My General Signals Electronic Bells

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My General Signals Electronic Bells

Post by freebrickproductions » Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:29 pm

Since I have a couple of General Signals e-bells now, I figured it was high time to actually get around to making a post about them.

The first bell I got back at the end of March. It's a dead General Signals Type 1 electronic bell I had found laying on the ground at the Queenstown Road crossing in Alton, AL. As far as I could tell, the bell had only been replaced rather recently with a new WCH Type 4 e-bell, but the maintainer forgot to pick-up the dead bell after removing it. GS Type 1s have my favorite sound out of any electronic bell, so I'm glad to have this one, even if it doesn't work. I'd like to find a working one some day, however. Pretty much all of the bolts and screws on this one were rusted to hell and back, so no point in trying to repair this one, IMHO (though I will admit that I did try a little bit).
One interesting thing to note about these bells is that apparently at least one of the chips has "RXR Bell-WCH" written on a label on it. Maybe WCH helped General Signals with their earlier bells? I know the "Prototype" GS Type 1s feature a WCH base on them, so I'd say it's entirely possible...
ImageMy Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr



A few days ago, I had seen where a seller out in Los Angeles, CA, was selling a bunch of crossings bells (primarily e-bells, surprisingly) for a pretty decent price, so I decided to go ahead and get a General Signals Type 2 they were selling. Ebay said that it'd arrive on or by October 8th, but it wound-up arriving a few days early on October 3rd! This bell is in much better shape than my GS Type 1, and plus, it actually works! While this bell ain't my favorite one out there, it is pretty nice to have.
ImageMy General Signals Type 2 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy General Signals Type 2 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy General Signals Type 2 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy General Signals Type 2 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy General Signals Type 2 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy General Signals Type 2 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy General Signals Type 2 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
The mounting bolts for the bell were sent in a little bag by the seller:
ImageMounting Bolts for my GS Type 2 by freebrickproductions, on Flickr




And here are my two GS e-bells together:
ImageBoth of my General Signals Electronic Bells by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

As I stated in one of the videos above, there are a few small physical differences that can reliably tell a GS Type 1 from a GS Type 2 more reliably than just how faded the bells are, and they are as follows:
  • General Signals Type 1 e-bells are slightly taller than a General Signals Type 2.
  • On the base of the bell, the screws attaching it to the rest of the body are about in the middle of the band on a GS Type 1 while a GS Type 2 has they close to the top.
  • The speaker holes on a GS Type 1 are slightly smaller and located slightly higher up on a GS Type 1, while the GS Type 2 typically has them larger with the bottom edge pretty much being right next to the base (and the larger size, combined with the overall smaller bell means that the speakers on these typically stick out from the top of the holes a bit).
  • The screws on the cap of a GS Type 1 have a bit of space between them and the edge of the cap, while a GS Type 2 has the screws located right next to the edge of the cap.
  • GS Type 1s have the screws holding in the circuit-board and speaker mount on the top of the bell, while all later General Signals bells lack them.
As far as I'm aware, the only major physical difference from the GS Type 2 I have to a GS Type 3 is that the GS Type 3s have slightly shorter speaker holes, meaning that the bottom edge isn't right next to the base anymore. However, I've heard that later GS Type 2s also featured this change, so I can't say if this would be a reliable way to identify a GS Type 3 from a GS Type 2.
They/Them for me, please.

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Re: My General Signals Electronic Bells

Post by freebrickproductions » Wed Oct 30, 2019 7:43 pm

Got another General Signals e-bell from eBay yesterday, and finally got around to testing it earlier today. This one is a GS Type 1 that thankfully works! However, interestingly enough, this one appears to be a later version of the bell when compared to my other General Signals Type 1.
The bell is just slightly shorter than my other GS Type 1, but it isn't as short as my GS Type 2. It also has the screws on the base located closer to the speaker holes, like on my GS Type 2. The speaker holes themselves are also thinner than my other GS Type 1, but are still the same height, which makes them noticeably smaller than on another other GS e-bell, it seems. The tone also seems to be sharper, but quieter, than on most other GS Type 1s, though I'm not sure if that was just the way it was made, of if that's due to the electrical components inside the bell aging.
It appears that this design of the bell would've been made around 2000, which appears to have been when GS started making the Type 2, as a few of the older GS Type 2s I've found have used this design of bell.
The bell itself is also in pretty decent shape, physically. The paint isn't as faded on it as my other GS Type 1, and there isn't as big of rust marks around the screws on the top of the bell. There is a dent in the screen at the bottom of the front-side of the bell, but I don't really mind that too much. The ends of the old wires leading up to the bell are also still attached at the bottom as well, which is kinda neat, IMHO. All in all, it's nice to finally have one of these e-bells that works!

ImageMy (Working) General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy (Working) General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy (Working) General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy (Working) General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy (Working) General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy (Working) General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy Three General Signals e-bells by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
ImageMy Three General Signals e-bells by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

They/Them for me, please.

Click here if you want to submit crossing photos to the site!

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