Large Scale Central

Piston on a Bell

Modeling
#1

Hey Guys,

A bell question. I’ve got an Ozark Miniatures Bell with a piston on the side opposite side from the bell crank handle. Does anyone know if this would be an air piston or is it just some type of shock absorber? Could it be proper to run an air line to it?

Any help is appreciated.

#2

You did what on a bell?

#3

Steam driven ringer

#4

I have one of these bells too and was wondering what it was for.

#5
Rick Marty said:
Steam driven ringer
Rick, not to challenge, but looking for a prototype. Been looking, but I'm not finding much as far as a picture.
#6

Look at UP or Santa Fe Large steam. most if them had air ringers on them. Pensy probably too.

#7
Ric Golding said:
Rick Marty said:
Steam driven ringer
Rick, not to challenge, but looking for a prototype. Been looking, but I'm not finding much as far as a picture.
Ric,

Try this link.

http://www.bellsandbirmans.com/bells/bellfacts.php

#8

Ric, this doesn’t have the piston? on the opposite side , but it does show an air connection. and if you google air powered bells they do have a video of one that activates from the top of the bell harp.

(http://www.steamlocomotive.com/florida/fec153.jpg)

#9

Watch this (at 1 min 38 seconds, if the link doesn’t put you there automatically. Also, there’s an ad you have to watch a few seconds of the first time you click it…) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BEBC6ttqpVk#t=97s There’s a small air piston at the bottom. When the air is turned on, the piston applies upward force to the small crank at the end of the bell rocker opposite the manual lever. At some point in the upward swing, the sliding mechanism you can see shuts off the air … the weight of the bell brings it back down again, turning on the air again as it swings past the center point on the bottom, pushing it up on the other side, where it shuts off again and falls back… etc. You can see in the short closeup clip that the rope is slack … it’s ringing on air.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/slatecreek/_forumfiles/40bell.JPG)

In a lot of other spots, you see a crew member ringing the bell by hand … often a third guy on the crew, or a cabrider will … just to do something. (If you’re the musical type, you’ll be able to tell without looking … on air, the bell rings at an even cadence… by hand, because of the way the bell swings when you pull the rope, there’s a syncopation caused by the fact that the bell lingers a bit at the end of the forward swing …) Also, there’s a bell rope to the engineman’s side of the cab, because frequently, if the bell is sitting straight up and down, you’ve got to give one pull on the rope after turning on the air, just to get things going… unlike the locomotive below it, if it stops on dead center, it’s only got one piston and can stall. Hope that helps. Matthew (OV)

#10

Mathew,

That’s the money shot! That’s what I was looking for. Don’t know if I can duplicate it, but at least now I’m certain how it worked. Thanks all for taking time to research this. On the bottom of the OM Bell piston, I found an indention to drill for a piece of brass wire. The top drilling will be more difficult. This all started because the yoke broke off the base and I was drilling through the yoke and base to add a piece of brass wire to be epoxied in for strength. This caused me to look closer and add a little extra detail. We’ll see how much extra detail.

#11

Maybe what you need is one of these in the boiler with the brass wire extending up through the ringer piston casting to the crank… you know, with an eccentric on the shaft?

http://www.philsnarrowgauge.com/Parts.html (scroll down)

Of course, you’d need to put the crank 90 degrees to one side to make it work… and this is WAY too silly of a detail … right?

Matthew (OV)

#12

Rick;

Porter #65 on the W,K&S had an air ringer on the bell. I usually opened the air valve when approaching a station, or when leaving the Kempton station at the beginning of the trip. Sometimes the air piston would stick, and I would have to tug the bell rope to start it. Once I opened the valve and nothing! I tugged the rope and two rings then nothing! I looked back out of the cab (we were starting our run to Wanamakers in reverse, as always) and saw a disconnected length of air hose writhing in the air like an angry little snake! :lol: Had to fix that once the trip was over.

Best,
David Meashey

#13

Interesting

#14

If you watch the “Thunder on the rails” movie that featured the Nevada Northern, there is a shot in the movie of the camera up on the engineer’s side of the boiler, it clearly shows the bell being run on air.