OT- Early 1900s Winchester Factory Police Badge.

[rangerider7]

This is not mine, but I sure would have liked to walk through the Winchester factory during this time. You can see a little red paint in the lettering left over.

[Mike D.]

Cool. I don't collect badges, but had an 1880s Sheriff's badge from White Pine Co, NV for a short while. I sold it to a badge collecting friend for $600. His offer, not my asking, so away it went. His collection is top notch, with a lot of gold stuff and killer badges back to the CA Gold Rush.

[kaschi]

Nice badge. A few yrs ago there was a guy selling old railroad style padlocks at the Valley Forge Gun Show, you know those huge, heavy things that are about 5" high. Some of them were stamped "Winchester" and came from their factory in Connecticut. I bought one for $50 and it's in good shape. That badge of yours and my lock probably crossed paths at some point in their tenure there.

On a different note, that same guy also had padlocks that were stamped "San Quentin Death Row". That was a little too creepy for me!

[Booger Bill]

Well I got lockheed plant protection badge #1 as I retired as the most senior guard with 35 years. If I run out of money maybe I could try to sell it. I belive that might buy me a room in levenworth for the rest of my retirement?

[DixieBoy]

Maybe a dumb question here, but what exactly did the Winchester factory police do ? Patrol the factory ? Just wonderin'. - DixieBoy

[Aussie Chris]

Thats a cool badge.

Im a big Winchester fan and a copper so I guess you should send it to me rangerider

Chris

[Booger Bill]

I would guess winchester police was a factory guard. Same as my lockheed badge said lockheed plant protection officer. I once was a guard for universal movie studios. The badge and other markings said "Universal city police". However truth was my paycheck came from Burns detective agency. Lot`s of outfits or companys are subcontracted out to companys like burns, pinkertons, wackenhut, wells fargo etc. When I worked at lockheed I was paid directly by lockheed and was a lockheed employee. That is what is known as "In house". Most guard jobs are contract guards placed wherever. Traditionaly, "in house" pay far better than contract guards. We were part of the same IAM union as the rest of the factory. One differance was our contract would come up at a different date than the factory workers so we had to be available to guard the factory if the regular employee`s went on strike, and it did happen. My deptartment had about a 100 to 200 guards depending on the time and contracts. That sounds huge but remember it was like a small city too. I have seen about 5,000 to almost 20,000 workers back in the mid 60s.
If you are a guard for the money, go with a large company that has their own in house guards. I never heard a kid say I want to be a guard when I grow up! Truth is, I made good money with good benifits. It seemed I always had tons of overtime available, worked all holidays for effectively triple time, and I am quite shure if it was microfished that I probley averaged 65 hours a week over my 35 years as I was a overtime hound and a workaholic. I regularly would work two or three months without a day off and then take some time off and go to state line, blow it, and repeat the cycle!

[Ysabel Kid]

Another great find - wish it was yours!