Found a J & J Taylor Safe

ifly4pie

Hi everyone. This is my first post on this fine forum you all have here. Thanks for having me.

Anyway, I found this J & J Taylor safe in the basement of the house I just bought. I’m in Prince George, BC Canada if that helps the story in any way shape or form. Forgive my ignorance but I know nothing of antique safes other than the fact that they’re old and they look cool. The details are as follows;

-On the top is written “Grand Trunk Pacific RY” assuming it was owned by someone that worked on and during the construction of the transcontinental railway in Western Canada.
-There seems to be original documentation in one of the drawers inside the safe
-The safe is not locked but a combination code appears on one of the docs(the only reason I haven’t tried it is because it looks as if it’s been retrofitted with a new dial lock)
-Inside is a wooden structure that holds 2 small, narrow drawers.

Where can I find a date plate or part number/serial number on the safe? I assume this would help date the safe. If you folks could give me some information pertaining to the safe, that would be great!

Photos attached…I could take more photos if it’ll help

Thanks!

Chris

Timothy

At looking front of dial the Patent Date read May 22 1906. That could be the date as most safe have plate inside with the date….Timothy…

Tom Gordon

Well that railway was finished in 1885 and a safe like that could have been in any station office or onboard the train.
Safe locks do get changed sometimes -I dont know exactly why you think this one was changed -the dials normally stayed the same unless someone hit them with a sledgehammer.
So you know that the dial was a little while AFTER 1906 and the safe after 1880 but I am afraid that I do not have intimite knowledge of safes from “The Western Territories” as we used to call them back then.
What I would strongly suggest is that you DO try the combination WITH THE DOOR OPEN now. If the instructions do not instruct you enough in how to dial a combination safe then ask here.
If you leave it, then someone is likely to put the paperwork with the combination inside the safe, turn the handle and spin the dial at some point. If the stated combination is correct and you have another copy of that, then you can always open it again. If it is the wrong combination, then it is very much more difficult to sort it out with the door locked…but with the door open any locksmith can quickly sort it out.

Dean Nickel

Open the door and lock the bolts. Try the combination. This way if the combination doesn’t work it is easy to change it, in that the door is locked open. Much cheaper to fix.