Railroad screw locks

wylk

These rather common screw locks were (and sometimes still are) used by railroads for low-security applications. But I haven’t been able to find out very much about their history.

I haven’t found any patents (tried searching for “screw lock”, RACO, etc.).

I haven’t found out much about RACO, possibly an abbreviation for Railroad Accessory COmpany (except an implication they were once known as SACO).

Safetran still markets these, see http://www.safetran.com/product/Signal/pdf%20Ksection/SIG%20K-6-1.pdf

There is a bit of history that I think involves WRRS here but they no longer make screw locks: About Western-Cullen-Hayes

Can anybody fill in historical background and/or patents?

Jim

Angusbuddy

Can’t help with the patent stuff but the abbreviation is for the Railway Association Corporation. I remember a newletter article about them some years back (6-8 maybe) seems they were orginized or incorporated by a group of the larger railroads coming together to establish a sort of standard in the hardware that was being put out there for use. I’ll look back in my old newsletters and post the article if I can find it. Hope this helps?

wylk

Thanks for pointing me in another direction regarding what RACO stood for, I tried searching for that and other variations. It turns it it was Railroad Accessories Corporation which had many patents, the earliest being filed in 1920. The screw lock patent number is 2,079,578 which was filed in 1934. In the 1970s, RACO was acquired by CCI, then it was spun off along with a company called MIPCO to form Safetran (still owned by CCI at the time).

If you find the article you mentioned, I’d still be interested, it undoubtedly has more information.

Jim

wylk

An article on RACO locks appeared in the September/October 2014 issue of the Journal of Lock Collecting. Here’s a quick summary.

Signal Accessories Company (SACO) was formed in 1906 and their locks used a cast iron body with brass screw.

SACO became the Railroad Accessories Company (RACO) in 1920. A few locks have RACO cast on one side and SACO on the other side. A design change held the screw captive so it would not get lost.

The company became SAFETRAN (Safetran Systems Corporation) in 1971. A recent search reveals they are now Invensys Rail Corporation, part of Siemens Mobility Division. It’s not clear to me whether they still make screw locks.