Railway Crossings

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This page features some of the passive railway crossing signs. Passive means they don't have any active warning system such as lights, bells or gate.
Active warning signals and gates follow on the next page.

Wooden RAILWAY CROSSING sign. In Victoria these wooden signs were erected by the Victorian Railways at most ungated rail crossings. Often only one sign was put up as they were double sided. Many of the posts survive today, but very few of the signs do.
It appears that the wooden signs were replaced system wide in 1960.

Dawson, Vic.

Please note: This sign is owned by Hobbies Plus. It was erected at Dawson only for these photos

RAILWAY CROSSING with hazard triangle. The next step after the wooden signs were the now familiar aluminium signs. Passive crossings (those without gates or lights) generally had the red hazard triangles fitted. Now obsolete, most have been replaced with STOP or GIVE WAY signs.

Maldon, Vic.

RAILWAY CROSSING - STOP. Stop signs are often erected at railway crossings. They were a rarity in Victoria until recently, but have been more common in some other states. This one is situated at a crossing with severe sight restrictions. And given the speed of trains on the line, I opted to get out of the car and walk across.

Bethungra Spiral, NSW.
RAILWAY CROSSING - GIVE WAY TO TRAINS. Another obsolete sign. Was once common in Victoria. Now only a small number survive.
This one is on a wooden post. The significance of this is that the post would have originally had a wooden crossing sign on it. Evidence of this can be seen near the top of the post.

This sign and indeed the railway are now gone.

Meeniyan, Vic.

RAILWAY CROSSING - 2 TRACKS - GIVE WAY. These signs are now common at passive crossings. This one was also on a wooden post. There are now flashing light signals at this location.

Yarragon - Trafalgar, Vic.

RAILWAY CROSSING - GIVE WAY. Another example of a Give Way sign at a railway crossing. This one is on a bullhead rail post. These will usually be found to have holes 9 inches apart near the top. Yes, the holes on the wooden crossing signs were 9 inches apart. So those poles have been there a long time. All those between Sale and Stratford were removed in 2003 and replaced with new poles and signs in preparation for the return of passenger trains - delayed until 2004.

Stratford, Vic.

RAILWAY CROSSING - 4 TRACKS - STOP - LOOK FOR TRAINS. Whew! It seems you need the stop sign to give time to read all the signs.

Wolseley, SA.

RAILWAY CROSSING - 5 TRACKS - STOP - STOP LOOK OUT FOR TRAINS. Extreme caution seems to be advised here.

Dynon, Vic.

Out with the old, in with the new. An old sign on bullhead rail has been cut down and a new pole with STOP and LOOK FOR TRAINS signs has been erected. Looks like knock off time came before the actual RAILWAY CROSSING sign could be put up. There is still a GIVE WAY sign on the opposite side of the crossing.

Stratford, Vic.

RAILWAY CROSSING - STOP - LOOK FOR TRAINS all in one sign. These new style signs have begun to be used for private crossings in Victoria. I understand they're used on public crossings in some locations in other states.

Munro, Vic.

RAILWAY CROSSING - GIVE WAY TO TRAINS. Another example of the all white signs. This one on a rail post.

Barnes, NSW.

Minimalist level crossing protection. A GIVE WAY TO TRAINS sign on a private crossing near Darnum, Vic.

Electric Train at a passive crossing. Suburban Melbourne is virtually devoid of passive crossings nowadays. There were not many places you could see Melbourne suburban trains at such crossings. But when they ran to Warragul, there were a few beyond Pakenham.
These photos show a Comeng electric train at the passive crossing between Garfield and Bunyip.
RAILWAY CROSSING - 1 TRACK. The reason for the use of track number boards is to warn of multiple tracks, and therefore the possibility of more than one train crossing. This is why single tracks normally don't have these signs. However, although not unique, a number of 1 Track signs have been put up by those who apparently aren't aware of this fact.
This crossing sign appears out of place with no tracks at all. But there was one on the other side of the intersection. The sign was gradually vandalised and is now no more.

Spotswood, Vic.

Abandoned siding. This sign seems to have been forgotten about in an industrial area. The rails it warned of are still in the road, but the rest of the line had been pulled up.

Geelong North, Vic.

Next Page - Railway Crossings 2

Page 1, 2, 3, 4.

Page updated 18/02/2007

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