Maidstone St Level Crossing, Altona, With Mechanical Bells (Before & After Upgrade)

This is the Maidstone St level crossing in Altona, on the Altona loop section of the Werribee line, with footage I took back in January 2016, when it had two Westinghouse hybrid bells. Later in March 2017, they were replaced with e-bells. The new footage is from July 2017.

The bell on the northern side was programmed to sound continuously until the boom gates rise, while the bell on the southern side was programmed to sound out after the boom gates have lowered. It's hard to tell at this crossing, because its a windy spot, and I only filmed one side with the old bells. The new bells are programmed to sound continuously until the boom gates rise.

At the time I filmed this crossing in July 2017, it also had:

Westinghouse cross-arms

Unmarked Westinghouse lights on all the crossing, except for one marked Westinghouse light on the northern boom gate mechanism. All signals have unmarked bases

Westinghouse boom gate mechanisms, both with unmarked bases

Westinghouse pedestrian boom gate mechanisms. They have since been replaced by Magnetic Autocontrol swing gates (thanks Nolman0001 for that info)

Two yellow warning signs on the southern side, both with illustrations of crossing signals, with the one further away also having a hazard triangle on top, and two yellow warning signs on the northern side, one with an illustration of a crossing signal and one with a 'Rail Crossing' diagram, with the Rail Crossing one also having a very faded hazard triangle on top

Westona station is a crossing loop (the Altona line is single track for the majority of its length) which rather oddly reverses the direction of trains which cross here, with trains heading to Werribee using the right platform and trains heading to the city using the left platform.

The station also has island platforms. As Maidstone St is in such close proximity, two sets of pedestrian boom gates are needed for the crossing closest to the station, for their respective lines. Each activate only when a train comes through on their side.