2092 bell

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 10:19:13 EDT 
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject:  2092 

    
The messages about the 2092 rang a bell with me,
literally. When I was about 16 in the late 50s and
living in Lynchburg, Va., I was picking up plates and
so on from scrap yards.  People began to know that I
was interested in railroad "junk."  A local antique
dealer, and there weren't many in those days, brought
me a bell to clean up for her to sell in her shop. 
All she had been told about it was that it was N&W and
that the engine had been in a wreck a long time prior.
The cast iron cradle and brass bell were in fine
shape, just very dirty and tarnished. As I cleaned
away the crud I found the number 2092 stamped into the
flat area at the top of the bell. It was a very deep
stamp, probably 1/8th of an inch deep, I remember.
While I was away in college in early 60s the bell was
sold and I never knew where it went.
 
Aubrey Wiley
Lynchburg, Va.


Hello, Aubrey:

Hmmmm, I don't know where the bell went but I do
recall that artifacts like that went for about $50
back them.  Of course, that was a lot of money for us
poverty-strickened college students, but I think we
all occasionally wish there was a time machine we
could get on with a fist-full of $20s and a
videocamera....

Best wishes from up the Valley,

Frank

=====
Dr. Frank R. Scheer, Curator
Railway Mail Service Library, Inc.
f_scheer at yahoo.com
(202) 268-2121 - weekday office
(540) 837-9090 - weekend afternoons 
in the former N&W station on VA rte 723 
117 East Main Street 
Boyce  VA  22620-9639