in their products. He told me they are trialing the new style of Westinghouse branded lights at these crossings, however there have already been problems reported with these units, so they are considering switching to Alstom or WCH lights instead. He said that WCH products are far superior to Siemens and their Australian distributor (Bradken) is much better to deal with, calling them "the Rolls Royce of crossing equipment"! I'm told that from now on, WCH E-Bells will be the standard in Victoria and will be used on all new installations and upgrades

Then again, it may have been someone from the Victorian government trolling us...