Electronic Bells, or E-Bells, use a circuit board and an outdoor speaker in an attempt to simulate the sound of a mechanical bell. Some E-Bells play compressed, low quality recordings of real mechanical bells, while others produce a purely digital tone. As of 2025, there are no electronic bells that play mechanical bell sounds in high fidelity (indistinguishable from the real thing).

E-Bells are the go-to choice for many railroads due to their ability to produce a bell tone reminiscent to a mechanical bell, without requiring the maintenance or posing the hazards associated with installing one (E-Bells weigh a fraction of their mechanical counterparts). Most mechanical bells have been replaced by electronic bells.

Being a purely electronic device, E-Bells are not as robust as mechanical bells, and typically experience faults after a decade or two. Repairing an electronic bell requires experience with soldering and circuit knowledge, so most railroads throw faulty E-Bells away. On rare occasion, faulty E-Bells are repaired using unorthodox methods, such as replacing the original circuit board with a circuit board made by a completely different manufacturer.