Locomotive bell ringing

[NW Mailing List]

I am interested to know the practices of locomotive bell ringing as it pertains to the 1950s era.  I am particularly interested in yard operations and when ringing the locomotive bell was required.

Rule 582 of my 1945 N&W Rule Book simply states the bell should be rung before the engine is moved.  Was it rung and then stopped after the engine was moving?  Would this happen each time the engine, particularly the yard engine, would stop and then start, change direction, etc?

I presume the yard engine would not have been ringing its bell constantly, but can understand that it would have to ring the bell each time it began movement per the rule.

Although I don't mean to offend anyone on this list, I am not at all interested in hearing what modern day NS, CSX or whatever do.  My focus is on the operations of the 50s and hopefully someone will be able to provide some insight.

The reason I ask is that I recently attended an operation session on a local model railroad; most, if not all, of the layout host's locomotives were sound equipped; the guy running the yard had the bell ringing an awful lot, even while moving cars around.  A discussion ensued about what would have been required.

Thanks in advance for any vintage information that can be provided.

Jim Brewer
Glenwood MD
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