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...
My Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My Dead General Signals Type 1 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My 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.
My General Signals Type 2 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My General Signals Type 2 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My General Signals Type 2 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My General Signals Type 2 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My General Signals Type 2 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My General Signals Type 2 Electronic Bell by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My 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:
Mounting Bolts for my GS Type 2 by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
And here are my two GS e-bells together:
Both 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.