Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

There is a crossing in my town that is on a small, ancient spur line (The SOR Burford spur, look it up) it sees one train per week and the signals are quite old. But last time a saw a train there(a few days ago) the lights flashed like usual but the bell was silent, do you know what could cause this? it was fine last week. I wonder if it has to do with the cold. Are railroads required to replace bells if they fail? And could this just be temporary or is the bell done for once it goes silent?

What kind of bell is it? If it's a mechanical bell, it may have frozen due to the cold, needed adjusting but never got it so the hammer isn't striking the gong anymore, or just simply died due to the hammer breaking or the electromagnets failing. Depending on the issue, it may be fixed or it could have to be replaced. If it's an electronic bell, then it'll need to be replaced no matter what.

The bell is mechanical. This has not happened before. and it has held up in colder temperatures in the past. Are railroads required to replace the bell? This line is not owned by the railroad though it's owned by the single customer on the line

Thebrantfordrailfan wrote:The bell is mechanical. This has not happened before. and it has held up in colder temperatures in the past. Are railroads required to replace the bell? This line is not owned by the railroad though it's owned by the single customer on the line

It's possible that the bell hasn't been maintained properly. Whomever owns and maintains the signals there is in charge of fixing and/or replacing the bell, so you'll have to wait and see what happens.