Remember the bell?

The one that was for sale a while ago? It came from Pacific #1014 and here it now is, all cleaned up and indoors where it will be protected from the rain and snow (no, not at my house--I didn't buy it, but I did help lug it back from Charlotte, where it was located at the time). On the wall is a photo of the locomotive and a letter from Clark Hungerford attesting to the bell's authenticity. The table it is sitting on is also former Frisco property.

GS

 

Baldwin stamped their classification code into the stem of the bell around the ringer bolt hole. If you take the top nut and washer off you should see it, unless it's been obliterated over the years when removed from the yoke. I have three Santa Fe Baldwin bells and one from Union Pacific, and I have been able to verify the original loco number of each one by looking up the code. It was not unusual for a bell to ride several different engines in it's career. I have one that was on 2-8-2 4071 to start with, then found 4061 stamped on the yoke, and 4066 hand stamped on top of the dome of the bell. During shoppings and repairs, lots of frames, yokes and cradles got mis-matched over the years, and was rare for a bell to be retired with it's original engine. If you ever decide to see if the stampings are still readable, let me know what they are, and I will be able to see what engine it was on when built, you already know what it was retired with. Could be the same, who knows ?

 

Dennis, Welcome to the Frisco website!!!
Go to forums and start a new thread for member introductions and tell us about your experience with trains.

Joe

 

Thanks for the info Dennis. I have a bell identical to the one above, but it lacks the provenance so I have no idea to what locomotive it came from. I do like it's unrestored condition with the brownish red naturally aged hanger, and the greenish tint the brass has. I thought about taking the top off to see the numbers, but really don't want to put any tool marks on the brass. Fun stuff

 

All you have to do is take the nut and washer off, and you can see the end of the bell. The nut hold the ringer in, and when tightened, draws the bell into a taper fit with the bore of the yoke. The ringer easily comes out when you remove the nut, but the bells usually have to be pressed out. Sometimes, they got careless or in a hurry, and drove them out with a sledge, obligterating the stampings in the end. But if you think the bell will come out of the yoke, just turn it on it's side or upside down when you loosen the nut. I agree with you on the condition, some things are better left alone. It's kind like taking a can of brasso, or a wire wheel, and trying to make a $20 gold piece look better.

 

that's a nice one, I've never seen them with the Coonskin logo, I have Santa Fe presentation bell with the bronze circle cross, and a UP presentation bell with the name spelled out large across the bell. The 1025 would be a pattern number for the yoke. The bell in the photo was on 2-6-2 #1873. the UP bell came from a museum that folded, and auctioned everything off, it started out on OSL 1040, which became UP 590, a 2-8-0 from August 1906.

 

Cool pics. The curiosity is getting to me, I have a lot of bigger sizes in the old Williams and Armstrong open end steel wrenches, going to get one that is slightly larger then the brass hex and put a leather strap between the wrench and the brass and loosen the nut to see the numbers so I will know the locomotive and year.

 

Lee Buffington told me one time that the Frisco gave away so many bells (mostly to churches) and had so many requests for bells that they actually had some bells manufactured to give away!!!

Tom G.