In November 2008, an original bell from the M&StL was located and prepared for mounting on the locomotive just in time for the final dedication of the 457 renovation, and observance of the 50th anniversary of the locomotive in East Park, in 2009. Here is the story, as best as can be pieced together at this time:
Moving the bell
Bringing the bell off the roof
Eagle Lake Camp & Retreat Center
In the workshop
M & St L Stamp
Underside of the bell
Mounting the Bell
Owen and John Installing bell
Bell almost complete
Bell in shop
Installing Bell
Owen and bell
Bell almost there
Dennis, John, Owen and Mark
Bell in place
New bell in place on the 457
The 457 was built in 1912 by the American Locomotive Company. Instead of being scrapped after 38 years of service for the the Minneapolis & St Louis Railroad, the 457 was sold to the American Crystal Sugar company at Mason City, IA in 1950 for hauling coal and sugar beets. Diesel power made the steam locomotive obsolete by the mid 50's, and in 1959 it was given to the City of Mason City and placed in East Park. It still had its original bell from 1912. Sometime after 1986 the bell was stolen. As the old engine was in a sad state, nobody noticed it was gone. Not until restoration was started in 2003, did it become apparent that the bell was gone. An effort was made to purchase a bell with funds raised through the sale of brass items that were donated by members of the community.
Finally in 2005, a bell was purchased and a yoke was cast from aluminum. Although the bell was smaller than the original, it still served its purpose. Thousands of kids between the years 2005- 2008 visited East Park to ring the bell on the Rotary Cannonball.
The Friends of the 457 were convinced that we'd never find an original M&StL bell until one of the Friends noticed a dinner bell resembling a train bell at his church's summer camp in Brainerd, MN. On closer examination he discovered that it was an original M&StL train bell. History about how the bell ended up at the camp is sketchy. Sometime in the early seventies, someone who worked for the M&StL brought the bell to the camp and it was mounted on a tall tree stump. There it remained until the stump rotted out, then it was transferred to the camp's new assembly hall roof. The camp used it as a dinner bell, but as the area surrounding the camp became more populous, the camp agreed with its neighbors to ring it only to announce emergencies (it is loud!). The bell retained a special place in the hearts of decades of campers, but when the church decided to sell the campgrounds, an opportunity to obtain the bell presented itself. After a couple years of negotiations with the camp, it was agreed to swap their bell for the one we had on the Cannonball.
Friday, late evening, Nov 1, 2008 Dennis Wilson, Cliff Hagman, and their wives left for Brainerd, MN with the Cannonball's bell, to swap for the camp's bell. There were some concerns, especially the idea of carrying a brass bell and its cast iron yoke down the slope of a frost covered roof. Fortunately, the sun had melted frost off one side of the roof, and the day was beautiful. The camp caretaker had driven up from Minneapolis, and along with his son and granddaughter, had a tractor with its loader in place at the roof's edge to load the bell into. They had the bell unbolted from the roof waiting to help carry the two hundred pounds of brass and iron down to the loader. Once the bell was in Cliff's van, we inspected it closer. Stamped around the top of the bell we found the numbers 413, 475, and 631.
Thanks to our good friends Clark Propst and Gene Green, who have a wealth of M&StL knowledge and history, we found out the M&StL purchased a Baldwin 2-8-0 steam engine on Dec 12, 1910 sporting a shiny brass steam activated bell. The M&StL numbered the new engine 413. Later for some unknown reason it was renumbered to the 475. In August of 1935, the 475 was retired, and scrapped in Marshalltown, IA on November 22, 1935. Its bell was transferred to engine 631, another 2-8-0. Fifteen years later the 631 was scrapped in 1950. Most likely, our 457 was in that same batch of decommissioned locomotives in 1950, but got sold instead. Was it, "saved by the bell"?
We wonder, where was the bell for almost twenty years before it ended up as a dinner bell for the church camp?
We now have an original M&StL bell that was born in 1910. It graced two different M&StL engines before disappearing for almost twenty years, and then found a home at a church camp for the next thirty years. In the spring of 2009 the bell was mounted on the M&StL 457, a journey of almost one hundred years from when it first crowned a M&StL engine.
Owen and Brenda Currier cleaned up a hundred years of scratches and nicks and restored the bell to it's original brass finish The bell originally was steam activated. That assembly is missing, along with the original clapper. We want to restore that assembly along with an original clapper and have already begun our search.
Many thanks to Cliff Hagman, Dennis Wilson, Owen & Brenda Currier, and the former Community of Christ Eagle Lake Campgrounds management in Minnesota for this incredible addition to the 457 Cannonball.