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Railroad Keys
In order to use the wide variety of locks that railroads used to secure
switches, signals, buildings, and other facilities, employees were issued
special keys. Such keys were carefully guarded and were carried at all
times on the job. Losing a key was once considered grounds for instant
dismissal, and the story goes that the wife of more than one railroad
man would safeguard his keys while he was off the job lest he lose them
at the local watering hole! Today, keys from long-gone railroads are
much prized by collectors, with rare ones having substantial value.
 Railroad keys were typically made of brass. As with locks, there are
different styles of keys, but the majority of railroad keys were of a
standard size made to fit a switch lock, with the bit customized to fit
the particular locks of each railroad. Typically, keys were marked with
a railroad's name or initials An example is shown above right, marked
for the Northern Pacific Railway and manufactured by Adams & Westlake.A
number of manufacturers made keys for railroad use. Below we present
a variety of key markings from different manufacturers, courtesy of Bill
Kajdzik who kindly provided these digital scans.
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| From
left to right: Adams & Westlake Co. (Chicago),
ARO, and C.T. Fraim (Lancaster, PA). |
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| From
left to right: M.M. Buck, Handlan, and Handlan-Buck,
all incarnations of the same company in St. Louis, MO. |
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| From
left to right: J.L. Howard & Co. (Hartford, CT),
Loeffel Holz & Co, (Milwaukee, WI) and F.S. Hardware Co. (Lancaster,
PA). |
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| From left to right: Romer & Co.
(Newark, NJ), Thomas Slaight (Newark NJ), and Slaymaker (Lancaster,
PA). |
Acknowledgments: Thanks to Bill Kajdzik for the digital
scans.
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