Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

This is the Racecourse Rd crossing at Clarendon, in western Sydney. The crossing is located on the Richmond branch line which sees only passenger trains. The section of this line between Riverstone and Richmond has most of the surviving crossings in Sydney. The signals at this crossing were installed in the late 1990's.

The bell operation on this crossing is rather odd. It has two WCH m-bells, the one on the northern side (first shown in the video) rings from start up until the gates have lowered, but the one on the southern side keeps ringing until the train reaches the island track circuit over the crossing. This setup was used on a few non-gated crossings in rural areas, but I have never seen it used on a gated crossing before.

All of the lights and brackets were made by Harmon, but have since been fitted with LED inserts (most likely made by Alstom). The gate mechs are WCH, and all of the signal bases are unmarked.

The pedestrian crossing has gates made by Magnetic AutoControl, and the lights are made by United Group (UGL). There are two alarms (made by Klaxon) which operate from start up until the gates begin to rise. The pedestrian lights and alarms are new, replacing the older incandescent lights and alarms some time between September 2015 and July 2016.

The crossing on GSV https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.608 ... 312!8i6656

View showing the old pedestrian lights https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.608 ... 312!8i6656
and the new ones https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.608 ... 312!8i6656

Active shot from 2014 showing a train sitting at the station https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.608 ... 312!8i6656
The gates have almost finished rising https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.608 ... 312!8i6656

Interesting how the WCH bell quits when the train arrives.

LARDLOGO wrote:Interesting how the WCH bell quits when the train arrives.

Yes I've never seen that bell cycle used on a gated crossing before. There are a few gate-less crossings in rural areas that have the same bell cycle and it makes more sense on them, but why they used it on a gated crossing which also has pedestrian alarms is anyone's guess. All of the crossings with that bell cycle (including this one) were installed in the 1990's and early 2000's, but it wasn't done on older installs and seems to have been discontinued on newer crossings. Maybe somebody thought it was a good idea at the time.