OPERATING SOLID BRONZE LOCOMOTIVE BELL 12" JUST HOOK UP TO AIR, READY TO GO

Description

GM Electromotive Warning Bell, Heavy 4" x 4" Frame Mounted, Operates with Air Pressure of Approximately 50PSI or More, Solid Bronze Bell.
It is equipped with a Pneumatic Salem "506" Clapper. Great for Parade Floats, Collectors, Restaurants, Gatherings and Announcements.
Beautiful Mounted Piece of History. Bronze Bell alone is 12" High and 12" Diameter and Weighs about 50 lbs. Clapper and Cast Attachment Plate are about 20 lbs. Frame and remaining hardware about 20 lbs.
This is a beast, not for the timid individual, you got to be, either in the country, on a boat, or some sort of loud event, it would be wrong to operate this in a quiet neighborhood, which I just did and I'm sure I'll hear about it from one of the neighbors. I had to test it out to make sure it worked, and boy does it work.
The party this was purchased from, his father worked at the EMD factory. I found the information below about EMD and from what it says, this is an early example, being as it has a smooth finish and is not marked.
Often called a "bell brass" or "AAR bell brass", all nonferrous 12" diameter Electro-Motive bells were cast of a bronze alloy, and regardless of variation they all carry the same EMD part number, which is #8004156 (the parts list description being "BELL .. Locomotive - 12 inch", later adding the word "Bronze" to differentiate them from the then-new cast steel bells). EMD bells with a 12 inch diameter mouth have an overall height of approximately 11 inches, the latter measurement including a tapered stem having a 7/8" hole drilled through its axis. Shapewise, this stem is a frustum that is approximately 2 inches in height, the width being roughly 1.85" diameter at the bottom narrowing to 1.64" at the top. Variations in manufacturing make these figures "more or less" measurements, but they are close enough for a quick identification. On the inside, EMD bells will have the area surrounding the 7/8" hole "spot faced" to a diameter of roughly 2.500", creating a flat bearing surface to accommodate an air ringer or an internal mounting. These stem and spot-face areas are the only two locations on an EMD bell casting that actually undergo precise machining operations.
The oldest EMD bells are generally unmarked and found with smooth (or "ground") finishes. Although they may appear to be polished, closer examination of these bells will exhibit indications of fine grinding. If a bell actually does have a very high or mirror polish, be advised that it has probably been polished by a motivated individual after removal from service, not by EMD or a common carrier. The smooth EMD bells all have an appealing, traditional shape to them, and they will also have a relatively sharp shoulder. This produces what is often called the "flat top" profile, although the top is usually not actually flat, but runs very slightly "downhill"� the shoulder may vary a bit in radius, but the basic proportions are held across production.
Most locomotive bells offered to collectors in North America are from diesel-electric locomotives produced by what until 2005 was known as the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors Corporation, commonly referred to as "EMD." General Motors Diesel, Ltd. - "GMD" - was the Canadian counterpart, and for our purposes will be included under the EMD umbrella. Many of these bells and their associated fittings have been mistakenly or deliberately confused with steam-era bells, and the bulk of the following information was originally assembled to help discourage erroneous identification.
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By the late 1950�s, the finish of a locomotive�s bell had become unimportant to Electro-Motive and most American railroads, thus the rough cast bronze bell replaced the smooth bronze bell, making the latter obsolete. As their description indicates, rough cast bells exhibit the texture of a typical sand casting. Though interchangeable and dimensionally equivalent with smooth bells where it counted, rough cast EMD bells have a somewhat less classic shape to them, with subtle changes in profile; the most noticeable change is a much larger radius at the shoulder. Because of this difference alone, a rough cast bell can never be simply smoothed down and made into a "flat top" variant (one would still need to add a lot of metal where none exists). EMD rough cast bells almost invariably feature the initials "EMD" and the part number "8004156" cast raised (or "intaglio," if you prefer) on their top surface. Both use approximately 5/16" characters on earlier castings, the part number increasing to 7/16" later on (leaving the initials still in the smaller size). Evidence indicates that no factory-original EMD bell ever had a smooth finish in conjunction with a cast raised part number, so any encountered should be considered field modified.
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