Railroad Locks & Keys---"Key factors" to consider

Do any of you have a lock without a key? A key without a lock? When looking for the companion piece, here are some things to consider. Sometimes when a large railroad controls another railroad or the 2 share facilities, the locks & keys could be the same. The 2 locks side by side are Reading (RDG or P&R) and Central Railroad of NJ (CNJ, JCL) The Reading controlled the CNJ, They shared facilities. If you look at the 2 keys from those locks, you will see that they match. Each key works the other lock just fine. The 3 locks side by side are PRR, Penn Central (PC) and Conrail (CR). The Conrail lock doesn't even say Conrail or CR on it . The Conrail lock says "Portugal", the country where the locks were made. The 3 keys side by side are PRR, PC and Portugal. Notice again, all three keys of entirely different eras, match and all the keys work all 3 locks interchangeably. In this case, When a large company was created by merger, sometimes the new company kept the old component locks & keys to save costs. Order the same equipment and just change the markings on new purchases. Saves lots of money that way. Sometimes, however, a new merger kept the same equipment from multiple components. An example was Erie Lackawanna. They kept Lackawanna locks on the Lackawanna side, and Erie locks on the Erie side. Thus, there were 2 different EL keys (one for each side) and 2 EL locks (again,one for each side.) So here is some advice: If you know railroad history and are up on mergers or controlling interests, you may very well be able to mix & match in a pinch. That will make due until the proper item shows up, and in the meantime it will make a useful, working item in your collection.