New Freedom train station houses alien safe

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The New Freedom Train Station welcomed thousands of visitors as the first stop in Pennsylvania on the Northern Central Railroad. Now rehabbed with interesting exhibits and a caboose tour, the station welcomes scores of visitors each week of a different sort – riders along the York County rail trail. A small museum now occupies the right side of the station and the left side plays host to a snack bar for rail trail users.
The renovated New Freedom Train Station is a community treasure. But its interior bears something that is certainly not York County.
Its longtime safe was not made in York County by venerable York Safe & Lock… .

Rather, it’s an import, made in Pittsburgh. Barnes Safe & Lock was the maker.
The Barnes safe came with the 1800s station. And it looks like it’s been well used over the years.
Rail stations collected money from shippers, those collecting goods and all sorts of places, including funds for payroll, so safes were imperative.
A placard in the museum part of the station says the safe provided “the perfect protection of money and valuables from the ravages of fire and assault of burglars.”
As for payroll, the train bearing worker wages from Baltimore would stop at the signal tower and pay employees there before moving down the tracks to the station.
Workers would line up out the front door, collect their wages and then exit through the back.
Any extra would be put back into that Barnes safe.
Selected York Safe & Lock links:
- New Freedom station houses alien safe
- York Safe & Lock worker recalls chat with Hedy Lamarr
- Hedy Lamarr’s visit to York long remembered
- From Bofors to Bikes, Harley plant top hog
- Forry Laucks, Lauxmont sparked debates
- York-made safes spotted in post-war Tokyo
- York Safe restoration ‘once in a lifetime’ project.
- York Safe faltered after owner’s death.
All York Safe & Lock posts from the start.
(For multiple posts on York County’s industrial prowess, see this blog’s Made in York category.)

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