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I have 2 slow drop relays to increase the duration the gates are up after the bells and lights turn on. Since this is mainly used by pedestrians, it made sense to increase the activation time to ensure everyone is off the tracks. I follow as close as I can to FRA standards but I am not required to follow FRA standards for this crossing.

From railroads that scrap or remove them from service.

I am leaving the TTM crossing setup alone and not adding to it anymore. I will just continue to upgrade to newer stuff there and move the old parts to the other crossing setups like this one I am setting up.

A WCH I believe.

They are only required to be installed in the state of Michigan. I decided to remove them to make it easier to maintain the lights and bells.

The gates going down at slightly different times is because there are 3 different gate mechanism types being used. What matters most is the gates reach the down position all at the same time. I am currently fixing the light issue, having to replace a few bad relays.

there is S60,S20 & S40

I am in the process of getting that fixed. An issue was found with the lighting circuit.

Not limited WCH still produces bells. And they are no where near in short supply.

I do respect your opinion on this matter and your comment will not go ignored. I was working in the hot afternoon heat of Texas (102 degrees) where everything metal I touch is hot. I usually toss stuff when it is hot outside and to reduce the amount of times I have to bend over. I was not worried about anything breaking in it as there is no rock beneath the grass so it will not damage the bell any. Same goes for everything else I tossed on the ground. I do appreciate your concern and did not mean to offend or come off that I don’t care about the stuff I do have. After all, I started out like any other small collector.

WCH still makes mechanical bells they are not limited.

@@RobertManuel42 Well you know what I fricken mean

@@RailroadSignsandSignals Well thanks for responding. I feel like these kind of things are precious and I think that it is wrong that the railroad companies are getting arid of them. Sorry for the aggression

​@@RailfanRXR I really don't blame railroads for replacing mechanical bells, they require so much more maintenance then electronic bells and only very few companies built mechanical bells to last (WRRS being one). And also something to add the bell he threw was a WCH so nothing of value was lost to be honest with you.

The stub gate will not have lights. The gateless crossing (with the light manifold) will have lights on it.

Due to the amount of responses of the dim main lights, I went out and did a thorough check on everything that powers/controls the lighting circuit. A huge problem with the lighting circuit was found causing the low voltage problem. Hopefully soon I will have the lights fixed as the fix will not be a quick and easy one. Thanks for the observation! Also, when did you film these crossings?

This morning june 1st

I could see that even in your video they were super dim, even the LED main lights.

Boo hoo a mechanical type that is still being made got tossed around. There are plenty of them out there not like there a short supply.

@@RobertManuel42 You're just butthurt about UPking finding bells left on the ground by maintainers, go back to whining about that instead.

@@fostoriadistrictrailfan3907 and what does tossing mechanical bells on the ground have anything to do with UPking

My setups are definitely worked on more often than other crossing setups. I am constantly getting newer equipment and that pushes out the old stuff on this crossing setup. All the parts I am removing will be going to other crossing setups that will not be worked on nearly as much and will contain older crossing parts.

@@RailroadSignsandSignals sounds good to me! I like the old stuff so I was worried it was going to waste.

Due to the amount of responses of the dim main lights, I went out and did a thorough check on everything that powers/controls the lighting circuit. A huge problem with the lighting circuit was found causing the low voltage problem. Hopefully soon I will have the lights fixed as the fix will not be a quick and easy one. Thanks for the observation!

@@RailroadSignsandSignals My pleasure I guess he did know this before that

What I meant was I guess you didn't know this before

I had comments on it before but I didn’t have nearly as many as I have had in the last day about it. There is definitely a problem that was found when I went out yesterday and tested voltage. Going out there today to try and find/fix the issue. It is not an easy fix as it requires rewiring relays and finding out why the lighting system was not working properly to begin with.

@@RailroadSignsandSignals ok I hope you get it fixed soon 😊

Hello!

They are made by Harmon.

@@RailroadSignsandSignals do you know who made the bungalow? By any chance

Safetran. 4 by 6 by 8 foot bungalow.

Yes, they are very much still made.

Eventually yes but for now I don’t have any I can put up.

I probably wouldn’t be doing what I do if I didn’t.

I like mechanical bells better but thats just me

Regarding the “can man” bell, I used a custom style replacement board that I found from eBay (no longer available). The housing was one I decided to create with what I had and though not perfect, it was definitely was a good way to learn how E bells actually worked. As for the other crossing projects I am doing, I am not going to mention too much until I post them on my channel. You can look forward to seeing a double cantilever setup, a gated crossing with a button that anyone can use to activate the crossing, a complete wayside signal setup and a whole lot of other big projects that have yet to be confirmed. I have many other smaller projects I will be doing too but these are the big ones I am currently working on. I am also assisting and visiting other signal collectors on their crossing setups which you will see more of as well.

@@RailroadSignsandSignalsthanks. I’m trying to make a few crossing bells myself using probably a custom pcb. Cantilevers.. that’s really interesting. Amazes me how collectors get so much stuff. Wishing you luck on your projects!

eBay usually. I ended up buying my last (collection worthy) mechanical bell last month and plan on getting no more. Not much of a bell collector but do need some bells to run on the signals I have as well as a couple replacements for those bells.

The actual cause and reason for failure was found after this video was recorded. The variable resistor that was on the repeater circuit was having issues with making good connection as well as the volume variable resistor though not as bad. This was due to the bell sitting in water before I had received it (which had since dried up) and that was confirmed due to pitting lines found in the housing and water left in the variable resistors. This was not the case of bad memory on the IC (though I could see why it may appear that way) but the repeater circuit that causes the stored memory (sound) to be replayed was increasing the resistance of the repeater circuit which caused the bell to play the whole length of a WCH bell ring rate which is around 3 seconds. That is why it never rings slower than that. There is a lot more that goes on after a failure is repaired or replaced after my videos are filmed. Anything that fails on my system that is on an active crossing is always documented and the cause of failure determined before that part is able to be put back into service or removed from service. Wish I could add the part where we see what the cause of such failures in the solid state equipment in my videos are but I cannot.

@@RailroadSignsandSignals Gotcha. My friend’s bell had an issue with the stored memory rather than the repeater circuit with a similar effect. Interesting how these simple mechanisms have so many different ways of breaking haha