Restoration Update: Polishing the Bell
- Dec 24, 2023
- 2 min read
Our last update for 2023 befits the season. For the first time in decades No. 9’s big brass bell sparkles. No. 9’s bell has been polished and the 102-year-old bell looks new again.
During recent rains Jeff Millerick took a break from working on No. 9’s boiler jacket (the sheet metal that goes over the boiler) and began work on the bell. Polishing a 12 1/2-inch brass bell is a delicate process, removing decades of oxidized metal, but only enough to see the glimmering brass show.
It took a few days of hand work but Jeff was done the Friday before Christmas. Photos show his work.
All best wishes for the new year to all the Friends of No. 9.
Fred Runner
President
Friends of No. 9, Inc.
A Nonprofit Corporation
A light rain washes the bulk of No. 9 a few months after Friends of No. 9 moved the engine to Sonoma. Polishing the gray-green bell would be part of our restoration work.
The pockmarked finish of the brass bell showed how Pacific Lumber had sandblasted every part of the locomotive in its restoration in the early 1950s. The soft brass was pitted where the hardened steel parts showed nothing.
On a rainy day in November 2023, Jeff Millerick tried polishing part of the bell.
Working in a rhythmic figure-8 pattern, Jeff carefully filed off years of gray-green corrosion, rotating the bell every half minute, working his way from a course file to fine and then emery paper. Nearly all of it by hand over several days.
The final stage of polishing was buffing the brass to a shiny mirror-like finish. Steam locomotive engineer David Waterman said, "Hot dang that looks good."
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