Ulster & Delaware Railroad
Item: 2-U New Listing Price: $250.00
Remarks: ca. 1904-21
My guess, Bohannon forged.
Superb serif stamp marks and gold patina.
A centenarian rarity!
History
The Ulster and Delaware Railroad (U&D) was a railroad located in the state of New York. It was often advertised as "The Only All-Rail Route to the Catskill Mountains." At its greatest extent, the U&D extended 107 miles from Kingston Point on the Hudson River through the Catskill Mountains to its western terminus at Oneonta, passing through the counties of Ulster, Delaware, Schoharie and Otsego.
The U&D's peak year came in 1913, with 676,000 passengers carried up into the Catskills plus substantial amounts of freight. By the time of the Great Depression of 1929 and thereafter, most of the passenger traffic had been lost to private cars on improved highways, buses and shared limousines (called "hacks"); trucks had taken most of the non-commodity freight business; and the railroad was in serious financial trouble and a shadow of its former self. The New York Central acquired the failing U&D on February 1, 1932, under pressure from the Interstate Commerce Commission.
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Union Railroad Company
Item: 3-U Price: $75.00
Remarks: ca. 1904-21
Forged by the S.R. Slaymaker Co.
Superb serif stamp marks and patina.
100 year+ centenarian!
History
On July 2, 1894 the Union Railroad came into existence. From 1894-1907, the original URR extended from East Pittsburgh to Hays, a distance of six miles. The Union Railroad was unique given that it was basically a switching railroad and yet its loads were incredibly heavy made up of either; ore, coke, coal, slag or steel. This unique combination in addition to the steep grades around Pittsburgh demanded some special tractive force. In 1898 the largest locomotive of the time was built for the Union Railroad. The engine was a 2-8-0 had more weight on its drivers (208,000 pounds) than any built up to that time. This was locomotive 95 in the U RR. stable and according to the article was built by Pittsburg's Locomotive Works.
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Union Railroad Company
Item: 4-U Price: $60.00
Remarks: ca. 1904-21
Forged by the S.R. Slaymaker Co.
Nice serif stamp marks and patina.
100 year+ centenarian!
History - continued from above
Today the URR is a Class III switching railroad located in Allegheny County in Western Pennsylvania. The company is owned by Transtar, Inc., which is itself a subsidiary of USS Corp, more popularly known as United States Steel.
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 6-U Price: $115.00
Remarks: ca. early 1900s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Superb stamp marks and gold patina.
100 year+ centenarian beauty!
History
The original company was incorporated on July 1, 1862, under an act of Congress entitled Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. The act was approved by President Abraham Lincoln, and it provided for the construction of railroads from the Missouri River to the Pacific as a war measure for the preservation of the Union. It was constructed westwardly from Council Bluffs, Iowa to meet the Central Pacific line, which was constructed eastwardly from San Francisco Bay.
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 7-U Price: $115.00
Remarks: ca. early 1900s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Superb stamp marks and dark gold patina.
100 year+ centenarian beauty!
History - continued from above
The Union Pacific legacy began in 1862 with the original company, called the Union Pacific Rail Road, which was part of the First Transcontinental Railroad project, later known as the "Overland Route".Two more Union Pacific railroads were formed after that, the Union Pacific Railway (the second company) which absorbed the original company in 1880 and the Union Pacific "Railroad" (the third company) which absorbed the Union Pacific Railway in 1897-1898.
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 8-U Price: $75.00
Remarks: ca. early 1900s
Forged by the Adlake Co.
Superb stamp marks and bright gold patina.
History - continued from above
The current Union Pacific Railroad, the fourth incarnation, began in 1969 as the Southern Pacific Transportation Company (SP, SPTC or SPTCo), the last incarnation of the Southern Pacific railroad; the Southern Pacific Transportation Company became the fourth incarnation of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1998 with the Union Pacific-Southern Pacific merger which included SP's smaller railroads, the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, the St. Louis Southwestern Railway and the SPCSL Corporation. The current incarnation of the Union Pacific Railroad inherits all operations of the third Union Pacific Railroad. The current incarnation of the Union Pacific Railroad is referred to as Mark II. All together, a total of four railroads used the "Union Pacific" name; however, all four railroads are commonly grouped as one railroad.
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 9-U Price: $125.00
Remarks: ca. late 1800s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Early hex stamp = A&W 1st series.
Nice pocket worn stamp marks and gold patina.
125 year+ centenarian!
History - continued from above
The parent company, Union Pacific Corporation was established in 1969, the same year the current railroad (Mark II) began. Besides the Southern Pacific, the Denver and Rio Grande Western, the St. Louis Southwestern and the SPCSL Corporation, the parent company, Union Pacific Corporation, acquired other western railroads over the years such as the Missouri Pacific Railroad, the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, the Western Pacific Railroad and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and all became part of the Union Pacific system, growing the Union Pacific system.
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 10-U New Listing Price: $195.00
Remarks: ca. late 1800s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Early hex stamp = A&W 1st series.
Superb deep stamp marks and gold patina.
125 year+ centenarian beauty!
History - continued from above
Union Pacific Railroad is the principal operating company of Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP); both are headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Over the years Union Pacific Corporation has grown by acquiring other railroads, notably the Missouri Pacific, Chicago & North Western, Western Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, and the Southern Pacific (including the Denver & Rio Grande Western). Union Pacific Corporation's main competitor is the BNSF Railway, the nation's second largest freight railroad, which also primarily services the Continental U.S. west of the Mississippi River. Together, the two railroads have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the U.S.
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 11-U New Listing
Price: $175.00
Remarks: ca. late 1800s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Early A&W hex stamp = 1st series.
Superb stamp marks and bright gold patina.
125 year+ centenarian!
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 14-U Price: $125.00
Remarks: ca. 1904-21
Forged by the S.R. Slaymaker Co.
100 year+ centenarian Slaymaker rarity!
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 15-U New Scale Key Listing Price: $150.00
Remarks: ca. early/mid-1900s
Superb serif stamp marks and dark patina.
A rarity!
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 16-U Price: $75.00
Remarks: ca. early 1900s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Gotta love the two-tone patina on this
100 year+ centenarian!
Note
Set aside as sub-par, I always thought this pocket-worn key was of course, a UP key. The keys' bit is testament to the fact, it is indeed a UP key. That said, if you take a good look at the far left of the keys' hilt, you should see a faded N - then a YC which, I presume to be a NYC stamp. Interesting enough, the mystery deepens. The NYC stamp marks, are stamped way on the left of the keys' hilt and the 'RR' stamp is way over to the right of the hilt. This leads me to believe there was another railroad's (faded) stamp marks between the NYC and the RR stamps, which I presume to be UP. I believe the keys' original stamp marks to read - "NYC RR UP RR."
I have come across double stamped keys in the past and always found them interesting. The keys usually are stamped with one railroads initials (reporting marks) on one side and another railroads initials on the opposite side. Here we have an example of both railroad's stamp marks on the same side, which to me, is another anomaly. Whether the double stamp marks were a mis-hap at the foundry or intentional, the key is an anomaly and a great conversation piece.
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 17-U Price: $145.00
Remarks: ca. mid-1900s
Forged by the Adlake Co.
Superb stamp marks and gold patina.
Five roads = UP-Union Pacific | OSL-Oregon Short Line | SJGI-St. Joseph & Grand Island
LASL-Los Angeles & Salt Lake | OWRN-Oregon Washington R.R. & Navigation.
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 21-U road & bridge Price: $120.00 $110.00
Remarks: ca. early 1900s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Nice pocket worn stamp marks and gold patina.
No.5 issue-great oldie!
100 year+ centenarian!
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 23-U road & bridge Price: $150.00
Remarks: ca. late 1800s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Early A&W hex stamp = 1st series.
Superb deep stamp marks and yellow/gold patina.
125 year+ centenarian!
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 25-U tool rack key Price: $125.00
Remarks: ca. early 1900s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Great stamp marks and gold patina.
A nice 1!
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 26-U tool rack key Price: $75.00
Remarks: ca. mid-1900s
Forged by the Adlake Co.
Attractive copper patina.
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 27-U tool rack key Price: $125.00
Remarks: ca. early 1900s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Nice stamp marks and two-tone patina.
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 29-U motive power & cab key Price: $85.00
Remarks: ca. mid-1900s.
Superb serif stamp marks and gold patina.
Like new!
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 31-U coach/cab key Price: $95.00
Remarks: ca. early/mid 1900s
Forged by the Adlake Co.
Nice pair - 1 old and 1 very old!
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Union Pacific Railroad
Item: 33-U Price: $35.00
Remarks: Union Pacific high security steel key.
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United States Steel
(USS)-Lorain Tubular Operation
Item: 35-U Price: $75.00
Remarks: ca. mid-late 1900s
Superb serif stamp marks and copper patina.
A rarity.
History
Lorain Tubular Operations, located approximately 30 miles west of Cleveland, Ohio, manufactures high-quality seamless pipe for customers in the construction and oil and gas exploration and production industries. The facility has an annual production capability of 780,000 net tons, and major product lines include oil country tubing, casing and drill pipe; standard and line pipe; and coupling stock.
U.S. Steel once owned the Northampton & Bath Railroad. The N&B was an 11-kilometer (6.8 mi) short line railroad built in 1904 that served Atlas Cement in Northampton, Pennsylvania, and Keystone Cement in Bath, Pennsylvania. By 1979 cement shipments had dropped off such that the railroad was no longer economically viable and the line was abandoned. A 1.5-kilometer (0.93 mi) section of track was retained to serve Atlas Cement. The remainder of the right-of-way was transformed into the Nor-Bath Trail.
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Union Stockyards & Transfer Co.
(Chicago)
Item: 38-U Price: $95.00
Remarks: ca. early 1900s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Superb stamp marks and patina. There
are about 6 different styles of USY&TCO keys.
As listed here, 3 different barrel styles.
100 year+ centenarian!
History
The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or the Yards, was the meatpacking district in Chicago for more than a century, starting in 1865. The district was operated by a group of railroad companies that acquired swampland and turned it to a centralized processing area. By the 1890s, the railroad money behind the Union Stockyards was Vanderbilt money. The Union Stockyards operated in the New City community area for 106 years, helping Chicago become known as "hog butcher for the world" and the center of the American meatpacking industry for decades.
When the Union Stock Yard and Transit Company of Chicago was incorporated in 1865 to consolidate the Chicago stock yards, its powers included the construction of a railroad outside the city limits (then Pershing Road and Western Avenue) to link the stock yards with the railroads entering Chicago south of Roosevelt Road. All nine of these railroads - the Chicago & Alton Railroad, Chicago-Burlington & Quincy Railroad, Chicago & Great Eastern Railway, Chicago & North Western Railway, Chicago & Rock Island Railroad, Illinois Central Railroad, Michigan Central Railroad, Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad, and Pittsburgh-Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway - had previously come to an agreement to finance the new property as a replacement for their individual yards.
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Union Stockyards & Transfer Co.
(Chicago)
Item: 39-U Price: $125.00
Remarks: ca. early 1900s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Superb stamp marks and two-tone patina.
Double digit serial #
Same style cut as key below.
100 year+ centenarian!
History - continued from above
Settlement in the area that was to become known as the "Back of the Yards" began in the 1850s before there were any meat packers or stockyards in the area. At this time the area was known as the "Town of Lake." Indeed, the area would continue to be called Town of Lake until 1939. Witness that the newspaper of the area was called the Town of Lake Journal. Only with the founding of the community organization called the "Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council" in 1939 did the neighborhood west and south of the meat packinghouses start being called the "Back of the Yards." It was a name that the residents proudly claimed as their own. In 1939, the Town of Lake Journal officially changed its name to Back of the Yards Journal.
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Union Stockyards & Transfer Co.
(Chicago)
Item: 40-U New Listing Price: $125.00
Remarks: ca. late 1800s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Superb stamp marks and gold patina.
Got to love the serial #222!
Same style cut as key above.
100 year+ centenarian!
History - continued from above
From the Civil War until the 1920s and peaking in 1924, more meat was processed in Chicago than in any other place in the world. Construction began in June 1865 with an opening on Christmas Day in 1865. The Yards closed at midnight on Friday, July 30, 1971, after several decades of decline during the decentralization of the meatpacking industry. The Union Stock Yard Gate was designated a Chicago Landmark on February 24, 1972, and a National Historic Landmark on May 29, 1981.
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Union Stockyards & Transfer Co.
(Chicago)
Item: 41-U Price: $375.00
Remarks: ca. early 1900s
Forged by the Adams & Westlake Co.
Superb stamp marks and two-tone patina.
A very rare key and a beauty!
One of a kind in circulation!
100 year+ centenarian!
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Union Stockyards of Omaha
Item: 44-U Price: $95.00
Remarks: ca. turn of the century.
Superb stamp marks and dark
C = cattle yard?
100 year+ centenarian!
History
The Union Stockyards of Omaha, Nebraska, were founded in 1883 in South Omaha by the Union Stockyards Company of Omaha. A fierce rival of Chicago's Union Stockyards, the Omaha Union Stockyards were third in the United States for production by 1890. In 1947 they were second to Chicago in the world. Omaha overtook Chicago as the nation's largest livestock market and meat packing industry center in 1955, a title which it held onto until 1971. The 116-year-old institution closed in 1999. The Livestock Exchange Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
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United Traction Company
Item: 46-U New Listing Price: $145.00
Remarks: ca. early 1900s
Very nice stamp marks and gold patina.
History
The first test of an electric trolley in Albany was on a Sunday in 1889 on State St. (much to the surprise of St. Peter's Church parishioners who has not been told this would happen). Soon trolley poles dotted the city, as electric trolleys were phased in. The power plant was located on South Pearl and Gansevoort, near the location of an old Mohawk and Hudson railroad round house). The transition to all electric cars in Albany was completed in 1894.
The Albany Railway Co. started buying competitors in Albany, Troy, Watervliet and Cohoes. The name was changed to the United Traction Company (UTC) in 1899. It commissioned anew office on the corner of Broadway and Columbia St. designed by the preeminent architect Marcus Reynolds (who also designed the D & H Building and the Delaware Ave. fire house). The building, although it needs some TLC, remains on that corner.
Buses began to run in areas of the city and adjacent suburbs in which residential development was growing exponentially, including New Scotland Ave. and Whitehall Rd. where there were no trolleys. By 1922 there were already bus companies serving these areas. It simply wasn't financially feasible for the UTC to invest in trolley infrastructure. The UTC started acquiring bus lines and substituting bus service for trolleys.
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V
Vandalia Railroad
Item: 4-V car key Price: $75.00
Remarks: ca. early 1900s
Bohannan forged?
Nice stamp marks and gold patina.
Vandalia & Pennsy post 1917 merger key.
Key has a Pennsy style bit.
100 year+ centenarian!
History
The Vandalia Railroad was formed in 1905 by a merger of several lines in Indiana and Illinois including the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad and the St. Louis-Vandalia & Terre Haute Railroad which covered a route from Indianapolis, Indiana to St. Louis, Missouri. Another route between Terre Haute, Indiana and Toledo, was created with the inclusion of the Terre Haute & Logansport and Logansport & Toledo branches.
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Vandalia Railroad
Item: 5-V car key Price: $95.00
Remarks: ca. pre-1927
Forged by the Wilson Bohannan Co.
Nice serif stamp marks and gold patina.
Vandalia & Pennsy post 1917 merger key.
100 year+ centenarian!
History - continued from above
In 1917 the line was acquired by the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati-Chicago & St. Louis Railroad (the Panhandle) giving the Pennsylvania Railroad a direct route from New York City to St. Louis. In 1968 PRR merged with New York Central Railroad to become Penn Central and in 1976 becoming part of Conrail. Much of the North-South line was abandoned with the Conrail formation but parts of the East-West line survive as part of CSX Transportation.
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Virginian Railway
Item: 4-V Price: $150.00
Remarks: ca. early 1900s
Bohannan forged?
Nice serif stamp marks and two-tone patina.
An oldie for sure!
History
The Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia. The VGN was created to transport high quality smokeless bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads. The Virginian was considered a folly at the time of construction, as so much capital was spent on making the railroad as flat and straight as possible, "As though the Virginia hills did not exist." In the long run this proved to be a very profitable route as operating costs were low due to the relative lack of grades and little curvature of track. Throughout a profitable 50-year history, VGN continued the Page-Rogers philosophy of "paying up front for the best." It achieved best efficiencies in the mountains, rolling piedmont and flat tidewater terrain. Known for operating some of the largest and best steam, electric, and diesel motive power, it became nicknamed "Richest Little Railroad in the World." Merged into the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1959, a large portion of the former VGN remains in service today.
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Switch Key Directory
American Railway's Switch Key Directory
Price: HC-$25.00 | CD-$35
Whether you're just starting out collecting switch key's or you have been a collector for many years, this 44-page switch key directory is a useful tool. Although, it does not list every railroad key there is, the directory has a 3-D diagram for the most common railroad keys in the collectors circle. With a CD, you can copy the directory to your hard drive and view and enlarge the pages on your computer screen. Price does not include shipping fees.
Upon request, I will "three ring" the pages for a book binder.
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Don Stewart's Railroad Switch Keys and Padlocks
Switch Keys and Locks Directory
Price: HC-$65.00 | CD-$55
One of the lesser known railroad directories is Don Stewart's Railroad Switch Keys and Padlocks Directory. The book includes 56 pages of switch key pictures, 12 pages of switch lock pictures, 12 supplemental pages including, 2 Canadian key picture pages and 32 pages of railroad names. It's another handy tool for beginners and even veteran collectors. The book contains 117 pages in all and is a ink jet printed copy of the original book. As noted, the CD copy is less expensive than a hard copy. The reason; printer ink and paper prices. With a CD, you can copy the directory to your hard drive and view and enlarge the pages on your computer screen. Price does not include shipping fees.
Upon request, I will "three ring" the pages for a book binder.
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Dates quoted for keys are approximate dates. Railroad switch keys initials (reporting mark) are assumed to be correct and accurate.
Comments on any railroad initials origin, including (typos), are welcome. Last update 08/20/2025
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