Could this be railway related?

[MyRule1]

Someone has posted these pictures on a local Facebook page and suggested that this box was used by the military. Seeing the word Sulzer could it be to do with railways?

 

[Zomboid]

Its not impossible, but Sulzer locomotive engines are a tiny part of their corporate history. Apparently the company was founded in 1775 and has done a lot of things which aren't diesel engines for railway applications, so it's probably not rail related.

[Kylestrome]

Although we associate the name Sulzer with British locomotives, they have quite an interesting history in other fields:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulzer_(manufacturer)

 

David

PS. As the name on that box is hand-painted (not very professionally), it might not have anything to do with the manufacturing company.

Edited March 3, 2021 by Kylestrome

[petethemole]

"SULZER" is only painted on.  The stamped lid reads partly "B173 MK1".  I wonder if it began life holding parts for the Bristol 173, a 1950s military helicopter prototype?

[TheSignalEngineer]

It looks military to me. There were lots of similar boxes around in army surplus stuff in the 1960s and many were repurposed as tool boxes. I still use one of the smaller wooden ammunition boxes as a carrying case for my battery drill.

[Gordon A]

A metal ammunition box which has been put to other uses. My father had a couple he used for tool boxes.

[Nearholmer]

Yep, I've got a small-arms rounds box in the shed, used to keep odd spanners that don't fit any known nuts, so never get used.

 

I bet every shed in the country contains at least one ammo box, doing the same job.

[sir douglas]

it could have been owned by someone with the surname or nickname of sulzer

[Matt]

6 minutes ago, sir douglas said:

it could have been owned by someone with the surname or nickname of sulzer

my immediate thought too - when my grandfather died and we cleared his house we found a couple of similar (slightly larger) boxes stencilled with his surname.  i guessed they dated back to WW2 and related to his military service but i never knew that for sure.  Still have them somewhere in the garage for storing tools...

Edited March 3, 2021 by Matt

[MyRule1]

Thank you @Zomboid @Kylestrome @petethemole @TheSignalEngineer  @Gordon A @Nearholmer @sir douglas @Matt for your replies. So the general consensus is that is probably some sort of ammunition box which actually fits with the back story I do know about the provenance of the item.

 

I will pass the finding back to the Facebook page. 

[HGR]

Yes, deffo amunition box. B173 is the type reference, denoting its size / use. The range of boxes were designed for different 'stores' - this one possibly grenades.

 

It does have at least a railway connection in that someone at some stage in its post-military career had to collect it (TBCF) from Man Pic stn, although there's no red star labels on it, so I wonder if it was a railway worker ?

  

[25901]

Catches have been removed and a lock point put on, I would take a wild guess it could have been somebodies tool box from Vickers for obvious reasons.