Pictured on the left is the obverse side, the right is the reverse So, this is a bit of an odd one. My great-grandfather was an engineer at the Arkansas City Roundhouse. Since he was constantly needing to board and get off trains, he needed a permanent token. According to my father, who received this from my great-grandfather, he would keep this in his overall pocket so he could go about his business without delay. My father remembers that, as a child, the most awesome thing was to get permission to go with grandfather to the roundhouse and get to show the token and board the engines. It is in remarkably good condition in my opinion for how much it was used. He worked at the roundhouse from age 16-about 50. At some point during his career, the tokens were swapped out in favor of boarding passes. My sister has the passes. If it helps to date the token, he lived from 1903-1994. I have looked around the internet to see if anyone had any similar, but have been hard-pressed to find one with an actual name on it. Most just have the name of the station or transit company. I was curious if anyone knew what the worth of my token is. If you have any ideas or guesses, please let me know. If you would like to read up on the area in which my Great-grandfather worked, I actually found a webpage devoted to it: http://www.eccchistory.org/CCRailroads.htm . The train they moved into Wilson park is still there to this day.
Welcome to Coin Talk. Your token is interesting indeed, and your story moreso. I have five of these tokens that where given to me by my Mother, keepsakes from her jewelry box. I believe these to be good luck tokens that could be self make by putting money in a machine. I don't believe that they have any Official ties to the Railroad. I think they where quite popular in the 40's & 50's. Three of mine have a half-round notch in the center edge, two do not. The two that do not have the notch say PAT. No. 1455289 HARVARD AUT. MACH. Co. JAMESTOWN N.J. Hope this may help you with your search. And thanks for the link. A very nice read of history.
Interesting! Thank you for the prompt response! All I had to go on was my father's story and my attempt at research (even though it seems I was looking in the wrong place). You must be right. I'm wondering now if my great-grandfather told my father it was his special token when my father was a child and let him show it to make him feel special (You know how kids love that stuff). I guess my father never bothered to look up more information on it and just took grandfather's story at face value. I'm so happy there are others out there! Thank you for letting me know. It'll be a funny story to tell my dad. All these years he thought it was official. I did too, until now.
When I was very young my Dad told me stories of how he used to work in the woods logging with Paul Bunyon. I think it was Paul who cleared the woods so the railroad tracks could be laid down.
