Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

TrickyMario7654 wrote:

McK&H.Aust wrote:This was posted on ARTC's website today https://extranet.artc.com.au/docman/Doc ... 1603591583 It seems they are doing some kind of upgrade to the Bank St crossing at Avenel this week https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-36.892 ... 312!8i6656
I'm a bit confused about this, as the crossing already has fairly new looking gated signals. Does anyone know what work could be taking place? Hopefully they don't remove the hybrid bells.

Looks like they are cancelling some of the V/line passenger trains to do the work, I bet that will make the locals happy!

EDIT: After further research I think they may be installing a roundabout at the crossing, hopefully they will just move some of he existing signals.

Hopefully they don't replace the hybrid bells. But anyways, I just drove through the Main Street crossing and I noticed a misprinted crossbuck on one of the signals (the one with the semaphorne pinnacle). The word "CROSSING" was not centered correctly, and it looks really odd. The hybrids bells also remain at this crossing, for the time being.

Someone needs to record it before the crossing gets torn out to do the work. It has three hybrid bells!

TrickyMario7654 wrote:I just drove through the Main Street crossing and I noticed a misprinted crossbuck on one of the signals (the one with the semaphorne pinnacle). The word "CROSSING" was not centered correctly, and it looks really odd. The hybrids bells also remain at this crossing, for the time being.

I take it you are talking about Main St, Pakenham? At least they haven't installed those ugly crossbucks with the red background. Nice to know the pinnacle and the hybrid bells are still there, does the crossing still have the Westinghouse pedestrian gates? Sure would be a great crossing to film with all that nice equipment.

freebrickproductions wrote:

TrickyMario7654 wrote:

McK&H.Aust wrote:This was posted on ARTC's website today https://extranet.artc.com.au/docman/Doc ... 1603591583 It seems they are doing some kind of upgrade to the Bank St crossing at Avenel this week https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-36.892 ... 312!8i6656
I'm a bit confused about this, as the crossing already has fairly new looking gated signals. Does anyone know what work could be taking place? Hopefully they don't remove the hybrid bells.

Looks like they are cancelling some of the V/line passenger trains to do the work, I bet that will make the locals happy!

EDIT: After further research I think they may be installing a roundabout at the crossing, hopefully they will just move some of he existing signals.

Hopefully they don't replace the hybrid bells. But anyways, I just drove through the Main Street crossing and I noticed a misprinted crossbuck on one of the signals (the one with the semaphorne pinnacle). The word "CROSSING" was not centered correctly, and it looks really odd. The hybrids bells also remain at this crossing, for the time being.

Someone needs to record it before the crossing gets torn out to do the work. It has three hybrid bells!

Almost made it there on my last visit to Victoria but ran out of time, really kicking myself now but it's not the first time that has happened (and probably won't be the last). Hopefully someone recorded the crossing, or took some pictures at least.

McK&H.Aust wrote:

TrickyMario7654 wrote:I just drove through the Main Street crossing and I noticed a misprinted crossbuck on one of the signals (the one with the semaphore pinnacle). The word "CROSSING" was not centered correctly, and it looks really odd. The hybrids bells also remain at this crossing, for the time being.

I take it you are talking about Main St, Pakenham? At least they haven't installed those ugly crossbucks with the red background. Nice to know the pinnacle and the hybrid bells are still there, does the crossing still have the Westinghouse pedestrian gates? Sure would be a great crossing to film with all that nice equipment.

Yes, I was talking about that crossing. The Westinghouse pedestrian gates are also still there (I haven't heard of any plans to upgrade the pedestrian crossings). However, I don't think the McK&H lights on the semaphore pinnacle signal are from the original gateless setup from the 1930's. I've also read up that these two mast signals were added to the crossing in 1975.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.080 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-38.079 ... 312!8i6656

Take a look at this crossing in Berrybank, Victoria. When street view came through it was in the process of receiving gates. The new lights and bells were installed but the gates weren't ready, so this setup acted as a simple FL crossing for a short time:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.982 ... 56!6m1!1e1
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.983 ... 56!6m1!1e1

chris96 wrote:Take a look at this crossing in Berrybank, Victoria. When street view came through it was in the process of receiving gates. The new lights and bells were installed but the gates weren't ready, so this setup acted as a simple FL crossing for a short time:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.982 ... 56!6m1!1e1
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.983 ... 56!6m1!1e1

That's a great find, not something you usually see in Australia. I wonder if they had some technical problems and had to postpone bringing the gates into use.

It reminds me of a crossing north of Sydney that was installed in the mid 1990's. It is between Cowan and Brooklyn (Hawkesbury River) on the main line from Sydney to Newcastle. It's literally in the middle of nowhere on a fire trail, it is fenced off and has locked gates so that only railway workers can access the crossing. I think it was about 1994 when they installed gated signals with WCH gate mechs and wishbone gates, but the lights were bagged and the gates tied up and it wasn't brought into use. The crossing stayed that way for a year or two and then the gates and mechs were removed and the crossing brought into use as a "lights only" setup.

The signals are still in use there today, and were actually upgraded with LED lights a couple of years ago! It looks odd having a lights only setup with 5 inch masts and the large spacing between the front and rear facing lights that gated crossings have. The crossing has a single WCH mechanical bell which is the last remaining m-bell between Sydney and Newcastle, it was actually replaced by a newer one a few years ago despite all of the other crossings having WCH e-bells. It's on a busy section of track which sees a train every 5 - 10 minutes, so maybe that's why the signals were installed.

No GSV image but here is the crossing on the map (it's on the Brooklyn Dam Trail). https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.558 ... 979537,17z

McK&H.Aust wrote:

chris96 wrote:Take a look at this crossing in Berrybank, Victoria. When street view came through it was in the process of receiving gates. The new lights and bells were installed but the gates weren't ready, so this setup acted as a simple FL crossing for a short time:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.982 ... 56!6m1!1e1
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.983 ... 56!6m1!1e1

That's a great find, not something you usually see in Australia. I wonder if they had some technical problems and had to postpone bringing the gates into use.

It reminds me of a crossing north of Sydney that was installed in the mid 1990's. It is between Cowan and Brooklyn (Hawkesbury River) on the main line from Sydney to Newcastle. It's literally in the middle of nowhere on a fire trail, it is fenced off and has locked gates so that only railway workers can access the crossing. I think it was about 1994 when they installed gated signals with WCH gate mechs and wishbone gates, but the lights were bagged and the gates tied up and it wasn't brought into use. The crossing stayed that way for a year or two and then the gates and mechs were removed and the crossing brought into use as a "lights only" setup.

The signals are still in use there today, and were actually upgraded with LED lights a couple of years ago! It looks odd having a lights only setup with 5 inch masts and the large spacing between the front and rear facing lights that gated crossings have. The crossing has a single WCH mechanical bell which is the last remaining m-bell between Sydney and Newcastle, it was actually replaced by a newer one a few years ago despite all of the other crossings having WCH e-bells. It's on a busy section of track which sees a train every 5 - 10 minutes, so maybe that's why the signals were installed.

No GSV image but here is the crossing on the map (it's on the Brooklyn Dam Trail). https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.558 ... 979537,17z

Sounds like an interesting crossing to film. I wonder why they abandoned the upgrade midway through?

TrickyMario7654 wrote:

McK&H.Aust wrote:

chris96 wrote:Take a look at this crossing in Berrybank, Victoria. When street view came through it was in the process of receiving gates. The new lights and bells were installed but the gates weren't ready, so this setup acted as a simple FL crossing for a short time:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.982 ... 56!6m1!1e1
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.983 ... 56!6m1!1e1

That's a great find, not something you usually see in Australia. I wonder if they had some technical problems and had to postpone bringing the gates into use.

It reminds me of a crossing north of Sydney that was installed in the mid 1990's. It is between Cowan and Brooklyn (Hawkesbury River) on the main line from Sydney to Newcastle. It's literally in the middle of nowhere on a fire trail, it is fenced off and has locked gates so that only railway workers can access the crossing. I think it was about 1994 when they installed gated signals with WCH gate mechs and wishbone gates, but the lights were bagged and the gates tied up and it wasn't brought into use. The crossing stayed that way for a year or two and then the gates and mechs were removed and the crossing brought into use as a "lights only" setup.

The signals are still in use there today, and were actually upgraded with LED lights a couple of years ago! It looks odd having a lights only setup with 5 inch masts and the large spacing between the front and rear facing lights that gated crossings have. The crossing has a single WCH mechanical bell which is the last remaining m-bell between Sydney and Newcastle, it was actually replaced by a newer one a few years ago despite all of the other crossings having WCH e-bells. It's on a busy section of track which sees a train every 5 - 10 minutes, so maybe that's why the signals were installed.

No GSV image but here is the crossing on the map (it's on the Brooklyn Dam Trail). https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.558 ... 979537,17z

Sounds like an interesting crossing to film. I wonder why they abandoned the upgrade midway through?

Based on the fact that it's gated off and likely doesn't see much use, they probably thought it'd be pointless to have gates at the crossing.

TrickyMario7654 wrote:

McK&H.Aust wrote:

chris96 wrote:Take a look at this crossing in Berrybank, Victoria. When street view came through it was in the process of receiving gates. The new lights and bells were installed but the gates weren't ready, so this setup acted as a simple FL crossing for a short time:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.982 ... 56!6m1!1e1
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.983 ... 56!6m1!1e1

That's a great find, not something you usually see in Australia. I wonder if they had some technical problems and had to postpone bringing the gates into use.

It reminds me of a crossing north of Sydney that was installed in the mid 1990's. It is between Cowan and Brooklyn (Hawkesbury River) on the main line from Sydney to Newcastle. It's literally in the middle of nowhere on a fire trail, it is fenced off and has locked gates so that only railway workers can access the crossing. I think it was about 1994 when they installed gated signals with WCH gate mechs and wishbone gates, but the lights were bagged and the gates tied up and it wasn't brought into use. The crossing stayed that way for a year or two and then the gates and mechs were removed and the crossing brought into use as a "lights only" setup.

The signals are still in use there today, and were actually upgraded with LED lights a couple of years ago! It looks odd having a lights only setup with 5 inch masts and the large spacing between the front and rear facing lights that gated crossings have. The crossing has a single WCH mechanical bell which is the last remaining m-bell between Sydney and Newcastle, it was actually replaced by a newer one a few years ago despite all of the other crossings having WCH e-bells. It's on a busy section of track which sees a train every 5 - 10 minutes, so maybe that's why the signals were installed.

No GSV image but here is the crossing on the map (it's on the Brooklyn Dam Trail). https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.558 ... 979537,17z

Sounds like an interesting crossing to film. I wonder why they abandoned the upgrade midway through?

freebrickproductions wrote:Based on the fact that it's gated off and likely doesn't see much use, they probably thought it'd be pointless to have gates at the crossing.

Not sure why they removed the gates, my guess would be that they had some kind of trouble getting them to work, or they decided the gates weren't really needed and wanted to use them on another crossing. I would like to film the crossing but getting to it would probably require some bushwalking, maybe in the coming months when the weather cools down and the rain stops!

McK&H.Aust wrote:Not sure why they removed the gates, my guess would be that they had some kind of trouble getting them to work, or they decided the gates weren't really needed and wanted to use them on another crossing. I would like to film the crossing but getting to it would probably require some bushwalking, maybe in the coming months when the weather cools down and the rain stops!

In Victoria, the government would of already upgraded it by now to prevent 'horrifying accidents'!

But anyways, I've found a General Signals E-Bell at nearby Woy Woy. These don't seem to be common in NSW.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.492 ... 312!8i6656