Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

I saw a post on Facebook today showing the WRRS gate mechs at Nunn St, Benalla https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/A3 ... d0608ee8d6 have now been replaced by WCH ones. In some good news however, the signals are otherwise unchanged and the crossing still has it’s teardrop and hybrid bell combination thankfully!

With the gate mechs having now been replaced, hopefully this means the teardrop and hybrid bells are left alone for a while!

trainman7 wrote:I saw a post on Facebook today showing the WRRS gate mechs at Nunn St, Benalla https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/A3 ... d0608ee8d6 have now been replaced by WCH ones. In some good news however, the signals are otherwise unchanged and the crossing still has it’s teardrop and hybrid bell combination thankfully!

With the gate mechs having now been replaced, hopefully this means the teardrop and hybrid bells are left alone for a while!

Shame about the WRRS mechs being replaced, but at least nothing else has been changed. Presuming that they were the original mechs which were installed on October 8, 1961 then they would have been 57 years old, quite a good effort indeed!

I've learned that those WRRS Type 3564 gate mechs didn't have a "power down" function, which means the gates lowered by gravity alone. This is different to the GRS/WRRS Type B and D mechs and also Safetran and WCH mechs which power down to halfway then fall by gravity the rest of the way. From what I've read, the power down function was added to overcome problems where the gates could potentially be held in the raised position by strong winds, or by binding of the moving parts or the failure of the hold clear to release properly.

Well with that loon known as Daniel Andrews being re-elected by the foolish Victorian public, 25 more crossings are now getting the chop, including the four in Pakenham.

TrickyMario7654 wrote:Well with that loon known as Daniel Andrews being re-elected by the foolish Victorian public, 25 more crossings are now getting the chop, including the four in Pakenham.

RIP another 25 crossings

Looking at the news, it seems that the Andrews Government has won with an increased majority. Perhaps a sign of things to come for next year's federal election?

Here's a random bit of information to get away from politics for a moment Travelled past the crossing at Woy Woy today and it still has the GS e-bell on the eastern signal, if the bell is dead then they sure aint interested in replacing it!

How do I post an image onto a message of mine? J Baulch

Checked the Ararat - Maryborough line between Amphitheatre and Avoca to look at the crossings which are getting boom gates

First is Porcupine Lane, the relay cabinet and relay box base have been put in:

JBaulch wrote:How do I post an image onto a message of mine? J Baulch

Underneath the buttons to submit a post, there should be a couple of tabs on the left-hand side. One of the tabs should be "upload attachment", which will then give you the opportunity to upload a couple of photos that you can embed in the post.

This years LCSC report was released today and makes for an interesting read!
https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/system ... 017-18.pdf
Pages 13-16 show the following crossings that have been upgraded:
Lake St, Ganmain: https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/La ... 43bd416b50

Marrar North Rd, Marrar: https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Ma ... b472ce67c0

Gardiner St, Griffith: https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-34.297 ... 312!8i6656

Rouchel Rd, Aberdeen https://goo.gl/maps/yuN8pdjFmE62

Rosler Pde, Henty: https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Ro ... ff67e8e108

Baird St, Culcairn: https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Ba ... c84ec98fc4

All these new signals have the typical WCH equipment and all have WCH lights which makes for a nice change from the United Group lights which had been used since 2001.

Page 27 mentions the upgrade of the signals at Blayney which were apparently “life expired”, the upgrade probably happened in April this year. It also says that scoping work was carried out at Bourke St, East Richmond for the upgrade of the pedestrian crossing with the installation of swing gates and the installation of a new pedestrian crossing with swing gates on the country side of the crossing. Whilst not mentioned, the crossing will almost certainly receive new signals with e-bells.

trainman7 wrote:This years LCSC report was released today and makes for an interesting read!
https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/system ... 017-18.pdf
Pages 13-16 show the following crossings that have been upgraded:
Lake St, Ganmain: https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/La ... 43bd416b50

Marrar North Rd, Marrar: https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Ma ... b472ce67c0

Gardiner St, Griffith: https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-34.297 ... 312!8i6656

Rouchel Rd, Aberdeen https://goo.gl/maps/yuN8pdjFmE62

Rosler Pde, Henty: https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Ro ... ff67e8e108

Baird St, Culcairn: https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Ba ... c84ec98fc4

All these new signals have the typical WCH equipment and all have WCH lights which makes for a nice change from the United Group lights which had been used since 2001.

Page 27 mentions the upgrade of the signals at Blayney which were apparently “life expired”, the upgrade probably happened in April this year. It also says that scoping work was carried out at Bourke St, East Richmond for the upgrade of the pedestrian crossing with the installation of swing gates and the installation of a new pedestrian crossing with swing gates on the country side of the crossing. Whilst not mentioned, the crossing will almost certainly receive new signals with e-bells.

Certainly some interesting reading there, the design work for the upgrade of Bourke St, East Richmond has been mentioned as far back as the 2011/12 LCSC report so they are taking their sweet time! There was no sign of any upgrades being done when GSV last visited in August 2017 https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.601 ... 312!8i6656

Another Sydney Trains upgrade that wasn't specifically mentioned in the latest report was Sir Henry's Parade, Faulconbridge which had brand new gated signals (with WCH e-bells of course) when I drove past in May this year. https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.694 ... 312!8i6656 The old signals were still there in April so it must have happened just after google came by https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.694 ... 312!8i6656

Noticed a couple of possible future upgrades which were mentioned, being Mills Rd, Towrang https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-34.693 ... 328!8i1664 and Murrays Flat Rd, Towrang which is actually at Murrays Flat (there was a station here once) but this is an odd upgrade because from the train it appears to be a driveway for a farm https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-34.724 ... a=!3m1!1e3

Another seemingly pointless upgrade was Main St, Wallerawang which had axle counters installed, although not sure if the signals were replaced. Not sure about the other train operators but I know that PN haven't run any trains to that coal mine (Lidsdale) for at least 6 months, so maybe the trains stopped once the upgrade was complete https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.400 ... 312!8i6656

McK&H.Aust wrote: Another Sydney Trains upgrade that wasn't specifically mentioned in the latest report was Sir Henry's Parade, Faulconbridge which had brand new gated signals (with WCH e-bells of course) when I drove past in May this year. https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.694 ... 312!8i6656 The old signals were still there in April so it must have happened just after google came by https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.694 ... 312!8i6656

Bit of a shame that they're gone, looks like they had Federal Signal gate mechs!
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.694 ... 312!8i6656