Railroad Trains for the Soul: Locomotive Bells
The bell is the secondary sound device that is standard on all North American locomotives. It is very useful in railroad yards and especially in some residential locations where an air horn can otherwise create a noise disturbance to the public. Those areas that ban any horn activity are referred to as “quiet zones”. Although some commuter rail lines such as Metrolink and Caltrain installed Nathan two-note horns on their locomotives and cab cars to reduce noise pollution, the bell is still needed in order to produce a quieter sound while warning all residents that a train is coming.
On most steam locomotives, the bell has to be manually rung by a rope that can usually be pulled on the fireman’s side of the cab. The whistle rope is located on the engineer’s side. Some other steamers, like the Union Pacific’s 4-8-8-4 Big Boys and 4-6-6-4 Challengers, use an automatically ringing bell with a clapper actuated by compressed air. That’s the same matter required for the horn to work. Pneumatic bells eventually became more ubiquitous on diesel locomotives. Because the bell should be turned on whenever the engineer blows the horn, it can be rung automatically on many recent diesels when the horn lever/button or even the sequencer (if equipped) is pulled or pressed. It is the operator’s responsibility to silence the bell by pressing the bell button.
Some locomotive builders, particularly Electro-Motive and General Electric, used to manufacture their own bells, each of which can produce a recognizable pitch. EMD assembled two types of bells; one is made of bronze (primarily for early diesels) and another is steel (for more modern units). Similarly, GE had two bell models: an old-style version and a new-style version. The former has been installed mostly on Universal, Dash-7, and early-production DASH 8 mainline diesels as well as some switchers. The latter bell has a slightly higher pitch and is used on late-production DASH 8, DASH 9, AC traction, GENESIS, and some initial Evolution diesels.
More recent locomotives now have an electronic bell (or E-BELL), which simply plays a digital recording through a speaker. The most notable type is the Graham-White 373 Series E-BELL. Graham-White (now under Wabtec) also formerly manufactured pneumatic bells that probably sound like the EMD steel one. While some people hate the sound of the E-BELL, it requires virtually no maintenance as it lacks the pneumatic clapper. It can also be used to replace an old bell on existing locomotives. The Graham-White 373 isn’t the only electronic bell model because there is a less known type manufactured by Transtronic. It sounds different from the 373 and is most commonly heard on some VIA Rail locomotives.
As a similar case to horns, you can find a bell that is visible on most locomotives. If you see a steam engine, the bell may be on the top middle of the boiler or in front of the smokestack. On diesels, it can be mounted above the cab windshield, somewhere around the hood, or by the fuel tank on the underside. If you can’t see a bell, it may be located behind the pilot; this usually occurs in cab units (e.g., EMD E and F units) and some modern passenger diesels such as the GE GENESIS. While not required in some other countries, bells are very important to provide safety at a comfortable volume for all people whenever the horn is unavailable. In recent years, a lot of railroad fans have collected many types of horns as well as steam bells, pneumatic bells, and sometimes electronic bells. As in the previous three blog posts, here are several videos to best illustrate the sounds of the different bell designs.
Sources
Steam locomotive bells
UP Big Boy bell
EMD bronze bell, UKM steel bell, and Graham-White E-BELL
EMD steel bell
Graham-White pneumatic bell
GE bell types (new and old versions)
Transtronic bell on a VIA Rail F40PH