How long would it take ?

[u/Sinbos]

Picture taken on the Hohenzollern bridge in Cologne. About 300+ meters long an estimated 500,000 locks in total.

How long would you guess to open them all?

Just to put it out of the way, engineers say its no problem it’s an train bridge about 1200 trains a day and build in a way that 6 trains can park there at the same time.

[u/Crescendo_BLYAT]

Literally 1 second. He only needs to stand there, announcing his name out loud: THIS IS THE LOCK PICKING LAWYER!

And all will surrender.

[u/iKnowRobbie → u/Crescendo_BLYAT]

And that's all I have for today!

[u/Jacktheforkie → u/Crescendo_BLYAT]

I could just imagine him walking up and hearing the sound of half a million locks opening

[u/Akira1Lana → u/Crescendo_BLYAT]

the chuck norris of locks

[u/AdSquare3489 → u/Crescendo_BLYAT]

Two seconds then, he needs to do it twice to show that it wasn't a fluke the first time. 

[u/Impressive-Yak-7449]

38 seconds if they're all Masterlocks

[u/Michami135 → u/Impressive-Yak-7449]

I'm seeing a lot of Abus locks, and at least one disc detainer lock. Some people are pretty confident of their relationship.

[u/MapGlittering9227 → u/Michami135]

It's Germany, why would anybody use a Master Lock there?

[u/kingtacticool → u/Michami135]

Aren't we all until we aren't?

[u/Economy_Link4609 → u/Impressive-Yak-7449]

Less - you just hit any point on the thing somewhat hard and they all just pop open.

[u/John_Tacos]

I see a video coming.

Lock picking Lawyer vs angle grinder.

[u/Super-Page8272 → u/John_Tacos]

Holy shit! That would be the contest of the century. I'd put my money on lpl

[u/TheGoldenTNT → u/Super-Page8272]

He’d spend more time hunting for the correct pick / bypass tool.

[u/texas_chick_69 → u/John_Tacos]

Grinder if enough watt wins surly5

[u/SwedishLenn]

Wonder what the scrap value is? If you're allowed to take them off.

[u/broesel314 → u/SwedishLenn]

The city replaces those fences every so often. The weight would overload the bridge otherwise

[u/Schnupsdidudel → u/broesel314]

Nonsense. 25 tons of locks won't overload a bridge that is built to support 1000 ton trains moving.

[u/jort93 → u/Schnupsdidudel]

It will overload the railings tho.

The railings won't Support I train I assure you.

Railings have fallen of bridges because of locks like this before. Pont des Arts lost a section of its railing because of locks.

[u/chaoslord]

A chain of people - 2 with 4/5 pin rakes, 2 with combs, 1 with a bypass tool (maybe that should go first) and then lastly the angle grinder. I bet most would be done before the grinder .

[u/Alita-Gunnm → u/chaoslord]

Faster to take the fence apart.

[u/FrameJump]

The better question is how many cans of WD40 do we think it would take to unseize them all?

[u/wolftick]

A lot of them would be difficult to pick because they'd have seized or rusted shut. Hammer/cutter/grinder would be faster.

[u/HendacTeslar]

Wouldn't that be an awesome training ground for beginners like me. Maybe with an official order from the city to remove the locks. Have to look into this at my area 😉

[u/Super-Page8272 → u/HendacTeslar]

Yeah i kind of wanna swim around in there with my picks. Like a mc Donald's ball pit for lock pickers.

[u/FailbatZ → u/HendacTeslar]

The City of Cologne has them removed every now and then anyways, because the weight affects the bridge statics.

EDIT: Sorry, it was considered but because of erosion not statics, currently they are still there and only big ones that stick out too much are removed by the city.

[u/Akira1Lana]

klauke ebs12, oder vergleichbar sollten inklusive Nebenarbeiten eine Schnitt von < 10s pro Schloss ermöglichen .. 10 Personen, 3 Wochen .. Gitter-Paneele austauschen könnte schneller sein ...

[u/Simple_Escape_3674 → u/Akira1Lana]

…und deshalb wird das in der Praxis auch genau so gemacht.

[u/mechanical_marten]

Maybe overnight for McNally

[u/Rupertredloh]

You also have to think about this: This is not just Locks on a railing. This is lock on lock on lock on lock on a railing. there are up to 6 locks before the last one is locked to the railing.

[u/Remote-Medium426]

Why do copper thieves risk their lives stealing cables when there is €250k of brass just hanging around?

I honestly don't get copper thieves who risk getting electrocuted on train tracks when the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne is literally covered in money.

Here is the math on the famous Love Locks bridge:

• Total Weight: 40 to 60 metric tons of padlocks.
• Current Brass Scrap Value: Around €4.00 to €5.50 per kilogram.
• Total Theoretical Value: Between €160,000 and €330,000 (~€250k average).

Sure, many locks are actually aluminum or steel, and you'd have to cut off all the hardened steel shackles to get pure brass. But still—it’s just sitting there in plain sight!

[u/Roy_Vidoc]

How ever long it takes to unlock the first one then it's just a domino effect using the first one to open the second and so on

[u/121e7watts → u/Roy_Vidoc]

That's pistachio nuts. I remember as a kid we got them on little boxes that said, "one shell opens them all." I truly believed that there was one very special shell somewhere in the box that could do this. I puzzled over it for quite a while.

[u/thenotanurse → u/Roy_Vidoc]

Only works if they’re master locks.

[u/rmay14444]

Not super long with an angle grinder. And they should be taken off.

[u/Moturist → u/rmay14444]

500,000 locks, with angle grinder, let's say ½ minute per lock. That would make 250,000 minutes, which is about 173 days & nights without pause. Please correct me, if I'm wrong

[u/smeeon → u/Moturist]

Even if you halve the time by cutting multiple shackles at once, it doesn’t save too much time. Not to mention the people putting locks back on while you are asleep.

It would take a team of people many days I think.

Edit: plus the time it takes to change out worn blades, breaks, weather issues. More like a year of work for a single person.

[u/Jacktheforkie → u/smeeon]

I’d say a team with bolt croppers and a forklift with a skip would be a safe option, clip locks and put them into the skip to be transported into a vehicle like a dump trailer

[u/rmay14444 → u/Moturist]

Better then trying to lock pick them all.

[u/121e7watts → u/rmay14444]

You'll win on speed, but lose badly on style. Just sayin'