I found this old padlock lock in the ground on the south east side of our house a couple of days ago. My resident locksmith said he thinks it is an old railway lock. It could possibly be 100 years old.
After some cleanup, he was able to get the hasp moving. It has a flip open hasp rather than pop-up and twist like most modern padlocks do. As you can see, there was an interesting keyhole in this padlock. The key would have a bend in it to fit in the hole.
We were able to identify a few different locks with similar keys such as the American made Slaymaker ‘York’ lock and one that was patented in Germany. Although we have not had a positive identification on the lock, nor the year it was made, this is still one of my most interesting finds so far.
Update: the lock actually works! My son fashioned a key for it from an old wiper blade.
