A little story.
I've still got the caboose key the MK&T railroad issued me back in 1976. It's brass, but other than that it looks just like any other skeleton key.
There is an MKT diesel locomotive at a local museum. They've got an MKT caboose, too. That key fits doors on both pieces of equipment.
I'm a current employee of the UP. Any more, they're hell on "lock the cabs of engines that you leave out away from a terminal, unattended. They've got a special key that fits the locks they've installed on the front doors. Everyone gets a key.
On the back doors, though, nearly every door is equipped with a sliding deadbolt kinda thing.
But, some of our engines have got an actual lock mechanism in the door handle assembly. It takes a skeleton key. My MKT caboose key fits it. I've actually used it to get in the back doors of engines before, to save me from having to walk all the way back to the rear, drop off and walk up to the front to open that door.
I was up getting a key made at the local locksmith place the other day. They have quite a selection of skelton keys, still, and while I was standing there I mentioned what my caboose key was... and gave it to the lady to compare with the keys they had hanging on the rack. Some were nearly identical.
All this to tell you that it isn't necessarily going to take a railroad specific caboose key to open that lock. Go to a locksmith type place, explain what you're doing and beg them to let you take a selection of keys with you to try... and bring the excess back and buy what fits.
| Attachments: |
|
555-crop.jpg [ 199.39 KiB | Viewed 2779 times ] |