At least the new bells are Western Cullen-Hayes! One of the nicest sounding of E-Bells (in my opinion). Nothing new to me of course, as New zealand has thousands of these bells!
Great video. The bells turning of at night is something I have not seen before but I do know that a few crossings in New Zealand have this feature and I did hear that in Australia the soon to be upgraded/newly built crossings in built up areas will have this feature so that don''t disturb people at night. (I could be wrong with that last bit of info so do correct me if you know any different)
Thank you. As far as NSW crossings go, they have been turning the bells off at night on some of them since at least the 1980's, although it's only done on crossings with gates. Crossings with lights only must have the bells left switched on.
In NZ, when the "bells off" setting is on, the bells ring until the barriers go down and then they go silent. There is also a new "quiet bells" setting, which i think is stupid since in a car, you can hardly hear them.
This crossing has got a private road on the side where the mountain is, so very little if any cars would go along there during the times when the bells are turned off. That is probably the reason why they get turned off during those times.
freebrickproductions thanks. It was a fairly rare setup and it's sad to see it gone. I actually like the new setup but I miss the old bell. The WCH e-bells are not too bad though.
Trainman 7 Thanks. They have actually kept 2 of the old signals, including the one with the bell. They are standing up on the eastern side of Wollongong yard. Must have kept them as spares.
Victorian Rail Heritage not true as in South australia bells stay on until the lights stop flashing and some in NSW and one QLD crossing stays until gates are lowered and in QLD most dont have bells
Its strange the way in Australia all the flashing lights are not in sync like American ones they all go left then right at exactly the same time while Australian ones are randomised.
Yes it was a nice setup. I'm surprised that they put gates here, it's a very quiet road. Sydney Trains have removed almost all of their gate-less crossings now.
I wonder what happened to the old signs and bell? they would be perfect for any railfan's home! 2:07 I thought that horn was from another EMU, not a diesel loco! 2:17 I've never seen that green livery before! what company is it for? 4:58 I thought the new crossing set would have Astlom lights! 5:13 I see no reason why the ungated poles should be replaced! 7:55 I had no idea WCH e bells were able to do that! 8:13 i thought one bell would only sound quieter, like a Japanese crossing with its gates lowered! This silence reminds me of some German crossings too! 8:53 are the first two cars empty, or just have different windows? 9:52 I see why they switched the bells off! The area sounds so peaceful! 10:42 I thought it was past 06:00 hours here! the sun is pretty high up! 11:50 now this sounds like the sequence of a Japanese crossing! the sounders go quiet when the gates are lowered! 15:35 I can hear the bells go out of sync! first day on the job, and they're already not working together!
MrBnsftrain i believe in Australia all locomotives must have a town and country horn. The driver used the town horn at this crossing. The green locomotive is painted after a passenger train called the southern spirit however this train folded up a couple of years ago. Here in Australia especially in New South Wales it seems to be standard practice to replace signals that are in perfectly good condition. I believe that Alston was bought buy united group
They have kept at least two of the old signals including the one with the bell. They are in storage, most likely for spares. The ungated poles were replaced because the signals were moved to allow the road to be widened, I guess it was easier to install new ones so they were ready to go on the day. The bells are connected to a timer inside the relay case, it cuts power to the bell circuit between 22:00 and 06:00. Many crossings over here have the bells switched off at night, but only on gated crossings. There have been crossings where residents have complained about the noise of the bells, so most of the new installations are now set up to switch off the bells at night. It's summer time here and the sun comes up quite early, at the moment it starts to get light around 05:00. The bells are out of sync because they are set on slightly different ring rates, as the WCH bells can be adjusted.
Apparently Griswold bells were really common in Queensland until they decided to remove all of their bells from their crossings. Even in Melbourne there were a few around back in the day. For example, Devon Rd in Oak Park had one before the crossing was upgraded with E-Bells.
Ugh... the new lights out of sync look absolutely terrible. Gonna give someone a seizure. And I'm not kidding about that. Anyone else notice that, looking downhill, the left-hand Narrow Marker sign is upside down? Ooops. I was hoping that would be fixed after the upgraded crossing was put into effect, but...nope! Nice video though.
Thanks. Not many crossings do have the lights in sync, I'm not sure what the NSW standards are (if any). Haven't heard of anyone having seizures due to the lights being out of sync, but keeping with Australian tradition they will wait until it happens before anything is done. That's also how many crossings got their signals in the first place, somebody was killed so they decided to install signals!
That's how it tends to work in the States too. But often it takes more than one person getting killed. I am not sure how it works there, but here railroad crossing equipment is extremely expensive (because it has to be designed so strongly against failure) and it's generally up the municipality to foot most of the bill. The federal government does put aside a stash of cash every year which all of the states can apply for to use on upgrading their most problematic crossings, but when a single crossing is $150,000-250,000, that doesn't go that far.
Crossing equipment is very expensive here too. The respective state government usually pays for upgrades, although the federal government will sometimes contribute.
I'm sorry, but I think its a bit too quiet for crossings that can't ring the bell. That's just mu opinion since I don't know how crossings work in your country. Sad to see the old be replaced
Sounds like an interesting crossing. Usually if a crossing has WCH bells the gate mechs will be WCH too. You don't often see Safetran gate mechs paired up with WCH bells.
McK&H Aust Agreed, we have a second crossing too. It I think is paired up with the WCH bells and mechs, all i know is it's WCH mechs. Don't know about bells though. The main crossing actually was non gated, But then it was replaced in somewhat February 2008, Found out by seeing the old crossing on google maps.
Another unusual thing with the 2nd crossing is it has a set of lights above a set of lights, forming an X pattern, and the switched the light wires around, so right light goes to left, and left goes to right. The other set has normal wiring. I also like how they added a extra set of lights facing towards the road to turn left onto the crossing science it's a bit of a weird layout.
xXSlimeHunterXx had a look at the second crossing on street view, looks like an interesting setup. I noticed that one of the bells (the black one) is much older than the other. Might add that crossing to my list.
quite a shame they were replaced. do you know the reson of them being replaced or is it just another one of the silly decisions big companies tend to make? also, why was the mechanical bell facing the wrong way?
Its strange the way in Australia all the flashing lights are not in sync like American ones they all go left then right at exactly the same time while Australian ones are randomised.
well my hypothesis is that there is two different flasher relays. You can see that one set of masts and the lift gate are completely in sync. The other set of masts and lights aren't in sync which would suggest there is a second flasher relay controlling those. Its a matter of what level of current the relay could handle. So using the two separate relays reduces the risk of burnout of the flasher relay. At least that's my thought.
Awesome video, This crossing doesn’t deserve Gates as far as I can tell there is not many cars going through it why did the crossing need gates anyway seriously 😒
Out of all the current E-bells on the market the WCH would be my favourite. I think they are more expensive, which is probably why they are not used in more places.
Another interesting difference from the USA, as that would never happen in the US. They'd use a master flasher relay to drive two or more subordinate relays for all the lights they need. The mix of lights (especially ones this bright) could give someone who's prone to them a seizure.
Yep they certainly did a good job removing any trace of the old signals. I like the new setup but I miss the old bell, I thought it sounded really nice.
Nowadays, (i checked and asked a few months back) you can ask the LXRA for any parts. First you gotta give them your address, then put in a reason why you want it. Then they send it to you. So they probably sold the parts or re-used them somewhere else.
There is a private road on the side of the crossing where the mountain is. Very few if any cars would use it during the times when the bell tones get turned off. The lights looked bright enough anyway that in the unlikely event that the crossing did become busy with traffic then cars would definitely notice them.
tammy wedgewood Who’s us? If you mean US as in the United States, then, I would say yeah, somewhat. I wouldn’t say completely copying the US’s level crossings though. Some features are different.
Australia has used equipment made in the US for many decades now, as far back as wig-wags. There have been a few modifications here and some equipment was made locally. Australian crossings and railroads are basically a mixture of American and British technology.
I appreciate your interest would have been in the crossing, but next time you set up a camera on private land (yes my nana owns the land you've been filming on), you should ask the landholders permission first....... you've essentially stalked the front of our driveway and published it on the internet.
Yes you are right, I was only interested in the crossing. I didn't believe at the time that it was private property as the map shows it as a public road, there is a gate up further but I never went that far. I stayed on the road only. It sure looks like a public road so maybe you should move the gate closer to the crossing.
Ki tty isn't it a public road though, because there's an access road on the side behind the camera that leads to a nearby substation, so are you lying?
Things you can't see on Google - I've still got a 2006 UBD that seems to show it as a public road for its whole length - certainly Wollongong Council should be able to state if its a declared public road, certainly for the distance mentioned to the gate.
Actually, your house has been viewed by many people passing on the train, and also Google Street View, so what difference does it make? This isn’t stalking, lol. Besides, there’s an access road to something on your supposed “driveway”, definitely a public road up to that gate.
That WCH m-bell really sounds like a teardrop bell - It even has the clicking sound! Also, the sunset/sunrise shots are amazingly beautiful!
hi daniel
it's really cool that Australian train crossings can sometimes be silent from 22:00 to 06:00, in America, they just go on for a whole 24 hours!
Tho in most cases they do silence after the gates have lowered so guess they decide not to bother
I really like the sound of the Western Cullen Hayes mechanical bell! Great video!
Thanks!
Excellent video! I love the echoing sound the bells make.
Thanks!
This level crossing is very close to the Sea Cliff Bridge. You can walk from the level crossing to the bridge and it takes about 5 minutes.
At least the new bells are Western Cullen-Hayes! One of the nicest sounding of E-Bells (in my opinion). Nothing new to me of course, as New zealand has thousands of these bells!
The_ALEX_ELLIS_Channel yes I don't mind the WCH e-bells either. There are quite a few of them around Sydney too.
Great video. The bells turning of at night is something I have not seen before but I do know that a few crossings in New Zealand have this feature and I did hear that in Australia the soon to be upgraded/newly built crossings in built up areas will have this feature so that don''t disturb people at night. (I could be wrong with that last bit of info so do correct me if you know any different)
Thank you. As far as NSW crossings go, they have been turning the bells off at night on some of them since at least the 1980's, although it's only done on crossings with gates. Crossings with lights only must have the bells left switched on.
In NZ, when the "bells off" setting is on, the bells ring until the barriers go down and then they go silent. There is also a new "quiet bells" setting, which i think is stupid since in a car, you can hardly hear them.
This crossing has got a private road on the side where the mountain is, so very little if any cars would go along there during the times when the bells are turned off. That is probably the reason why they get turned off during those times.
I live in Canada and is called "RailRoad Crossing" but i like the idea of "Railway Crossing"!
This new signal looks quiet and cool and calm
Cool crossing! Like how u can hear kookaburras in the background.
Nice video! Shame the old signals were removed.
Agreed. They did the same at Cardinia Road last year due to road widening works...
freebrickproductions thanks. It was a fairly rare setup and it's sad to see it gone. I actually like the new setup but I miss the old bell. The WCH e-bells are not too bad though.
@@McKHAust Yeah, at least they don't 'die' like Safetran ones tend to do.
Sydney Trains doesn't use Safetran e-bells, which probably isn't a bad thing.
Great video good job of getting the old signals
Trainman 7 Thanks. They have actually kept 2 of the old signals, including the one with the bell. They are standing up on the eastern side of Wollongong yard. Must have kept them as spares.
Imagine if the bell timer deactivated while the crossing was down lol
That'd be cool
Gametrain Productions well that never happens here in Australia the Bells always sound till the gates go up
Victorian Rail Heritage not true as in South australia bells stay on until the lights stop flashing and some in NSW and one QLD crossing stays until gates are lowered and in QLD most dont have bells
Its strange the way in Australia all the flashing lights are not in sync like American ones they all go left then right at exactly the same time while Australian ones are randomised.
It does in France
Took them long enough!!!!!! A bit sad though that the gate less signals are gone
Yes it was a nice setup. I'm surprised that they put gates here, it's a very quiet road. Sydney Trains have removed almost all of their gate-less crossings now.
Hi from New Zealand, very similar equipment
What was the noise at 5:41?
That's a bird.
Sounds a lot different than a Swedish bird
It's a Whipbird. They are native to Australia and are named after their call which sounds like a whip cracking.
McK&H Aust ok. I first thought the overhead wires made the sound.😂
McK&H Aust Sometimes I get asked what is that warbling sound and I have to tell them it's a aussie magpie
I remember going over that one years ago,
Cool
8:48 why was the first car of the tangara without its lights?
The first car was locked off and not available for passengers, so the lights were turned off.
The WCH E-Bells Are In New Zealand
I wonder what happened to the old signs and bell? they would be perfect for any railfan's home!
2:07 I thought that horn was from another EMU, not a diesel loco!
2:17 I've never seen that green livery before! what company is it for?
4:58 I thought the new crossing set would have Astlom lights!
5:13 I see no reason why the ungated poles should be replaced!
7:55 I had no idea WCH e bells were able to do that!
8:13 i thought one bell would only sound quieter, like a Japanese crossing with its gates lowered! This silence reminds me of some German crossings too!
8:53 are the first two cars empty, or just have different windows?
9:52 I see why they switched the bells off! The area sounds so peaceful!
10:42 I thought it was past 06:00 hours here! the sun is pretty high up!
11:50 now this sounds like the sequence of a Japanese crossing! the sounders go quiet when the gates are lowered!
15:35 I can hear the bells go out of sync! first day on the job, and they're already not working together!
MrBnsftrain i believe in Australia all locomotives must have a town and country horn. The driver used the town horn at this crossing. The green locomotive is painted after a passenger train called the southern spirit however this train folded up a couple of years ago. Here in Australia especially in New South Wales it seems to be standard practice to replace signals that are in perfectly good condition. I believe that Alston was bought buy united group
They have kept at least two of the old signals including the one with the bell. They are in storage, most likely for spares. The ungated poles were replaced because the signals were moved to allow the road to be widened, I guess it was easier to install new ones so they were ready to go on the day.
The bells are connected to a timer inside the relay case, it cuts power to the bell circuit between 22:00 and 06:00. Many crossings over here have the bells switched off at night, but only on gated crossings. There have been crossings where residents have complained about the noise of the bells, so most of the new installations are now set up to switch off the bells at night.
It's summer time here and the sun comes up quite early, at the moment it starts to get light around 05:00. The bells are out of sync because they are set on slightly different ring rates, as the WCH bells can be adjusted.
McK&H Aust a bit like UK level crossings. Some of the YODalarms they have have a 'night mode'. It doesn't turn them off but it quiets them down.
Don't ask why I am up at 11pm lol
That's not a bad idea, I wonder how long until they come out with an e-bell which does the same thing.
We use some of the same crossing equipment used in Austrailia In New Zealand.
Lift & Rail Photography In NZ you guys have some nice crossings in NZ, I specially like the old Griswold equipment.
Do you have Griswold equipment in Aussie?
Lift & Rail Photography In NZ sadly we don't. I think there used to be a few Griswold bells but they're gone now.
Apparently Griswold bells were really common in Queensland until they decided to remove all of their bells from their crossings. Even in Melbourne there were a few around back in the day. For example, Devon Rd in Oak Park had one before the crossing was upgraded with E-Bells.
Ugh... the new lights out of sync look absolutely terrible. Gonna give someone a seizure. And I'm not kidding about that.
Anyone else notice that, looking downhill, the left-hand Narrow Marker sign is upside down? Ooops. I was hoping that would be fixed after the upgraded crossing was put into effect, but...nope!
Nice video though.
Thanks. Not many crossings do have the lights in sync, I'm not sure what the NSW standards are (if any). Haven't heard of anyone having seizures due to the lights being out of sync, but keeping with Australian tradition they will wait until it happens before anything is done. That's also how many crossings got their signals in the first place, somebody was killed so they decided to install signals!
That's how it tends to work in the States too. But often it takes more than one person getting killed. I am not sure how it works there, but here railroad crossing equipment is extremely expensive (because it has to be designed so strongly against failure) and it's generally up the municipality to foot most of the bill. The federal government does put aside a stash of cash every year which all of the states can apply for to use on upgrading their most problematic crossings, but when a single crossing is $150,000-250,000, that doesn't go that far.
Crossing equipment is very expensive here too. The respective state government usually pays for upgrades, although the federal government will sometimes contribute.
I'm sorry, but I think its a bit too quiet for crossings that can't ring the bell. That's just mu opinion since I don't know how crossings work in your country. Sad to see the old be replaced
This has the same everything to the Kempsey crossing. Just here we have WCH mechanical bells.
And safetran gate mechs.
Sounds like an interesting crossing. Usually if a crossing has WCH bells the gate mechs will be WCH too. You don't often see Safetran gate mechs paired up with WCH bells.
McK&H Aust Agreed, we have a second crossing too. It I think is paired up with the WCH bells and mechs, all i know is it's WCH mechs. Don't know about bells though. The main crossing actually was non gated, But then it was replaced in somewhat February 2008, Found out by seeing the old crossing on google maps.
Another unusual thing with the 2nd crossing is it has a set of lights above a set of lights, forming an X pattern, and the switched the light wires around, so right light goes to left, and left goes to right. The other set has normal wiring. I also like how they added a extra set of lights facing towards the road to turn left onto the crossing science it's a bit of a weird layout.
xXSlimeHunterXx had a look at the second crossing on street view, looks like an interesting setup. I noticed that one of the bells (the black one) is much older than the other. Might add that crossing to my list.
Australias crossing is actually pretty interesting
The bell is probably a type 3 gen 1
XD Clifton is near Canberra
quite a shame they were replaced. do you know the reson of them being replaced or is it just another one of the silly decisions big companies tend to make? also, why was the mechanical bell facing the wrong way?
It was just a standard upgrade whether needed or not.
Great Video!
It is looking good
Its strange the way in Australia all the flashing lights are not in sync like American ones they all go left then right at exactly the same time while Australian ones are randomised.
well my hypothesis is that there is two different flasher relays. You can see that one set of masts and the lift gate are completely in sync. The other set of masts and lights aren't in sync which would suggest there is a second flasher relay controlling those. Its a matter of what level of current the relay could handle. So using the two separate relays reduces the risk of burnout of the flasher relay. At least that's my thought.
In australia, the not in sync lights thing it actually quite rare. Usually they are like the American ones, where they all flash at the same time
Awesome video, This crossing doesn’t deserve Gates as far as I can tell there is not many cars going through it why did the crossing need gates anyway seriously 😒
Thanks! The crossing certainly doesn't see much traffic, but it seems to be Sydney Trains policy to put gates everywhere.
@@McKHAust 😳
😳
What bout now 😜
I still don't get why New South Wales and Tasmania (Well, ok, there's also one in Adelaide too) are the only states in Australia that has WCH E-bells
Out of all the current E-bells on the market the WCH would be my favourite. I think they are more expensive, which is probably why they are not used in more places.
Why aren't the lights in sync?
The crossing has 2 different flasher relays, one for each side.
Another interesting difference from the USA, as that would never happen in the US. They'd use a master flasher relay to drive two or more subordinate relays for all the lights they need. The mix of lights (especially ones this bright) could give someone who's prone to them a seizure.
Where is Clifton
In NSW
It has no gates maybe rely on people stopping
its mutch safer if the crossings have gates on all lanes
Well, there goes the old signals!
Yep they certainly did a good job removing any trace of the old signals. I like the new setup but I miss the old bell, I thought it sounded really nice.
As does the LXRA with their crossing removals. When we drove over North Road in Ormond on Boxing Day, I couldn't find any remains of the crossing!
Nowadays, (i checked and asked a few months back) you can ask the LXRA for any parts. First you gotta give them your address, then put in a reason why you want it. Then they send it to you. So they probably sold the parts or re-used them somewhere else.
Those crossing gates covered with yellow bags, are those the ones yet to be installed or the old ones?
They are the new ones yet to be installed.
They _are_ installed; they're waiting to go into service.
Yes.
you finally got a Tangara yay
Yeah I think it was because of the weekend closedown, probably trying to get back to normal working.
oh ok
Aaaaahhhhhh the year I was in kindy
They should of kept the signal with no gates on the right because that would of been ok
That quiet mode is stupid. Satisfying a couple people near the crossing doesn't mean killing off several more people
in the us here, its called rail*road*crossing
WiFi: * Drops by 1 bar*
TH-cam Video quality:
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BTW, great vid, I've seen dis vid in E years ago
Thanks THJR :)
ur wellcom
@@McKHAust ALLALALAALALA
nice video
2:17 ONO, TEH DONUTZ IZ GONE
Yes rip, is empty donuts. Thanks THJR :)
Yes rip bell, ur wellcom bell
Gateless Crossing To A Gated Crossing.
I Think With No Sound
At this Crossing at Times Someone Might Get Killed Here
There is a private road on the side of the crossing where the mountain is. Very few if any cars would use it during the times when the bell tones get turned off. The lights looked bright enough anyway that in the unlikely event that the crossing did become busy with traffic then cars would definitely notice them.
Not sure if i like the cross bucks like that.. Printed on a sign.. Rather have the real cross bucks cut out.. its rail ROAD not railway..
Australians use ‘Railway’ most of the time.
I found that in Google Earth!
The wch es sound horrible
Hey is Australia copying us!??!??!?!?!??!
tammy wedgewood Who’s us? If you mean US as in the United States, then, I would say yeah, somewhat. I wouldn’t say completely copying the US’s level crossings though. Some features are different.
Australia has used equipment made in the US for many decades now, as far back as wig-wags. There have been a few modifications here and some equipment was made locally. Australian crossings and railroads are basically a mixture of American and British technology.
XE
Cratrara. Irregular Etisviuvive. Gariuhaw. State. Crash
I appreciate your interest would have been in the crossing, but next time you set up a camera on private land (yes my nana owns the land you've been filming on), you should ask the landholders permission first....... you've essentially stalked the front of our driveway and published it on the internet.
Yes you are right, I was only interested in the crossing. I didn't believe at the time that it was private property as the map shows it as a public road, there is a gate up further but I never went that far. I stayed on the road only. It sure looks like a public road so maybe you should move the gate closer to the crossing.
Ki tty isn't it a public road though, because there's an access road on the side behind the camera that leads to a nearby substation, so are you lying?
Vaughn's Trailing yeah that is what I thought and also looking at this marvellous video update the gate is like 500 metres from the crossing
Things you can't see on Google - I've still got a 2006 UBD that seems to show it as a public road for its whole length - certainly Wollongong Council should be able to state if its a declared public road, certainly for the distance mentioned to the gate.
Actually, your house has been viewed by many people passing on the train, and also Google Street View, so what difference does it make? This isn’t stalking, lol. Besides, there’s an access road to something on your supposed “driveway”, definitely a public road up to that gate.
Great video!