Railroad Locks

Railroad locks are fun (and useful) items to collect. Many of these spent long careers outdoors in all sorts of weather protecting whatever they were put on from vandalism and theft. Many were witness to steam locomotives and the conversion from steam to diesel. Many have long outlived the railroads that originally purchased them. The DL&W lock is a car or signal lock. The other 3 are switch locks, used to keep track switches from being thrown by unauthorized people. A railroads' switch locks were usually operated by one common key. This way the same key could open hundreds of locks. It saved train crews from having to carry many different keys and trying to figure out what key opens what lock. Car locks were not common keyed. Only the person holding the proper key could unlock the car to prevent theft. Tool sheds had their own locks, again, not common keyed. The maintainers were responsible for their own tools. You didn't want Joe from area A to be able to open your cabinet in area B and take your tool to replace the one that he lost! The PRR lock I show is the last style used by the PRR. It was also the first style used by Penn Central after the PRR - NYC merger. As a result the PRR key shown opens 2 PRR locks and 2 PC locks that I own. I have 2 PC keys and 2 PRR keys and each one works any of the 4 locks. I use these locks on my storage facilities. I only have to carry one key to open any of my units.