Trying to identify a lock

I was given this lock and key around 1992, when i was but a wee lad.

Has K7 stamped on the lock's hoop and 90 on the rivet for the hoop.

key is stamped ADLAKE

http://www.jmarkit.com/gallery2/main.ph ... ewsIndex=1

is there any name or letters stamped on the back of the lock??

none, oddly enough

It looks like the kind of keys and locks in use on Metro-North at one time.

-otto-

best way to make some sort of possable I.D. would be to take a pic of the end of the key (the end that gos in the lock) so that someone who has a book on railroad keys can give you a narrow list of possable lines. I would assume that the key opens the lock?

Anyone know if the old Key, Lock & Lantern group is still extant? They published over the years diagrams of most known railroad switch key bits. These appeared in their newsletters and I believe that they were incorporated into a book. The Rochester, NY NRHS chapter may possibly have information in their reference library.

Adlake makes a very standard lock for different railroads the key is most defenitely not Metro North,, its keyed different.

DutchRailnut wrote:Adlake makes a very standard lock for different railroads the key is most defenitely not Metro North,, its keyed different.

thanks... this is still perplexing me.

I have a similar key in my collection but it also has no initials on it and I
can't recall just how it came into my collection.
I can tell you that it did not come from New Haven, New York Central,
Pennsylvania, Penn Central, Conrail, Amtrak, Metro-North, Delaware and
Hudson, Boston and Maine or Erie Lackawanna.
Having said that, it still leaves a number of places that it could have come
from you. Adlake made locks to individual railroad specs and they made
a lot of them over the years. Locks of this time may still be found here
and there but they are no longer in general use especially on switches
where the railroads have generally gone to a higher security switch lock.
Sorry I can't help you out better than that on this one.
Noel Weaver

The rule with collecting railroad hardware (As been told to me) is, "If it's not stamped or stenciled with a railroad name, it didn't belong to a railroad."

Rochester Chapter sells a book cataloging various pieces of Adlake keys and hardware, you may want to check that out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Railroad-Locks-and- ... dZViewItem

-otto-

The lock and key are most certainly railroad, the question is which one.

Otto Vondrak wrote:The rule with collecting railroad hardware (As been told to me) is, "If it's not stamped or stenciled with a railroad name, it didn't belong to a railroad."

You were told wrong ... plenty of railroads out there used unmarked locks and keys. Most of the "high security" switch locks and keys out there today are marked only with a three-digit number.

Correct why put name of a railroad on a switch lock or key, it would only become a tool to someone who is up to no good.

I have many railroad keys in my collection that have no initials on them
but they are still railroad and I used a fair number of them.
I even have some fairly old keys with no initials on them.
Noel Weaver

I hired on SCL in 1979 and they used similiar locks and keys. We had old SAL and ACL (Rocky Mount, NC was an old Coastline rail yard) locks and keys. Our keys, or at least the ones I have, are stamped SCL on the keys with a number and also a "ADLAKE" stamp. The keys worked not only the locks, but also some engines doors (probably old GP-7,8 or 9"s, maybe the GP-16's), caboose doors and some railroad crossing gate key-ups. Rocky Mount crews worked some of the old territory of the Atlantic Coastline and the Seaboard Airline so we have to have two sets of keys depending on the territory or train we were protecting. I think the Coastline key had a curve in it while the Airline key had a straight end.
Some of those old keys were a prized possession when I first hired out