Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

Feel free to send in the pictures of the new bells at Ivanhoe for the site. We'll need them.

Moving onto other things, here's another gated crossing in NSW which only has one bell. (A WCH M-Bell, which I believe is mounted on a McK&H Teardrop bell post mount.)
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.527 ... 6656?hl=en
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.527 ... 6656?hl=en

TrickyMario7654 wrote:Moving onto other things, here's another gated crossing in NSW which only has one bell. (A WCH M-Bell, which I believe is mounted on a McK&H Teardrop bell post mount.)
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.527 ... 6656?hl=en
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.527 ... 6656?hl=en

Older WCH gate mechs too!

TrickyMario7654 wrote:Moving onto other things, here's another gated crossing in NSW which only has one bell. (A WCH M-Bell, which I believe is mounted on a McK&H Teardrop bell post mount.)
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.527 ... 6656?hl=en
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.527 ... 6656?hl=en

This crossing was installed in 1977 at the same time as the one at Ash St, Orange, which had two Westinghouse teardrop bells (now down to one). I'm guessing this crossing would have originally had a Westinghouse teardrop as well. Interesting that Orange kept the original GRS gate mechs, while these ones are newer. Another couple of crossings with newer bells attached to former teardrop mounts are Rydal (Westinghouse Hybrid) and Cowcumbla St at Cootamundra (WCH m-bell).

Also the private crossing at Marley Place, Unanderra has a Safetran type 3 fixed onto the old teardrop bell mount! Even in the 1980's and early 1990's most new WCH m-bells used in NSW had 4 inch mounts, so if they were installed on 5 inch masts an adaptor was needed even though the bells could be ordered with 5 inch mounts.

McK&H.Aust wrote:

TrickyMario7654 wrote:Moving onto other things, here's another gated crossing in NSW which only has one bell. (A WCH M-Bell, which I believe is mounted on a McK&H Teardrop bell post mount.)
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.527 ... 6656?hl=en
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.527 ... 6656?hl=en

This crossing was installed in 1977 at the same time as the one at Ash St, Orange, which had two Westinghouse teardrop bells (now down to one). I'm guessing this crossing would have originally had a Westinghouse teardrop as well. Interesting that Orange kept the original GRS gate mechs, while these ones are newer. Another couple of crossings with newer bells attached to former teardrop mounts are Rydal (Westinghouse Hybrid) and Cowcumbla St at Cootamundra (WCH m-bell).

Also the private crossing at Marley Place, Unanderra has a Safetran type 3 fixed onto the old teardrop bell mount! Even in the 1980's and early 1990's most new WCH m-bells used in NSW had 4 inch mounts, so if they were installed on 5 inch masts an adaptor was needed even though the bells could be ordered with 5 inch mounts.

There's one example of this on Champion Road, Williamstown North (installed 1977, one of the first crossings in Melbourne to have E-Bells):
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.849 ... 312!8i6656

Speaking of which, there's this McK&H lights junction box at Clayton Road which doesn't have any lights mounted onto it!
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.924 ... 312!8i6656

There was also a rather pointless upgrade to the pedestrian crossings here sometime in 2014 or 2015. Reason why I say 'pointless' is because this crossing had been funded for removal at that point! Bit of a waste, don't you think?

Before (Aug 2014):
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.923 ... 312!8i6656

After (Mar 2015):
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.924 ... 312!8i6656

TrickyMario7654 wrote: There's one example of this on Champion Road, Williamstown North (installed 1977, one of the first crossings in Melbourne to have E-Bells):
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.849 ... 312!8i6656

Speaking of which, there's this McK&H lights junction box at Clayton Road which doesn't have any lights mounted onto it!
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.924 ... 312!8i6656

There was also a rather pointless upgrade to the pedestrian crossings here sometime in 2014 or 2015. Reason why I say 'pointless' is because this crossing had been funded for removal at that point! Bit of a waste, don't you think?

Before (Aug 2014):
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.923 ... 312!8i6656

After (Mar 2015):
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.924 ... 312!8i6656

Yes it seems like a waste of money upgrading a crossing which is going to be removed anyway, just like putting e-bells on crossings which are going to be removed.

I wonder if they leave the old bell mounts because they are too difficult to remove, and maybe the McK&H junction box was left there so they didn't have to plug the hole in the mast.

McK&H.Aust wrote:Yes it seems like a waste of money upgrading a crossing which is going to be removed anyway, just like putting e-bells on crossings which are going to be removed.

I wonder if they leave the old bell mounts because they are too difficult to remove, and maybe the McK&H junction box was left there so they didn't have to plug the hole in the mast.

Remember the Seaford Road crossing? They replaced the hybrid bells on that crossing last year, even though the crossing is gonna get removed!

I imagine that they wouldn't be that hard to remove, otherwise we would be seeing more instances of E-Bells being mounted on Teardrop mounts!

I just remembered three more instances of crossings which are gonna be removed having upgrades done to them, both of which are on the Dandenong corridor.

First one is Grange Road. In 2013, this crossing had a Teardrop bell on one side.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.881 ... 312!8i6656

But by the time Stuart filmed it in 2014, the Teardrop bell had been replaced with a hybrid bell (see 29:58), but note how the crossing still has the orginal gate mechs?


By late 2015, they had been replaced with Siemens gate mechs! (I know they're Siemens' ones because I've seen the logo on one of them in a video on YouTube).
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.881 ... 312!8i6656

Just a bit of trivia, the signal which had the Teardrop bell is my current profile image.

The second crossing is Poath Road, the old incandescent traffic signals on the median crossing signals and the nearby intersections were replaced with LED ones' between 2015-2016.

Before (2015):
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.894 ... 312!8i6656

After (2016):
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.894 ... 312!8i6656

While the third one at Centre Road is not really an upgrade, I still think it's pretty stupid.

These bunch of signals on one side of the crossing were replaced by a brand new signal as part of the Skyrail works!
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.929 ... 312!8i6656

You can see the new signal in this picture. I think they did this because they had to slew the track at this location so they could allow the rail viaduct to be built. Still, you think it would of been smarter just to relocate the existing signals?
http://railgallery.wongm.com/caulfield- ... 7.jpg.html

The other side has had the gate mechanism mast and the actual mechanism itself replaced!
http://railgallery.wongm.com/caulfield- ... 1.jpg.html

Interestingly, they reused the hybrid bells. I suppose it wasn't worth installing E-bells here due to the crossing being removed. (Would of been a waste anyway.)

I managed to dig up an old photo I took a few years ago of the Westinghouse Teardrop Bell on Lyndhurst St in Bridgewater, Victoria:


Here's the bell on street view:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-36.601 ... 56!6m1!1e1

While out driving today, I discovered two crossings at Inverleigh that still have Hybrid Bells!

The first crossing is on Inverleigh-Winchelsea Rd:












Nothing has changed here since street view came through in 2008:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.103 ... 64!6m1!1e1

The second crossing is on Railway St:













This crossing has also remained the same since 2008:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.104 ... 64!6m1!1e1

I also found this crossing just down the line on Mahers Rd that has a mix of both General Signals and Safetran E-Bells. It also has some of the shortest gates I have ever seen!:










Here's the crossing on street view:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.104 ... 64!6m1!1e1

Back in 2008, this crossing had a Safetran bell where the General Signals bell now sits. I guess the Safetran died:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.104 ... 64!6m1!1e1

chris96 wrote:I managed to dig up an old photo I took a few years ago of the Westinghouse Teardrop Bell on Lyndhurst St in Bridgewater, Victoria:

The picture looks a bit saturated, I guess it was taken off a bad camera. Sort of reminds me of these somewhat blurry & grainy pictures I took of the McK&H signal bases at the level crossing in Rosanna late last year on Boxing Day.



This crossing also has Westinghouse incandescent lights mounted in McK&H light brackets.



However, the cantilever signal has LED lights, with two traffic signals on it.


One of the General Signal E-Bells sort of looks crooked.


You also gotta love this shot of the crossing at around 8:30PM on a summer night.


For some reason, there were no LXRA 'Yellow Signs Of Death' at this location, even though the crossing is gonna get removed.

Nice finds with the hybrid bells!

TrickyMario7654 wrote:The picture looks a bit saturated, I guess it was taken off a bad camera. Sort of reminds me of these somewhat blurry & grainy pictures I took of the McK&H signal bases at the level crossing in Rosanna late last year on Boxing Day.



This crossing also has Westinghouse incandescent lights mounted in McK&H light brackets.



However, the cantilever signal has LED lights, with two traffic signals on it.


One of the General Signal E-Bells sort of looks crooked.


You also gotta love this shot of the crossing at around 8:30PM on a summer night.


For some reason, there were no LXRA 'Yellow Signs Of Death' at this location, even though the crossing is gonna get removed.

Nice finds with the hybrid bells!

None of your images work.