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Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2018 3:24 am
by trainman7
Another set of level crossings that have been promised to be removed just to get some votes... Hopefully the crossings don’t get removed as that would be a real waste of equipment and money. It would be another typical government decision to upgrade and spend millions of dollars on new infrastructure shortly before it’s all ripped out!
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 1:26 am
by TrickyMario7654
trainman7 wrote:
Another set of level crossings that have been promised to be removed just to get some votes... Hopefully the crossings don’t get removed as that would be a real waste of equipment and money. It would be another typical government decision to upgrade and spend millions of dollars on new infrastructure shortly before it’s all ripped out!
Spoke too soon, the Liberal's just announced a similar plan to Labor's. The only difference being that they won't build a skyrail nor remove the crossing at Cardina Road.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/vict ... 50dlk.html
Looks like I'll have to pick my "poison" and currently I'm leaning towards the Liberal's plan as it's the more tolerable one. Better yet, how about we just boycott the election?
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 7:47 pm
by McK&H.Aust
TrickyMario7654 wrote:trainman7 wrote:
Another set of level crossings that have been promised to be removed just to get some votes... Hopefully the crossings don’t get removed as that would be a real waste of equipment and money. It would be another typical government decision to upgrade and spend millions of dollars on new infrastructure shortly before it’s all ripped out!
Spoke too soon, the Liberal's just announced a similar plan to Labor's. The only difference being that they won't build a skyrail nor remove the crossing at Cardina Road.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/vict ... 50dlk.html
Looks like I'll have to pick my "poison" and currently I'm leaning towards the Liberal's plan as it's the more tolerable one. Better yet, how about we just boycott the election?
Reading that article the Liberal plan certainly sounds better, at least they would improve the surrounding roads and intersections and not just remove the crossings. Seems that their plan hasn't been costed yet so it could be dumped after the election if they win.
Brewsters Millions is a favorite movie of mine and where politics is concerned it hits the nail on the head, vote none of the above
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 8:44 pm
by Jack2003
Does anyone know the price of any bells at the VR Workshops in Albert Park? Which one is cheap?
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2018 10:09 pm
by McK&H.Aust
JBaulch wrote:Does anyone know the price of any bells at the VR Workshops in Albert Park? Which one is cheap?
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/V-R-Westing ... ctupt=true
Wouldn't say $380 was cheap but nobody else seems to be selling them at the moment
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2018 1:06 am
by McK&H.Aust
Not sure if this has been covered before, but found the location of an old crossing on the Canberra Line. It's between Bungendore and Queanbeyan at a location named Burbong. The crossing had gate-less signals and I recall seeing a picture somewhere showing a teardrop bell. The crossing was known as Cooma Rd, Burbong in railway documentation and also as Trunk Road No. 51, it was 312.213 km from Sydney. The signals were removed some time around 1986 and this is the former location of the crossing
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-35.337 ... 328!8i1664
https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Bu ... 5!4d149.45
One surviving relic from the crossing is these road markings, which can also be faintly seen on the satellite image.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-35.338 ... 328!8i1664
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-35.337 ... 328!8i1664
https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Bu ... 5!4d149.45
I'm presuming the crossing was replaced by this overpass on a new alignment, although it's difficult to tell where the old road went.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-35.337 ... 312!8i6656
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2018 2:45 am
by TrickyMario7654
I think you're right about that overpass replacing the nearby level crossing as according to Wikipedia, that level crossing was apart of an old alignment of the Kings Highway. It also takes mention of an accident at the crossing on March 21st, 1979 which resulted in the death of a women and her son was injured too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burbong_railway_station
Here's an article on the accident from The Canberra Times.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/arti ... F110936183
EDIT: Found some pictures from 1980 of the former crossing, as well as a nearby wooden bridge.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/archivesa ... U7h-5TxTmC
https://www.flickr.com/photos/archivesa ... U7h-5TxTmC
https://www.flickr.com/photos/archivesa ... U7h-5TxTmC
https://www.flickr.com/photos/archivesa ... U7h-5TxTmC
https://www.flickr.com/photos/archivesa ... U7h-5TxTmC
https://www.flickr.com/photos/archivesa ... 7h-5TxTmC/
Tell you what, this looked like a pretty dangerous section of the highway. The description of each photo explains some of the problems motorists faced on this portion of the road.
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2018 3:19 am
by McK&H.Aust
Certainly is sad to hear of somebody being killed there, seems to fit the scenario where it takes a fatality to get a crossing upgraded or replaced.
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2018 4:30 am
by McK&H.Aust
With another maintenance shutdown in the Hunter Valley next week (19 to 23 November) some more level crossing upgrades are being done on the Armidale Line. Firstly is (Old) Gostwyck Road near Armidale which is being upgraded from passive to a gated crossing
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-30.545 ... 652014,17z
http://www.jhrcrn.com.au/media/4509/saf ... midale.pdf
The other crossing is Thunderbolts Way, Uralla which is having it's train detection upgraded from DC Track Circuits to Axle Counters
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-30.666 ... 312!8i6656
http://www.jhrcrn.com.au/media/4539/004 ... uralla.pdf
Although not mentioned in the notice, it's likely that the crossing will also receive new signals, as the current ones are original and date back to 1984. Will be interesting to see if any new signals keep the rectangular backgrounds.
Re: Australian Railroad Crossing Signals
Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2018 4:46 am
by McK&H.Aust
Cool find with the pictures, at least we know now where the road went, seems the wooden bridge is long gone today. Looking at the poor condition of the bridge and the dangerous nature of the road there, it's amazing the old setup lasted that long. I bet the people in that house saw and heard many accidents.
The odd thing in the pictures is the advance warning sign for the crossing seems to be facing the wrong way in some of the shots
EDIT: Found a video from 1998 showing a very fast ringing teardrop bell at Moss Vale. It was mounted on the side of a telephone pole to warn workers in the yard of approaching southbound trains, similar to the Safetran bell at Seymour. It died at least ten years ago (any wonder) but remained in place until just a few months ago when it was removed. The bell can be heard from 3:47 and seen at the left of the picture from 4:08. Sadly all of the semaphore signals are also long gone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot5XIgu ... e=youtu.be