The History of the Rotary Cannonball

"An Original Minneapolis & St Louis Bell is Located and Obtained for the 457."

Click Here to for the Bell Images

In November 2008, an original bell from the M&StL was located and will be
prepared for mounting on the locomotive in time for the final dedication of
the 457 renovation, and observance of the 50th anniversary of the locomotive
being in East Park. Here is the story, as best as can be pieced together at
this time;

In 1910 the M&StL purchased a Baldwin 2-8-0 steam engine. That engine
rolled out of the Baldwin Locomotive Works 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.

Meanwhile, the M&StL 457 which was built in 1912 by the American Locomotive
Company, continued in M&StL service, and instead of being scrapped in 1950
was sold to the American Crystal Sugar company at Mason City, IA. 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, for that is the last
picture we have of the engine with the bell, 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 through the sale of brass
donated by members of the community.

Finally in 2005, a bell was purchased and yoke cast from aluminum. Although
the bell was smaller than the original, it still served its purpose with
thousands of kids over the last three seasons being thrilled to ring the
bell on the Cannonball.

We were convinced that we'd never find an original M&StL bell until Cliff
Hagman noticed his church's summer camp in Brainerd, MN had a dinner bell
resembling a train bell. On closer examination he discovered that it was a
M&StL train bell. History on how the bell ended up where it was, is sketchy.
Sometime in the early seventies, someone who worked on 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 assembly hall
roof. The camp used it as a dinner bell, but as the area around the camp became
more populous, the camp agreed with its neighbors to use it only to announce
emergencies. 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 we left for Brainerd, MN with the
Cannonball's bell to swap for the camp's bell. We and our wives had some
concerns, especially the idea of carrying a brass bell and its cast iron
yoke down a Minnesota morning 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 in. They had the bell unbolted from the roof waiting for us
to help carry the two hundred pounds of brass and iron down to the loader.
Once we had the bell 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 bell first was on the 413, which was
later renumbered to the 475. Later it went to the 631 which was scrapped in 1950.

The big question, is 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 will be reset on the M&StL 457, a journey of almost one
hundred years from when it first crowned a M&StL engine.

Presently, Owen Currier is working on the bell to restore its brass finish
and clean up a hundred years of scratches and nicks. The bell 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 Currier, and the Community
of Christ Eagle Lake Campgrounds for this incredible addition to the 457
Cannonball.