Mid-Continent Railway Museum is in the midst of a cosmetic restoration of the Goodman Lumber No. 9, a two truck Class B (35 ton) Shay. We have completed the construction and installation of a new cab using original Lima blueprints. Plans include restoring the rather swiss cheesy tank to make it look more presentable, replacing the rotten end beams, reconstruction of the pilot and installation of new boiler jacketing. What we do NOT have, however, is the original bell which was missing when the museum acquired the locomotive in 1988.

We are looking for an original Lima bell for this Shay. If anyone has a line on such an item, please contact me via instant message!

For more information on this locomotive, check out
http://www.midcontinent.org/equipment-r ... mber-co-9/

After looking at the pictures of the engine in service, this one on eBay looks very close
http://m.ebay.com/itm/SOUTHERN-RAILROAD ... nav=SEARCH

Thanks for the effort and the link! The information has been passed to the Restoration Superintendent at Mid-Continent.

Read the bell description closely. The width of the bell is about 12" at the bottom, the same size as a standard diesel bell.

I never saw a Shay with a bell that was less than 16" at the bottom.

The one on eBay will look mighty small on a Shay boiler.

Larry Curran made a nice smaller bell for a tank engine for a previous project - is he still in business? I think he used patterns for a PRR A class switcher......

Actually the bell on a 1929 pacific coast Shay was 14.5" and this engine is both smaller and older. The cradle design and finial are a match for the ones in the prototype picture.
Have a look at the prototype links, the bell was not very big on this engine.

And please be aware that there are persons who have things like bells reproduced and sold as antiques when close inspection will reveal that they are only a few weeks old. And also be aware that persons in Chattanooga have been known to do that very thing...friends of mine have been badly burned.

I am not saying that this is the case here...but you just need to keep that in mind and do your homework.

I also agree that 12" is very small for a steam locomotive bell...EMD diesel locomotive bells are exactly 12" in diameter.

Check with the organization..."key, lock and lantern"...people who specialize in collecting authentic antiques. They even have an online list of fake hardware to be aware of.

T7

"Someone" really, really wanted that bell. To the extent of making multiple bids above the 'reserve price' ... five of them, in fact -- concerned there would be last-minute sniping.

There wasn't. They were the only bidder. I don't know if that isn't an ominous sign.

There is a very good online set of pages that describes in detail how to recognize and discriminate between the different kinds of diesel bell, particularly the various historical kinds of EMD bells and their mounts -- I think that's in the 'key, lock, and lantern' reference the 'mite mentioned. If the museum bought this item, as I think is highly likely from the auction-history context, they should carefully review this and compare what they've bought while the item is still covered by the eBay 'guarantee'. I am wondering whether this bell is actually overpolished to be so shiny; check the inside of the bell and the area at the inside top of the shoulder and attachment to the yoke where it may not be finish-polished..

In my opinion -- not being a 'bell nerd' -- I think that item seems to be in good 'display' shape and would look reasonably good on the museum's locomotive (even if most historical logging roads may not have polished up their locomotives, let alone their bells, to a perfect lustrous shine)

The restoration guys at Mid-Continent are VERY experienced parts hunters. They have been restoring rare wooden equipment for 40 years and know every trick in the book when it comes to recognizing fakes and reproductions. I am sure that they will mine the Lima repository out at the California Railroad Museum and find the original drawings for the bell and all of its associated parts.

My thought was simply to make use of the RYPN network to help in the search. If this was a legit bell and bracket, well we missed an opportunity. In any case,we would NOT have bid on the item without thorough research into its provenance.

I thought I'd post this just for the heck of it while were still on the topic of bells. I stumbled upon this steam locomotive bell while on Craigslist earlier today and it seems to be "the real deal". Note that it has a 16" base.

https://fredericksburg.craigslist.org/a ... 68467.html

Best,
-Andrew

Andrew -

The 1048 number reportedly stamped on this bell for sale on Craigslist, makes me wonder what locomotive and railroad it came off of. There were a number of railroads that had engines in the 1000 series that went up as far as 1048. Would be interesting to see a close up of the actual stamped number. I've included a photo of the number on the steam locomotive bell that was on the ND&W diesel donated to HVRM which came off of an Illinois Central engine. I used a bit of chalk to bring the number out a bit better for the photo. That number was a 4-6-2 on the ICRR. If the locomotive and railroad were eventually identified on the "1048 bell", it might be more important for a particular museum.

Les

I was wondering why you would want an original bell than a replica regardless of price, reminds me of them thieves out there being picky fingered...if you go that way go straight to the maker than a thrid party.
Its good to know somebody out there makes them. I just saw a bell in an antique store but doubt it has railroad origin, but you never know, it could still work...(and like 125 bucks.)

I apologize for the topic deviation here, but per Mr. Beckman's suggestion - I have contacted the owner of the bell and was able to obtain some detailed images of the number castings both on the bell and on the bell cradle.

https://goo.gl/EPhqL5

Best,
-Andrew

Andrew -

That's really great that you contacted the bell's owner and were able to come up with the additional photos. The stamped 1048 number is very interesting because of the "sideways" 4. I'm not 100% sure how these bell numbers were applied, but guess that some type of heavy steel for each individual number was hammered into the brass, which explains the rather inexact location of each number. In this case, the worker held the steel "whatever" in the wrong position when hammering the number 4 home. Once applied, not much that could be done to fix it!

I wonder if any of "whatever these things are" might be preserved; either in some private collection or in a museum. My guess is that they probably were just thrown onto the scrap heap once brass bells and the steamers themselves, were no longer needed. Would love to be proved wrong.


Les

Andrew -

I looked at the photos furnished for the "1048 bell" and noticed in one of the other shots that it appears the number was stamped at another location besides the one with the "sideways" 4. In the second location, it looks like the 4 is "right side up" although this is not a close-up shot, so a bit hard to confirm for sure.

BTW, I don't see this as "topic deviation" as hamster is looking for a bell for their Goodman Lumber Shay and your posting of the available 1048 bell, gives them another option. Trying to find the history of that bell, could help them in making their eventual decision.


Les