Crossing Protection

Crossing Protection

Where roads intersect railway lines, there is a need for some form of Crossing Protection.

There have been many forms of Crossing Protection used in Western Australia since the introduction of the motor vehicle. Stop and Giveway signs are the most basic form of Crossing Protection, known as "Passive Protection". This relies on the common sense of the motor vehicle driver to acknowledge and react accordingly to the road signage. The other form of Protection is "Automatic Protection" which is commonly seen as Red Flashing lights and Bells that are automatically activated by any train entering onto a track circuit within a set distance from the level crossing.

The Bennett Brook Railway has several level crossings along the railway which are protected by various means.

WIG WAG Protection

This article supplied by

Bob Baker

BBR_WW Warn Sign110kb.jpg (109684 bytes)

Wig wags are an active level crossing protection which originated in USA. The railways in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland used them extensively as their first level crossing protection devices. WAGR had only one – at the Meadow Street crossing in Guildford. It was in use from 1925 to 1948 when it was replaced with a flashing light installation.

A photo in Jack Standbridge’s “70 Years Of Rail And Wire Book 2” of the Guildford wig wag stirred my interest in having one at BBR. However having the original one was an impossibility so a replica was the best available.

One of my workmates gave me two heavy duty bearing shells and a windscreen wiper motor from an XT Holden. Several months of failures eventually gave way to a working design which was installed on its “gallows” at the Rally Road crossing on March 6 1999. In 2006, the “Look out for the Train” sign and post were installed to complete the replica.

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