Alan Walker's comments in the Massachusetts Statehouse 1795 Time Capsule Thread and the bell from the Minot's Ledge pile light and its current use at the Baptist Church in Bryant Pond, Maine was very interesting. It got me to thinking again about locomotive bells used at churches, which I mentioned previously here on RyPN. My son-in-law is a minister and at one of his former churches, the bell off of Louisville & Nashville 2-8-2 #1875 still rings! I see bells like this as being the spirit of an old L&N Mike living on, or as a remembrance of the two who passed away in the Minol's Ledge disaster. My guess is that there are a few other churches out there that might have such bells, although probably hard to identify for sure. Anyway, on the chance that one or two might be identified, thought I would start this thread as a place to pass along any information.

Les

I got one better. SSW819's bell was stolen off of it while it was on display in the park and it has never been recovered. One of the restoration crew remembered an old story, there was another 800 series bell in Pine Bluff, at Wesley United Methodist Church. The crew apparently got the church one of the new electronic systems and got the bell in exchange.

That IS interesting! Any markings indicating which of the other SSW 800's the bell came off of?


Les

Can not resist......

Bells are normally connected with fasteners like nuts and bolts, rope usually connects a bell to a cab for use, not a church......

Ha ha.....

Les:
I have seen two churches that have locomotive bells. One in Sullivan, Ohio that appears to have a B&O bell; which makes sense as it's near Willard, Ohio and the other in Bedford, PA
which could be a PRR bell. The Episcopal church I think.

Kevin K.

The Christian church at McEwen, Oregon has a locomotive bell that is likely from one of the narrow gauge locomotives or possibly an old UP steamer.

Taylor

The L&N had a policy of donating bells from scrapped steam locos to churches in the 1950's. I don't know how this was managed or if churches were invited to submit requests but there was an article about donated bells in a issue of the L&N employee's magazine back then.

-JH

Some of the Glacier Park Lodges apparently have GN Bells.

-Hudson

It isn't a church, but:

Camp Orr in Northern Arkansas, a Boy Scout camp located inside the Buffalo National River; has an old bell they call "Old Frisco". It still has the arm to attach the bell rope to it, and it is still rung as a method of communication.

All I've been able to find out about it is that it did indeed come off of a Frisco steam locomotive, but nobody remembers what locomotive. There are no visible markings on the outside of the bell.

Doesn't Duke University have a locomotive bell they ring whenever they win football games?

I've seen pictures of this on the news but know nothing more about it as I am certainly not a Duke alumnus.

EDIT: Google tells me it is called "The Victory Bell" and is actually a trophy traded back and forth between Duke and UNC depending on who wins.
(As you can no doubt tell I'm not a football fan either.)

The Episcopal Church in Springfield VA has a locomotive bell engraved Southern Railway 1958...not sure what locomotive it is off of

I know of two bells in Western North Carolina/Upper South Carolina that are at summer camps. Both were donated by Southern Railway and are engraved as such. One is at Camp Tekoa and the other is at the Y.M.C.A Camp Greenville.

Southern Railway's practice (much to the dismay of railfans of the era) was that bells and whistles were not given away. They were only presented to organizations.

Don't forget how many church bells were donated to WW2 scrap drives. Same with civil war bronze cannon barrels. I can't imagine the number pre-war RR bells that were probably donated to churches and later wemt to the furnaces between 1942 and 45.
And the saddest part is that it was all for nothing as none of that could be used for defense purposes due to no way to know the metal content of stuff like that.
So much history destroyed for patriotic purposes, with no real results.

Bulby -

You might try the inside of the bell. Many years ago, I recall reading (in a model railroad magazine) of a guy who acquired a steam locomotive bell from the Southern Pacific and found three locomotive numbers on the inside. As I recall the story, he had two of the locomotives running on his O gauge layout and planned on building a model of the third locomotive number on the inside of the bell. I am not sure where (of IF) the Frisco stamped numbers on their bells, but apparently railroads had different procedures.

Les