Fwd: RE: FW: ASM - and a bell found in Norfolk, UK

[Richard Grimmett]

I received this email today:


Dear Mr Grimmett,

Sorry for the delay in answering your question about the bell you found
in Norfolk - I contacted a previous curator of the Transnet Heritage
Museum and Library and he gave me a very interesting story.


The company that cast the bell was the company building the Esslinger
locomotives. They were/are in Germany. The NZASM Company bought a few
steam locomotives from them in the late 1890's. We suspect that they
cast the bell as a gift for the NZASM Company. We are not sure if they
only gave the company one bell or if more bells were given.

The bell that we know of was placed on the Johannesburg Station Platform
1 - then known as Park Station - please see photo attached of Park
station 1895. (This station was later dismantled and placed at the
railway training college.)When the three railway companies in South
Africa amalgamated in 1910 to form one company (South African Railway
and Harbours) SAR&H all assets were brought over to the new company. The
known bell was later classified as a Museum piece and placed on the
existing Johannesburg station Platform 1.

In the 1980's the bell disappeared from the Station and through the
grape wine the previous curator heard that the bell was sold to a
Railway enthusiast and sent to the UK.

We are not sure if the bell that you discovered is this bell - but it
looks as if it can be the bell that disappeared from the Johannesburg
Station.

Kind regards

Yolanda

Yolanda Meyer


           
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