Hello All,
I have some information / observations for the Environmental Series that may be of some use and that I have not seen discussed as yet.
But first, if anyone out there feels the details might jeopardize security, then feel free to take this post down. I will not shed any tears and understand completely.
A close friend of mine is actively employed in the railroad industry, and allowed me to examine his set of S&G Environmental Series keys. He has a 101, 102, 104, 107, 107A, 109. Yes, he has a 107 (cast stainless) and a 107A (machined brass). All keys have serial numbers. All keys are in active service.
First, I took note that his 107A differed greatly from the one in Mister Sours' image. While Mister Sour's is a three bit, the 107A in my friends possession examined is a four bit. As I said, the key is currently in service on a railroad here in the Northeast, so with all due respect, I am not going to post the dimensions of the bits or an image, but I will list the following:
(bow) 0 90 0 45 (tip) "ACAB"
The bits are not of equal length nor do they conform to the standardized bit length (which I will this discuss later). The key is of machined brass, like Mister Sours. Which led to me to wonder why the 107A keys would be in brass, and the others cast stainless, even the 107.
What I have come up with, is the following: The cast stainless keys (101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111 and 112 - presuming 108, 110 and 111 - which I've never seen) are high volume and mass produced in molds, hence their pebble finish even on the bits and in the cuts. Therefore, a 102 used on a RR on the west coast would be the same as a 102 on an east coast RR. Ok, no revelation there.
BUT, as I noticed, the 107A's bits and cuts appear to be machined / milled. Why machine a key, when you are already molding them? In this case, I think the answer is: to produce a limited amount of special format keys. Logically, brass is definitely easier and cheaper to machine than stainless, hence its choice as material.
Therefore my conclusion is that the 107A's are machined to order per request by individual railroads on an "as requested" basis. This would make sense since a smaller RR might only want 500 or 1000 locks (where as a big Class 1 railroad may purchase 10,000 or more); and the small RR wants it different from the neighboring connecting RR, would dictate a custom bit arrangement. Type the design and quantity into a CNC milling machine, and "presto". It really isn't that much of a hassle.
This would allow a smaller regional / short line RR to ask S&G for a non-standard /custom arrangement, whether for a little added security or for segregation from neighboring RR. The railroad that the 107A key I examined is for a Class 2 regional RR, which interchanges with three Class 1 RR's: Canadian Pacific, Norfolk Southern and CSX. Therefore, this regional RR must not want a key commonly available to NS or CP crews, so it custom ordered a different key from S&G. (And as CSX uses American H-10, that eliminates an issue with them).
Now why S&G chose to use the number "107A" for these custom brass keys instead of "100" or "113", is beyond me.
Again, this is only hypothesis. The only fact I have is having seen differing 107A keys and trying to figure out "why".
Ok, technical details:
Looking at the images on this thread, the other Sargent & Greenleaf thread in this forum, BosnianBill's Youtube video, and the keys I have encountered, I have discerned the following:
101 through 104 and 106, 107, 109 and 112 are using a standardized but asymmetrical bit/cut length (each of the three bit/cut being a different length): bow to tip: 0.171", 0.234" and 0.25". BUT these dimensions hold true for all the keys mentioned.
HOWEVER: judging from the images, #105 has symmetrical length bits/cuts: .22", .22", .22".
All except 107A have the same length flat (blade?) area from shoulder to tip: .655"
The 107A I measured however, the flat (blade?) area is .70" overall (shoulder to tip). Also (as from what I hypothesized above), as the bit arrangement on the 107A are customized per customer, bit length will differ per customer.
One railroad may have a 107A four bit: 'A' 0.15" - 'B' 0.22" - 'C' 0.12" - 'B' 0.21" (= .70")
while another railroad may have a 107A three bit: 'C' 0.3" - 'B' 0.171 - 'C' 0.22" (= .70")
As I didn't have access to another 107A except the one in Mister Sours' photo, I scaled that with the dimensions I knew the other key bits in the photo to be, and what I came up with was:
0.30" - 0.17" - 0.25" = .72" Pretty darn close to .70!
All blade / shank diameters are .296" or 19/64"
The actual angles of all bit cuts are not 90° and 45° but actually 75° and 30°, which would mean the keys are on a 15° offset from the actual flat area, (if the flat is held in totally vertical plane or 0°). I do believe that has been mentioned in this thread that the cut angles were not exactly 90° and 45°, but I could not find the exact angles listed, until I examined them in person and so here they are.
I know this is a lot of technical mumble jumble, but it honestly allowed me to "reverse engineer" a 104 key that I tried out on a S&G lock on a local tourist RR, (of which I know some of the principals and had permission to try it out, so nobody needs to get their knickers in a twist!)
What does this all mean? I always thought the Environmental Series to be "high security", when in actuality I now feel they are more "high durability" or anti-vandal / anti-abuse.
Once I understood the mechanics, I was amazed at how quickly it took to completely fabricate a key from scratch. I used a 5/16" cotter pin, a warding file, a flat file, mini belt sander and a machinists rule scaled to 100th of an inch.
And this was before I found the Youtube videos or this thread on Sargent & Greenleaf... Come to think of it, if high security was what I was after, this key design would not be my first choice for even a chastity belt!
The other task I undertook, is compiling a list of which key is currently in use or was used by which RR. I was going to publish the list here, but then I thought it might cause some issues and/or agita with the RR's..
And the last thing I needed was a call from any cinder dicks (that's a euphemism for a railroad detective/railroad police for you non-rail enthusiast types!)
But if you contact me directly, I would be most appreciative for your contribution and I will share my findings with you.
With this, I hope I've added something to this little circle of S&G aficionados. I'm glad to see I am not the only one with affection for this series of lock!
Again, if anyone should have issues with this post, by all means, feel free to take it down.
All the best and have a great day!
Phil