Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

NSrailfan4life wrote: A Aussie I see. Nice to meet ya! Great find! :)

Why thanks. Since we get stopped at that crossing quite a bit, I thought it would be interesting to take note of that crossing. BTW, it was also the first crossing in my area to get E-Bells. Cardinia Road also got E-Bells in June of this year as part of a road duplication project.

Another crossing historical analysis, this one's at Ramsden Street in Clifton Hill, Victoria.
Here's the crossing in 1978. (Photo taken by Peter J. Vincent)

As you can tell, it's got wooden interlocking gates.

Here's the crossing in GSV in 2014.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.790 ... 312!8i6656

The signals seen here were installed in 1992. They've got Westinghouse gate mechanisms, Westinghouse lights, and Barker Technics E-Bells. As you can clearly see, the old hand gates have been statically preserved at this location. (There's other locations around Melbourne where they've persevered them too...)

Sorry for the bump.



F St Chula Vista, California

Dot number: 662162E

Google maps link: https://www.google.com/maps/@32.6363053 ... 312!8i6656

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Crossing history: This crossing was one of the many to be upgraded because of the blue line project.

brett nc railfanner wrote:Sorry for the bump.

No need to apologize!

ToledoRailfan wrote:

brett nc railfanner wrote:Sorry for the bump.

No need to apologize!

Ok

Found a few old photos which have Pakenham line level crossings in them on the Casey Cardinia 'Links to our Past' blog.

First off, is this picture was taken by The City of Berwick on July 29, 1987 showing the aftermath of flooding.

Click here to see a larger version of this image.

You can make out the Hallam level crossing in the background on the right side of the image. You can't see any of the equipment, but I imagine the equipment is the same as it is today (which I'll get into shortly).

Here's the crossing on December 28, 2016. (Picture taken by me)

Aside from the red & white gates, an LED upgrade in 2006, and the original Westinghouse pedestrian boom barrier mechanisms being replaced with swing gates in late 2014/early 2015, this crossing still has the same equipment seen in that 1987 photo! Honestly, this is quite good for crossing that's over 30 years old.

However, there's been a major change in the landscape around the crossing. Over the past thirty years, the empty fields and paddocks around the road have been replaced with commercial and industrial buildings.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.017 ... 312!8i6656

Here's an old scan of the area from the 1987 edition of the Melways.
https://digitised-collections.unimelb.e ... quence=129

You can see that the nearby suburb of Hampton Park has already developed quite a bit at the time, but the area north of Centre Road had yet to built up.

Before we move on, here's two bonus pictures taken by Weston Langford showing off the inaugural suburban service from Pakenham approaching the station & level crosing in 1975. At the time, this crossing was gateless and had a McK&H Teardrop bell.



The next crossing is on the site. Located at Webb Street, Narre Warren. Here's two pictures of the said street from the early 1990's (according to the blog, the first image is from 1992), you can see the crossing in the background. (The street name comes from the Webb family, early settlers of the area)



Click here and here to see larger versions of these images.

From what we can make out, this crossing had black and white gates and McK&H gate mechs (pretty much the same as the WRRS ones').

Here's the crossing in 2010, at the time, this crossing had incandescent lights & Westinghouse hybrid bells. The old black & white gates had also been replaced several years before.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.027 ... 312!8i6656

In 2012, the crossing was upgraded with LED lights & e-Bells. However, the crossing still retains the original gate mechs!

Here it is in October 2016.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.027 ... 312!8i6656

You may notice the old signal box and station in the background of the second image. Narre Warren station was moved to the opposite side of this crossing in 1995. Originally, the rebuilt station only had basic waiting facilitates (similar to those at Officer & Hallam stations')...
http://www.vicrailstations.com/Orbost/N ... arren1.jpg
http://www.vicrailstations.com/Orbost/N ... arren2.jpg
http://www.vicrailstations.com/Orbost/N ... arren3.jpg

In 2004, the station was upgraded to premium status (staffed from first to last train) and a new station building was built (same style as Berwick & Cranbourne stations'). The station remains the same today.
http://www.vicrailstations.com/Orbost/N ... arren4.jpg
http://www.vicrailstations.com/Orbost/N ... arren8.jpg

Another crossing on the opposite side of the current station used to exist (Cranbourne Road), but was replaced with an underpass in 2004 (with the road widened at the same time).
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.028 ... bfov%3D100

Now, I did a post on the McGregor Road, Pakenham crossing earlier in the thread, but I found a picture of this crossing from 1983 taken from where the old shires' offices are. (Excuse the size of the image)


You can make out the crossing in the background on the left side of the image. At the time, this crossing was only a flashing lights setup (installed in December 1974).

The current boom gates were only installed three years after this was taken, but this signal was reused from the previous setup.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.078 ... 312!8i6656

Here's the area where this image was taken from. As you can tell, the whole area has been developed with houses over the past few decades.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.073 ... 312!8i6656

Here's a 1993 Melways map of Pakenham & nearby Officer.
Page 215 (Cardinia Road): https://digitised-collections.unimelb.e ... quence=251
Page 216 (McGregor Road, Main Street, Racecourse Road): https://digitised-collections.unimelb.e ... quence=252

The area south of the rail line and the McGregor Road crossing didn't start developing until around the early 2000's. You'll also notice that Cardinia Road was also marked as 'Unsealed' and a regional cemetery was also proposed nearby at the time.

The 2008 Street view image for Cardinia Road still shows mostly empty fields and paddocks, though the roadway had been sealed at that point.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.071 ... 328!8i1664

But by 2014, the area had changed significantly! The whole crossing was pretty much surrounded by housing estates.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.071 ... 312!8i6656

A train station (conveniently named 'Cardinia Road') was also built and opened in 2012 to serve the local area, so residents don't have to drive to Pakenham station (located after the Main Street crossing).
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.070 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.072 ... 312!8i6656

Just last year, the road was duplicated to four lanes (two in each direction). This saw the previous setup (dating back to 1986) replaced with brand new signals.


That's all I've got for you today!

Found some interesting pictures of some Melbourne-Sydney line crossings from around 1987-ish on Peter J. Vincent's site. He's pretty much a VR historian and has loads of cool images of VR rollingstock, trains and related infrastructure. You can visit his site here.

One picture I found is of High Street, Barnawartha.


Here's the crossing today, aside from an LED upgrade and the updated SORS signs. The crossing is essentially the same today! Only problem, it's slated to be upgraded with gates in the not to distance future.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-36.099 ... 312!8i6656

I also found this picture of Cowslip Street, Violet Town. At the time, the crossing had McK&H lights, WRRS gate mechs, B&W wishbone gates with the old style gate lights, and two McK&H Teardrop bells.


Here's the crossing in 2010. By this point, the wishbone gates had been replaced by more modern flat ones. The SORS signs had been updated, most of the lights replaced with Westinghouse incandescent ones', and one of the Teadrops had been replaced with a hybrid.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-36.637 ... 312!8i6656

As has been mentioned on the fourm before, more changes have happened since that image was taken. The other teardrop was replaced with a hybrid, the WRRS mechs replaced by Safetran mechs, and presumably the crossing has an LED upgrade since.

Finally, we have Nunn Street, Benalla.


When the picture was taken, the crossing had McK&H lights, WRRS gate mechs, B&W wishbone gates, and two McK&H Teardrop bells (much like Cowslip Street).

Here's the crossing in 2015, aside from the LED upgrade, the flat gates, and one of the Teardrops being replaced with a hybrid, the crossing remains the same!
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-36.545 ... 312!8i6656

I seem to be the only one posting these things.

But anyways, I thought I would do another Historical Analysis on some crossings.

Our crossing for today is Robinsons Road at Deer Park. This picture taken by the late Weston Langford on September 26, 1987 shows a 'Superfreighter' led by V/Line locos X48, S308, and Australian National 930 class loco 939 crossing at the said location.


According to this document, the gated signals seen in the picture (well, only one is shown) were installed on January 29, 1981 and replaced gateless signals installed on September 11, 1969. The equipment on the signal shown consisted of a Westinghouse(?) base, Westinghouse gate mechanisms (among the first installs to use them), Black stripped wishbone gates (all new installs used them at the time), Westinghouse lights (incandescent), and a Westinghouse hybrid bell (probably one of the first installs to use them). The other signal had the same equipment.

Let's take a look at the December 2007 and November 2009 street view images...
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.772 ... 328!8i1664
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.772 ... 312!8i6656

The same signals shown in that 1987 image are still present. However, the crossing now had Safetran gate mechs, Westinghouse LED lights, and General Signals e-bells (type unknown, but likely type 2). Also note there's much more houses in the area.

The gate on the signal shown in the picture also looks to be original, still showing signs of being blacked striped at one point.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.772 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.772 ... 312!8i6656

However, the old wishbone gates had been replaced with flat ones not long after the November 2009 image was taken.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.773 ... 312!8i6656

But in late 2013, the crossing received a major overhaul with brand new signals and an actual proper pedestrian crossing at the location as part of the Regional Rail Link project.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.772 ... 312!8i6656

The new signals have the typical equipment seen on newer V/line crossings, consisting of Westinghouse LED lights, WCH gate mechs, UniPart Rail gate lights, and Safetran Type 3 e-bells.

Additionally, they now have the newer style red background crossbucks, "2 Track signs" and a variation of the white SORS signs (the normal ones are more narrower).

Out of interest, the signal gantry seen in the 1987 picture was still standing in 2014...
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.773 ... 312!8i6656

But had been removed by 2016.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.773 ... 312!8i6656

Finally, I thought I point out where the three locos seen in the picture are today. X47 is still in service today with Pacific National, S308 was withdrawn in 1988 and now resides in the ARHS Rail Museum in Williamstown North still bearing the old V/line livery, and 939 has since been scrapped.

That's it for today!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I found this Railroad Crossing while browsing an archive on Flickr. This one is on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad in Kenesaw, Nebraska. This Signal appears to be a WRRS "Autoflag" Signal, painted in Black and White (Possibly even Yellow and Black) Colors. These Signals were very common amongst Railroads in the Midwest and Eastern U.S.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Here is area today: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6202284 ... 312!8i6656------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ By the design of the Gate and the space between the Signal Lights. It appears that this crossing once came with an A-Frame Gate:https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6202284 ... 312!8i6656

MapsSurfer wrote:By the design of the Gate and the space between the Signal Lights. It appears that this crossing once came with an A-Frame Gate:https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6202284 ... 312!8i6656

That's actually pretty standard on the BNSF of many of their crossings. I think they were still using those conversion brackets into the early 2000s.