Special thanks to Railroad Media Archive for letting me use their clip of the Milwaukee Road E-Bell: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KWNUgBLbbjk.htmlsi=JVbGOshmIPN-I5Ko
You made a mistake in the video where you call the Bells on diesel locomotives mechanical. They run on air, therefore they are pneumatic bells. Gong bells are an example of a mechanical Bell
Doesn't actually say "Why" they have bells in the first place. :D Many of the early wood burning locomotives had wide stacks with spark arresters. These had an effect of dulling down the exhaust beats. This was added onto the fact that, when coasting with the throttle shut, the locomotive would make nary a noise at all. Bells were quickly added to provide additional audio warning, since the locomotive was remarkably silent. As time went on, this need vanished, but the added safety provided was seen as worthwhile for the bells to remain.
@@WardenWolf, European locomotives have a few warning audio devices. Loud and aggressive horn to warn about danger and way more softer horn to grab your attention.
5:40, while the NR has a bell, it's rarely if ever used mainly cause the rumbling engine is enough to alert nearby people that the train exists and if it's intending to move iv only ever heard the bell used as a gesture to train spotters
I actually asked myself today if american locomotives still have actually a brass bell hidden somewhere or if they just play a bell sound over speakers. 😅
Some of them certainly do. The 2-10-2 tank engines used on the Fichtelbergbahn and other narrow gauge railroads use their bells as they move through the towns. I guess it's thought of as less disruptive than using the whistle.
I know this video is about bells, but the thing that stood out to me the most in this video is the Detroit streetcar having a full blown diesel horn as one of its options.
What stood out to me about the Detroit 'streetcar' is how dorky it looked. (Can't we get some people with some testosterone in their system to design some decent-looking streetcars today?)
You can't recognize snarky commentary when you see it?! Seriously, don't you think a lot of the 'light rail' vehicles they're making today look all bubblely and wimpy? And what's with them being like 150 feet long or so?....the operator can't even see what's happening all the way in the back....graffiti-scrawling, drug-dealing, etc...@@Lucius_Chiaraviglio
Now hang on here, back up to the part where the steam engine needed a way to alert people at crossings, but when they tried older carriage horns, the pedestrians couldn't hear the horn it because THE LOCOMOTIVE WAS TOO LOUD? "Well I can't hear any horns over the deafening noise of that giant rumbling machine headed my way, so I guess it's safe to cross?"
Poorly worded in the video, the problem with the carriage horns was more that they didn't reach far. So basically only people standing next to the engine could hear it and then they might aswell hear the engine itself.... You needed something for warning people further ahead though than the sound of the steam engine will carry (or if it's coasting the lack of sound the engine is making at all). We could now also get into how accoustic works and that higher frequencies reach further and lower frequencies. And therefore the higher pitch of a bell even at the same loudness would carry further than a carriage horn etc.
@@ssingfo another thing I've seen mentioned not in the video is that most natural things have a major overtone series (the sound naturally has frequencies that approximate a major chord), while a bell almost always has a minor overtone series (approximating a minor chord) and is, therefore, very unnaturally sounding. Also, like was sort of mentioned, a bell will cut through most other noises, partly due to the above but also due to the metallic clanging.
@@Ronald.Golleher I think that the mechanical sound of a steam engine is also composed of a lot of random "white" noise that our brain filters out subconsciously as "not important". So even though the physical sound level may be high, you might not notice it. Have you ever experienced it when sonething moderately loud suddenly turns off, such as heating fans? You have mentally tuned out the sound in the background and only notice it when it dissappears. Those sorts of phenomenon are what having a bell is intended to address.
Engines weren’t as loud as RBMN 2102 or NKP 765 back in the 1800’s, plus they had *giant* cone shaped stacks that muffled a lot of the sound. It wasn’t until the mid teens/early twenties that steam engines became noisy beasts. EDIT: But by that time, the mandate was already in effect, and there’s no way anyone’s going back on a safety mandate, so the bell has stuck around.
Speaking of Toby, I find it kinda funny how most people, Thomas fans included, don't realize he has a whistle. LNER J70s actually had their whistles inside the cab, located on the steam dome atop the firebox.
Toby isn't the only Thomas character who has a whistle nobody knows about, the BR Class 08 (AKA the basis for Diesel) had a whistle too, but the show used an airhorn sound effect to make it more distinct. Several early diesel and electric locomotives used whistles specifically to be similar sounding to steam.
Some German locomotives got bells for the same reason given for why trams and streetcars got them, as many German railways had street sections running through town centers, the bell would be rung constantly in lieu of a grade crossing bell. A good example of where this still happens is the Molli Bahn, which still runs narrow gauge steam locomotives equipped with bells to this day.
Also some railway and tram networks have been combined over the years. So trams are fitted with train equipment (lights and whistle) and trains were fitted with tram equipment (blinkers and bells). It’s really fun to drive a tram through the pedestrian zone in the city center and then a train through the countryside without ever leaving your seat. 😅
Until some twenty years ago in Germany for trains operating on so-called "Nebenbahnen" (branch lines; maximum speed 50 or 60 km/h - 31 or 38 mph) it was mandatory to sound a bell when approaching an unguarded level crossing, and these lines were and still are, scattered with them. On mainlines ("Hauptbahnen") unguarded level crossings are forbidden. The engineer was instructed to sound the bell by a sign showing the letter L for "lauten" (meaning "ring the bell"). When continuous bell-ringing was required, the engineer was instructed to do so by two L-signs on top of one another, and the end of a continuous bell-ringing section was indicated by two L-signs with each a diagonal line across the L:. Nowadays the L is replaced by a P for "pfeifen" (whistle).
I suspect the reference is to the Consolidated Code of Operating Rules and the General Code of Operating Rules, both for railway use. @@maestromecanico597
In Germany during the steam era, locomotives also have bells, they were used on grade crossings without gates. There were sings with a black capital L on white background along the track to show the engineer when he have to ring the bell.
The P sign still exists, even on main lines, although it is rare. I have seen pictures of L and P on the same sign post. LL was also used and meant the bell had to be left on.
@@humongousballsusually it’s a P nowadays because trains don’t have bells anymore. However on combined train/tramway networks where bells and whistles are equipped on the vehicles, both signs/signals are still in use.
L (bell) was used to warn pedestrians of slow moving trains, while the louder P (whistle) works better to warn vehicle drivers or when the train is so fast that it has to warn from further away.
Bells, without them, we wouldn't have our grand American trains! Also fun fact: the NKP has the bells on there GP30s in a section in the short hood nose.
Don't know how popular the trend was, but I do know at least a fair amount of German steam locos also had bells, probably for the same reasons as in the US.
Although American trains are more known for having bells, they do also exist in Europe, as you mentioned in the video many engines that worked on tramways were also fitted with bells even if they didn't look all that tram-like, the old Dutch state railways (Staatsspoorwegen/SS) had gong bells fitted on tenders of their engine although these where later removed when becoming a NS (Dutch Railways/Nederlandse Spoorwegen). Most German engines also have bells, although not as shiny as American ones making them quite tricky to spot, and surprised me when I heard a bell sound coming from a large German express engine. If anybody knows why bells stayed on German engines (and if they're still on modern day stock) I'd be glad to know since that has always seemed weird when compared to the rest of Europe. These are the instances I know of when it comes to European trains with bells, but there could be more I don't know of.
In Germany, some narrow gauge lines (such as the Mollibahn) require the use of Bells as whistles would be too loud for the portion running through the town of Bad Doberan. I don’t know the specifics as to why they were dropped other than a percieved lack of them (two tone horns probably were sufficient?), but many steam engines retain them for safety purposes. Trackside signs bearing an ‘L’ (for Laüten) indicate when they should activate or deactivate it, as well as another with double lines that I’m not sure of.
Usually no standard gauge German railcars have bells. However there are many interconnected tram/railway lines. I myself drive on the Mannheim/Ludwigshafen one. All trams are also built for train infrastructure (although we have the 1000mm gauge) and all as trains commissioned vehicles were fitted with bells and blinkers and such things.
Australia rarely uses bells, the V/line N class has the upper hand with them it's a EMD bell they turn them on at Southern Cross when running around sometimes, the only locos that I've heard the bells from are the NR class, BL class and N class
In UK, it was obligatory, from the start, that all mainline railways HAD to be fenced in, everywhere, to prevent animals and people from straying onto the track. Hence the double gated level crossings. But, fenced in, trains were permitted to run faster than 25 mph, AND they were not obliged to carry headlamps to see in the dark. Light railways, by definition, were restricted to 25 mph, had to carry a headlight, but did not have to be fenced in. Tramways restricted the trains, further, and the trains/tram-cars/streetcars, in UK, were obliged by law to obey road-traffic regulations, and occasionally had to be led by a guide, walking in front, to keep trains apart from people and road traffic. People In Weymouth, GB, understood this.
It's interesting how features that are universal on American steam locomotives like bells, multi-chime whistles, knuckle couplers, cowcatchers, and even headlights, just weren't a thing on trains in some other countries. Also 5:45 is an unexpectedly familiar sight, Alaska Railroad 152 on the Huckleberry Railroad in Michigan. I've been there dozens of times.
Knuckle Couplers exist in Europe on the heaviest Ore Trains. For others, Buffers and Chains are strong enough. There have been Attempts to standradise an Automatic European Knuckle Coupler, but getting 20+ Rail Authorities to agree on a new Standard is near impossible.
@@Genius_at_Workwhile they did ultimately decide on a standard for continental Europe (the Willison coupler, used nearly universally on the 5-foot broad gauge in the former Soviet Union), they could not agree on a timeline to phase it in and phase-out the chain couplings, due to financial constraints. So the chain couplings remain, although modern multiple units use various automatic couplings instead.
Interesting but still largely unknown fact : US-built diesels in Indonesia ordered after 1977 (starting from GE-built CC201 a.k.a U18C and BB203 a.k.a U18A1A) are equipped with bells, to the point where newer EMD-built GT38ACe (CC205) and GE-built CM20EMP (CC206) are fitted with Graham White E-bell. On the other hand, all European-built diesels in Indonesia had no bell at all (reflecting their European origin), and US-built units ordered before 1970s had possibility of also having no bell from the start (although I still couldn't find the evidence of such). The Chinese-built DF4D diesel (numbered CC207 01) operated by KCIC for maintenance and backup purpose on the recently opened Jakarta - Bandung HSR also had no bell installed there, since it follows Chinese system where they chose to not adapting the usage of bells on locomotives. Unfortunately a number of older post-1977 GE-built locomotives in Indonesia had their bells removed for unknown reasons, though likely caused by a principle within Indonesian Railways that said "using airhorn only is already enough for us". Here is an example of how the Graham White E-bell fitted on CC206 (GE CM20EMP) was sounded by the engineer when his train entered station (you can hear the bell around 2:41 to 3:06) : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-y976L6Cy9KY.html
The answer is quite simple. US railroads aren't generally fenced off from the surrounding countryside. In comparison, at the time trains were being developed, the British railroads had fences to keep people and animals off the tracks.
Simple, but wrong. In most European countries (and in Eastern Europe until mid-2000) there were no fences. It’s just that Europeans apparently have enough sense not to stand on the tracks when a huge rumbling thing is moving towards them, lmao.
In Britain, fences and dry stone walls were only put in to keep livestock off the line. Trespassing of persons within the recent fifty-years increased dangerously and fences became more rigid in force.
@@IVM94 This. Even here in Germany, train lines are rarely fenced off. Even main lines are often running through the middle of the countryside with fields on either side, and there'll be not a single fence in sight.
I'd never really thought of it, but the sound of a whiste signalling departure really does add some bittersweetness to saying goodbye to someone at a train station. Something I've missed from the days of steam I never lived in
I do think the fencing played a role but another factor was the whistles. The moaning, or blasting American whistles between 3 and 6 chime variety were still loud, but the shriek and shrilling UK and euro whistles can definitely get someone's attention. Though maybe you should cover when American steam attempted to use horns. I know both Hiawatha streamliners, GS4s and Milwaukee rd 261 used them, but I've heard others say other streamlined steam engines were equipped with them. I always still go mad, remembering a Lionel C&O Hudson from the 90s having a whistle that sounded like it was going "Awoooo-toot" like it couldn't decide whether it had a horn or a whistle, 😅😅
0:35 "yet drivers relied on traditional coach horns to warn of their approach but they weren't exactly loud enough to overpower the sounds of the engine". let that sink in for a bit....
Everytime we’d go pick up our grandma from the Pacific Surfliner the sound of the bi level cars bells clanging in was very exciting for me, and to this day it’s still quite nostalgic to hear that mechanical bell clang away as it comes into the station, 25 minutes late…
Bells today are used for yards and stations, where you can expect people to be standing near the tracks. It's used as a continuous sound to alert people as the train gets closer. As opposed to horns which are used in a single pattern to alert a single event, like a crossing, tunnel, entry into a yard, or just prior to accelerating from a stop.
As an Amsterdam resident I know very well why trams use bells nowadays even though there's no horses on the road anymore. The bell sounds every time a tram that stands still is getting ready to move, as well as to subtly signal their existence to traffic far away as you only hear the zoom of the electric engines up close. If these trams used loud horns to subtle signal to every pedestrian, half of Amsterdam would get no sleep!
And don't forget they also use the bell when passing a tram on the track in the other direction, stationary at a stop, as they know passengers 'like' to appear out of nowhere from behind a tram. Pity though that I consider the e-bells on the Combino's to be bad (the ones that got the software replaced to get it to 'ring' when the operator would keep the switch depressed instead of the somewhat ridiculous sounding 'plungplungplungplung' are better) but the new CAF Urbos have the worst e-bells ever... I still miss the strong ring from the mechanical bells all former trams used to have.
When I was a kid, I always thought that the bell was used when backing up, like a reverse alarm on a big truck, and the whistle or horn was used when going forward.
Thanks for the great video - Maximum authorized speed, bells and whistles for men and equipment working --- Gotta have the bells. They'd have to change change the whole verbiage without 'em. Okay, Let's Highball On Signal Indication Papa Geoff - Here we go on a clear - Clear block, thanks, OUT 🚦🚦 Papa Geoff - UP Spring Sub / Houston Texas - Here we go 🚦🚦🚦
The trains are basically cows and not cows. They have bells, but they also don't like it when cows get in the way by nudging them with their cowcatchers. BTW, you going to do a video about the locomotive's pilots anytime soon AmtrakGuy365
My personal favorite bell is the one Strasburg Railroad 90 carries. Very nostalgic for me. Great video, I enjoyed learning a little bit more about railroad history.
I wish someone could make a video of the different types of horns on every british train, like the names of them, if they even have any besides being two-tone air horns
Some locomotive Bells that I like is one of the ATSF steam locomotive bells, PRR Bells and Strasburg 90's bell and honesty one of my favorite locomotive bells that I heard.
Theres also the fact that Whistles tended to play a major overtone series, while almost all bells play a minor overtone series. This might not sound like much as minor overtones and keys are all over in music, but the minor overtones in bells make them sound unnatural which naturally catches people's attention. In any case, neat video!
GWR 4-6-0 no. 6000 King George V was also in the States and was given a bell which it still carries to this day. It was built in June 1927 and shipped to the Sates in Aug to feature in the Baltimore and Ohio's centenary celebrations. It was there that she was given the bell.
Sometimes in Indonesia the locomotives ring their bells at Crowded Stations or at the Yard/Depot or in other busy places like in the Crossing, etc. But sometimes they ring it outside the place like Station or in the Crossing.
About the bells used in foreign countries, Finland is a good example, as bells were used in Finnish steam locomotives, diesel and even with the electric locomotives.
wait so you're telling me that bells on trains exist because the americans couldn't be bothered building fences? lol. In all seriousness though, very informative video!
When you have big countries like in North America, it just isn't practical to build fences along every line. Fences and seperated grade crossings are more common in dense urban areas though.
Watching this, it occurs to me that parallel evolution in Unix makes sense. When you have items that are built in different environments for the same purpose, you’ll get different answers.
I think a more fundamental question is: why do American trains make so much extra noise, while most European trains only rarely use their noisemakers? As for trams, from European trams I'm accustomed to a "drrrrriiing" sound used in the exact same situations (well, maybe slightly more aggressively) as a car horn - when there's someone in the way.
I’ve think the between Mechanical or a E-Bell is likely the favorite source of bells, Graham-White is could be likely fine. I just love of a sound ding, ding, dinging, dong. I wish it could be ‘musical.
I think you’ve missed an important difference between American and British railways that make a bell more necessary in the U.S. Most British stations use high level platforms which keep passengers off the tracks. It was far easier for American passengers to wander into the path of trains entering a station area.
On the railway where I used to work, we had what was called a Depot Whistle - not effective at speeds above 40km/h but Depot Speed was anyway 30km/h. We used it in the Depot but sometimes good to blow it in the station to hurry passengers. Not as loud as the air horn of course. We have one loco type in South Africa that was imported via a leasing company from GE with a bell. When the drivers use it, its very interesting to hear. Also that loco is the only one with a 3 chime horn - most of ours are only two-chime horns
Its to annoy the shit out of anyone trying to watch train videos. . If people can't hear an enormous train blasting its horn ( which are kin loud) how the hell are they supposed to hear a pathetic annoying ding ding ding. . Pointless thing.
Interestingly when the Great western railway locomotive King George V (5th) the first of the GWR'S 6000 class the King class, visited the United States in 1925 for the centenary of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, the engine was presented with a brass that it has carried to this day as it is one of the three members of the class to be preserved.
I think you mean 1927, not 1925. KGV wasn't built until June 1927 and the invitation by the B&O is how the GWR 6000 got their name "Kings". Originally, they were going to be called "Cathedrals" to go with the GWR's naming convention of naming engines after prestigious buildings of the upper classes but the chance of naming the first after the ruling monarch at the time was an opportunity to great to refuse.
