Belgrave-Gembrook Rd/Main St Level Crossing, Gembrook (Before & After Upgrade)

Описание: This is the Belgrave-Gembrook Rd/Main St level crossing in Gembrook, on the Puffing Billy railway, with footage I took in May and July 2018, January and October 2019, March 2020, September and October 2022, June, July and September 2023, and April, June and November 2024

From May 2018 to January 2019, this crossing had:

A Westinghouse teardrop bell

Westinghouse cross-arms

Marked and unmarked incandescent Westinghouse lights

Unmarked bases on all signals

A unique advanced crossing warning system on the northern side of Main St, comprising of two incandescent McKenzie & Holland lights with orange lenses located vertically above and below a rectangular "prepare to stop" sign

By October 2019, the crossing received a minor upgrade:

All incandescent globes were replaced with LED's

The bell was re-programmed to ring slower

The advanced crossing warning system was upgraded with new LED Westinghouse lights installed side by side on top of a new "prepare to stop" sign, both with orange lenses and installed similar to a normal level crossing design

From June 2023 to April 2024, the crossing was in the process of having boom gates installed, with fences and footers for the new signals fitted. However, disagreements between the Puffing Billy Railway and the Cardinia Planning Department over management of a heritage tree on the southern side of the crossing broke out, and work stalled for a year

During this time, the only upgrade that happened here was at the advanced crossing warning system, which was upgraded one last time to have a standard advanced crossing warning sign combining an individual yellow diamond crossing illustration sign with a "prepare to stop" sign, replacing the other signs. The previously installed LED Westinghouse lights were added to this sign

By June 2024, after extensive correspondence and planning modifications, an agreement was reached regarding the heritage tree. The terms were to include the removal of one small limb off the tree to allow the boom gates to finally be installed. The new crossing now has:

A Western Cullen Hayes mechanical bell. This is an unusual installation, as most level crossings with boom gates have two bells. However, all boom gate upgrades on the Puffing Billy railway post 2017 have one bell installed (except for Healsville - Koo Wee Rup Rd). It is also unusual as it is a brand new mechanical bell. The only brand new mechanical bells for level crossings manufactured these days are Western Cullen Hayes bells. I'm assuming this bell was chosen to keep with the heritage feel of the railway AND to adhere to the modern standards of new crossings

Westinghouse cross-arms

Marked LED Westinghouse lights

Western Cullen Hayes boom gate mechanisms with unmarked bases

The footage I took in April 2024 was on ANZAC day, Thursday 25th April, and if you listen carefully Puffing Billy temporarily added a special whistle to locomotive 12A

I filmed both before, during, and after the ban on legs dangling out the sides of Puffing Billy was implemented in 2018 following the previously mentioned collision, and then subsequently removed in 2021, so you'll see some occasions where passengers have their legs out, and other occasions where they don't. One bit of consistency you WILL see, however, is the waving passengers. It is customary at Puffing Billy that you wave to the passengers on the train as it travels past. It's a good little bit of fun and brightens up everyone's day!

Apologies if some of the footage from 2018 seems to be of less quality and of a lower frame rate. My camera produces two types of videos files, the lower quality MP4 and the higher quality MTS. I used to always use the MP4 files for my videos, because the file size was heaps smaller, and if I made videos using the MTS files the high quality was lost when I rendered them for uploading. I've only recently figured out a way to render videos with MTS files that KEEPS the quality, which is why my most recent videos are of better quality. I didn't know this years ago though, so I unfortunately deleted a lot of the higher quality MTS video files because they took up so much room, not thinking that I'd need them. I have since adopted the practice of using the MTS files from now on for my videos, though there are some old bits of footage where I can only use lower quality MP4 files, as the MTS files have been deleted. Better than nothing I guess?