Wallerawang, Australia

[McK&H.Aust]

This is the Portland Road crossing in the town of Wallerawang, New South Wales, Australia. The crossing is located on the branch line that runs from Wallerawang to Mudgee.

The current signals were installed in 2004, replacing the original McKenzie & Holland signals that dated back to January 1970. All four signals have WCH bases and Alstom 8 inch LED lights. There is a WCH mechanical bell on the western side of the crossing and a McKenzie & Holland teardrop bell on the eastern side. This bell was removed from the old signals and re-installed here when the crossing was upgraded.

The train in the video is AR69 empty coal hoppers, going out to Airly coal mine to load. This mine is actually the last customer left on the line, trains only run on an "as required" basis and it can be days or even weeks between trains. Most of the trains that do run are usually at night so I was very lucky to catch this one, even if it was very windy (my apologies for the wind noise).

The crossing on GSV https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.410193 ... 6656?hl=en

[freebrickproductions]

Sweet catch! Love that crossing and how they re-used the bells.

[cabman701]

Sweet catch! Love that crossing and how they re-used the bells.

Those 8 inch LED's are brighter and much more noticeable than many 12 inch incandescent's. Really a nice catch! Just curious... do you know why the train stopped short of the crossing?

[McK&H.Aust]

Sweet catch! Love that crossing and how they re-used the bells.

Thanks. It's nice to see bells being re-used but it does not happen very often any more, it was most likely due to equipment shortages or budget constraints. That teardrop bell sounds great considering it's at least 46 years old, I can't see any e-bells lasting for that long.

[McK&H.Aust]

Those 8 inch LED's are brighter and much more noticeable than many 12 inch incandescent's. Really a nice catch! Just curious... do you know why the train stopped short of the crossing?

The most likely reason why the train stopped at the crossing is due to rusty rails. This section of track often goes for days or weeks without any trains. I'm fairly certain that if a crossing has not had a train over it for more than 72 hours then the train crew must stop short of the crossing and check that the signals have activated correctly before proceeding. I believe this rule was made after a couple of incidents where track circuits did not operate properly due to rusty rails.