After spending the day filming a Steamrail tour and some level crossings on the Ballarat line, I got lucky and arrived back at Narre Warren just in time to see something I’d never thought I’d see – An excavator moving onto railway tracks and lowering it’s train wheels then moving along the line.
This was filmed at Webb Street in Narre Warren when the night crew was moving equipment and machinery out of the construction site depot and onto the railway line to do work on the grade separation that’s currently underway at Webb Street.
During this sequence, the crossing was manually activated by using the test switch inside the relay case located near the tree that’s on the left side of the screen.
Traffic control personal with Stop/Slow signs were present on either side of the crossing to keep approaching vehicles at a safe distance from the crossing and to create a safe path for the excavator to travel along the road and manoeuvre around the boom gate.
After entering the crossing, the excavator operator lined up with the railheads to allow the wheels to lower and rest on the rails. After lowering the wheels, the operator then moves the excavator along the Down line in the Up direction to clear the crossing.
After the excavator had cleared the crossing, the worker at the relay case manually deactivated the signals and the traffic controllers cleared the road and allowed vehicles to proceed through the crossing.
Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro
0:18 – Crossing is activated and excavator exits depot
0:42 – Excavator approaches crossing and manoeuvres around boom gate
1:33 – Wheels lower
2:19 – Excavator clears crossing
2:52 – Crossing Signals are deactivated
2:59 – Outro
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