pneumatic bell ringer

[Fred_V]

Anyone have drawings for one of these?

[LivingLegend]

Outside mount or inside the bell?

[Bill Shields]

Like these?

Bell Ringer P1.pdf

(290.52 KiB) Downloaded 910 times

Bell Ringer P2.pdf

(262.97 KiB) Downloaded 820 times

clapper bell ringer.pdf

(118.81 KiB) Downloaded 802 times

bell ringer.doc

(469.5 KiB) Downloaded 783 times

I have never seen a clapper ringer in small scale...but here is UP's idea of how they are made.

i also have a set of SLDDRW files that I made a long time ago for the external ringer that it seems I cannot attach here...so...

if there is interest, let me know and I will send them to whoever. bshields at mehrs dot com


one important item to note...the bell must be balanced such that the weight of the bell assembly will cause the unit to return..otherwise it will not operate correctly. Joe T. can provide more details on this...but once you think about it...makes perfect sense.

[Fred_V]

That's great Bill. Thanks.

[Dan_M]

You can try making one that I designed and published on my web site. It is a finicky bugger to say the least. It has to be perfectly balanced. Mine has been working flawlessly after spending countless hours fine tuning it. There are only a few parts but it's simplicity is deceiving. If you want to give it a try, here are the plans/drawings.

http://www.danslocoworks.com/Bell%20Rin ... _(air).htm

Been playing around with Fusion 360 and made this animation of the bell ringer.

https://youtu.be/34qY4hfCLQ8

Dan
http://www.danslocoworks.com/index.htm

[gwrdriver]

A little history, for anyone interested. In the mid-1950s the Kemtron Corp, Fresno CA, mostly known for their high quality lost wax detail castings used on imported brass O & HO-gauge locomotives, produced a Baldwin bell in 1-1/2" scale as a commemorative piece. They ran it as a curiosity in one of their monthly Model Railroader Magazine ads and it caused a sensation. There was nothing even remotely of its quality on the then live steam market and it was added to their catalogue.

The ringer was a faithful reproduction but was a dummy, although in time Bill van Brocklin devised a working conversion for it. I have a faded copy of Bill's sketches somewhere but can't fins them at the moment.

It was listed in Kemtron's 6th Edition catalogue (probably early 1960s) as a kit #X1115 for the outrageous price of $17.50. This is very similar the early RRS bell, and I heard it claimed it's the same bell, but the details are different and I've often wondered if the Kemtron masters for this survive.

[Greg_Lewis]

A little history, for anyone interested. In the mid-1950s the Kemtron Corp, Fresno CA, mostly known for their high quality lost wax detail castings used on imported brass O & HO-gauge locomotives, produced a Baldwin bell in 1-1/2" scale as a commemorative piece. They ran it as a curiosity in one of their monthly Model Railroader Magazine ads and it caused a sensation. There was nothing even remotely of its quality on the then live steam market and it was added to their catalogue.

The ringer was a faithful reproduction but was a dummy, although in time Bill van Brocklin devised a working conversion for it. I have a faded copy of Bill's sketches somewhere but can't fins them at the moment.

It was listed in Kemtron's 6th Edition catalogue (probably early 1960s) as a kit #X1115 for the outrageous price of $17.50. This is very similar the early RRS bell, and I heard it claimed it's the same bell, but the details are different and I've often wondered if the Kemtron masters for this survive.

That foundry is still in business, now known as Valley Brass and Bronze, in the Pinedale neighborhood of north Fresno. While I don't know about the bell, they do lots of work for the indoor RR companies and a few of our suppliers. The owner is a master modeler as well with an interest in WWI and II equipment. If anyone is interested, a Google search should turn up their contact info.

[Fred_V]

Dan, your design is what got this started. I had sold my ride in cab engine to a guy in Cleveland. He turned it to a Porter style and added a large bell and sent me your drawing. I'm looking for a simpler way to do it. My mentor had made a bell rotator like GWdriver showed so I'm leaning in that direction if I take on this project.
Fred V

You can try making one that I designed and published on my web site. It is a finicky bugger to say the least. It has to be perfectly balanced. Mine has been working flawlessly after spending countless hours fine tuning it. There are only a few parts but it's simplicity is deceiving. If you want to give it a try, here are the plans/drawings.

http://www.danslocoworks.com/Bell%20Rin ... _(air).htm

Been playing around with Fusion 360 and made this animation of the bell ringer.

https://youtu.be/34qY4hfCLQ8

Dan
http://www.danslocoworks.com/index.htm

[dnevil]

A little more info on bell ringers here.

http://ibls.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Bell_ringer

http://ibls.org/mediawiki/index.php?tit ... orporation

Regards,
Daris

[Smokey N Steamer]

I'm assuming the bell, just like whistles in this hobby, would have to be made deliberately "out of scale" in order to sound convincing. An oversized "good-sounding" bell should be more than able to accommodate an internal clapper-type ringer. Is my assumption correct?

[Fender]

I'm assuming the bell, just like whistles in this hobby, would have to be made deliberately "out of scale" in order to sound convincing. An oversized "good-sounding" bell should be more than able to accommodate an internal clapper-type ringer. Is my assumption correct?

Physics does not scale down, so yes, a smaller bell will generally have a higher pitch. However, you can make the pitch lower by reducing the bell's wall thickness, which will also make it not as loud.