I've been talking on the phone for the past two days with a gentleman that that is trying to authenticate a locomotive bell at his local historical society museum. The bell allegedly came from a Heisler locomotive. He's hoping that the numbers stamped on the bell are the construction number of the locomotive they came from.

I have no idea if there is a correlation or not. Anyone out here on RyPN have any ideas about how to authenticate a locomotive bell?


brianf425@yahoo.com

We have a Heisler at the Sumpter Valley Railway, and one thing we've found is that Heisler loved their name. Almost every part on the locomtive has an "HL" followed by a number. Unfortunately, the bell on our engine is not original, but it seems likely that her first one would have been stamped "HL". Find that and you've got a Heisler bell I should think.

Thanks, Taylor

thrush@smt-net.com

> Almost every part on the locomtive has an "HL"
> followed by a number.

You will find that every major CASTING on a Heisler locomotive that was actually produced by Heisler has a Heisler casting/part number HL-XXXX cast into it. I have seen Heisler bells with an HL number cast into the cradle. If memory serves, they are also unusual in that the position on the tapered boiler course made the base a bit unusual compared to most bells. Dim/Fade/Duh disclaimer

Bill

staybolt-NOSPAM-@bellsouth.net

> You will find that every major CASTING on a
> Heisler locomotive that was actually
> produced by Heisler has a Heisler
> casting/part number HL-XXXX cast into it. I
> have seen Heisler bells with an HL number
> cast into the cradle. If memory serves, they
> are also unusual in that the position on the
> tapered boiler course made the base a bit
> unusual compared to most bells. Dim/Fade/Duh
> disclaimer

> Bill

My Son-in-Law was recently named Pastor of a small church in the Louisville, Kentucky area, his first congregation. When my wife and I made our first visit, I noticed that their church bell was at the top of a free standing structure outside of the sanctuary itself, rather than in a bell tower. It was quite obvious that this was the bell off of a steam locomotive, as opposed to a "regular" church bell. On our next visit I hope to be able to use a flashlight to see if there are any markings on the inside of the bell that might indicate what railroad/locomotive the bell came off of. I suspect that there are a number of churches around the country that might have used locomotive bells in church bell towers as a cheap (donated?) substitute for actual church bells. I wonder if anyone has ever done a study and also, if there is any sure way to determine the railroad/engine number that the bells came from?

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

midlandblb@cs.com

The New Jersey Midland Railroad Historical Society has a bell from an Erie Berkshire locomotive. The Erie donated it to a NJ church in the 1950's. The church wisely decided it was too heavy for their bell tower and stuck it in the basement. About 10 years ago they merged with another congregation and the bell came to us. It is stamped on the inside rim with the engine number.

The Pennsy did this too, in fact, even wrote a brief story about one such donation in its employee magazine, to a small church along the old Middle Division main line. As for identification, PRR did follow the practice of stamping the engine number on its steam-engine bells -- but on the "unstandard standard" railroad, interchangeable parts (including components as large as boilers) were sometimes traded out during shoppings. This is easy to understand on a railroad that had 999 engines (425 K4 Pacifics and 574 L1 Mikados) all with the same basic boiler.

Dan Cupper
Harrisburg, Pa.


cupper@att.net

The NWP owned and SP operated ferry EUREKA has a locomotive bell from the Southern Pacific. It is now stored inside and I had a good look at it and there are now markings at all on it.

It my be normal SP practice or just this one bell.
Sadly it is cracked so it sounds terrible.

Ted Miles

ted_miles@nps.gov

> The Southern Railway donated bells to churches and whistles to on line industries. The Bells usually received a large imprint on the side of the bell saying "Donated by Southern Railway" Somewhere I think I have seen a list of all of the Churches that bells went to. the Southern's "Ties" Magazine often carried a photo of a local offical making the donation to a church or industry.


tandrews@researchcouncil.net

> The New Jersey Midland Railroad Historical
> Society has a bell from an Erie Berkshire
> locomotive. The Erie donated it to a NJ
> church in the 1950's. The church wisely
> decided it was too heavy for their bell
> tower and stuck it in the basement. About 10
> years ago they merged with another
> congregation and the bell came to us. It is
> stamped on the inside rim with the engine
> number.

Tim:

As a museum located on the old Erie Railroad right-of-way and with an Erie S-1 ALCO hauling our caboose train, I can only say that we envy your Erie 3300 class bell! By the way, which Berkshire is the bell from?

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

midlandblb@cs.com

There is a substantial collection of locomotive bells (~20) at the Cathedral of the Pines in Rindge, NH. Each is mounted on a block of wood and a plaque indicates which railroad donated it.

Many roads from all over the northeast are represented, and I didn't notice any duplicates. Sadly, there was no obvious indication as to what locomotive each bell was from. I also have no idea why the collection came to being.

-Ed Lecuyer

Historical USGS Maps at maptech.com
elecuyer@maptech.com

I recall reading, perhaps in a Ron Ziel book, that donation of locomotive bells to churches was common. When a cousin was married in the chapel at a university in Albuquerque, I saw materials in the mission-style church that said its two bells were from AT&SF locomotives, a 4-8-4 and 2-8-2 if I remember right. These were still on their distinctive AT&SF mounts with the wings that keep them from spinning like the 1225's bell due to a maladjusted Viloco bell ringer. (This wedding trip yielded the ex-Dick Jensen CRI&P tender that became the 1225's water tank, when I spotted it from the train on the Santa Fe.)

Speaking of 1200 bells, one now stands in for the clock-tower bell on a preserved tower-clock mechanism in the Van Andel Museum Center in Grand Rapids. The PM bells were stamped with the engine number on top. (The 1225 has the 1203's, which 1937 bell sounds better than the 1941 bell on the 1223.) For a while there was what was probably another such bell hanging from a crude abstract sculpture on a public-building lawn in Holland, Michigan, but that has vanished along with the weird art.

Aarne Frobom

I know of a Church near Mullens, WV that has a large 17" diam loco bell in it's bell cupola. Fairly obscured, but we rang it after the attacks on 9-11. It has a great sound. Whether it is from C&O or VGN is uncertain. I have not laid hands on it to check for any stampings. It is not in it's original frame, and can not remember if it is even in it's original yoke, but it is DEFINITELY railroad.

I have a bell in my collection that I was told is a SHAY bell. It has the slanted base on it which would match the tapered boiler course of a Shay. It has the same dimensions and EXACT same sound as the Shay's at Cass. The base of the frame is slightly different however.

If I could figure out how to post a pic on this site, I would do it as I would like to confirm for myself whether it is Shay or not.

I have even been to the Geared Steam Loco. Website and have not received much help from them.

Mark

bbjimbo@yahoo.com

One of my uncles who worked for the Western Maryland got the railroad to donate a bell to his wife's church. As far as I know it is still there. A bell off of a narrow gage shay was rung at my wedding. I have seen this bell and it is a beauty but hard to see in the church bell tower. There are at least two churches here in the sandhills of North Carolina that have locomotive bells mounted in front of them. A few others are rummored to have engine bells but I have not seen them.

John

jhbohon@yahoo.com

A gentleman from, I believe Staples Minnesota built a carillon from loco bells. Each one sounds a different note. He knows the locos that all but two or three of them came from.
Mike Nix

2rivers@upstel.net

Taylor,

I was able to finally get to the yard and have a look at the bell and cradle on one of the Heisler's I have access to. The bell itself had no markings. The only casting marks we could find were on the portion of the cradle that the bell is attached to. On the round part at the very crown, there are what appear to be barely discernable letters "HL". (Should'a taken a picture (kick myself)). Some needle gunning of the casting may improve the legibility of the letters and numbers.

Does that sound like the location for the casting letters and numbers on your Heisler at SV Rwy?

Brian

brianf425@yahoo.com