A friend of mine acquired this bag and is wondering what it is. I believe it is a 'high value item' secure bag from RPO days. It has a BN lock on it. Any help?
Hmmm. Whitefish, Montana. Trying to think of what they would need to ship between there and Portland, Oregon, needing such security. Nothing at all comes into mind. I am guessing the bolt is a means for keeping the lock opened, as they have no key for it? BN keys are easily available, usually fairly cheap in price.
I think Alan nailed it. Looks like an early version of a bank bag. Lockable with integral zippers is what they use today. I used them in the Air Force to secure classified documents when transporting them.
Thanks! I was thinking about this, and Whitefish is a RR division point, and a Glacier Park gateway. So, maybe there was a need to transport cash to and from the park for payroll from the fed office in Portland? Or the RR? I am inclined to believe that it would be park money though.
I doubt it was anything payroll related. Railroads had been issuing checks to employees long before the advent of BNRR. Even though much downgraded since BN and now BNSF, Whitefish was and still is an important location on the Hi-Line. Up until Amtrak took over passenger service, the BN ticket office would have handled cash. But what did they do with it? Having an account at a local bank would seem prudent. But did they...? I wish my good friend Doug was still with us. He was a GN/BN agent/operator (retired off BNSF) and Whitefish was one of many Kalispell Division offices where he worked. He could answer this question with all kinds of 'how they did it back then' stories. But we lost him back in 2013.
