This question is very often being debated and the vast majority of collectors, and dealers alike, have somewhat changed their mind about it in the last 2 years.
There ain't too many dealers out there beleiving that these were ever made for the Bahnschutspolizei. Here are the fact ; there is no period reference literature on the subject, no period pics of the dagger in wear, the whole so called "Railway 1st model" story started with
ONE dealer and last but not least, ample proof that many so called Railway daggers have period paints on their grips.
Now, for those still beleiving in the so called 1st Railway leader dagger, please, try to answer these 2 following questions :
1- If indeed this were Railway daggers, then why would there be evidence of white paints on top of many of these period black grips ?
2- here's the most difficult question to answer though. The Bahnshutzpolizei was the
smallest para-military force in the Third Reich organization with less than 4500 men. Why in the world, would they get their own distinctive dagger many years before the other more important para-military group, such as the Teno, RAD, Postschutz, Hitlerjungen Leader, RLB.
Sorry, but it does not make any sense to me that such an
obscure organization would get their dagger first.
Just my opinion.
Nonetheless, it is still a very desirable dagger that I would love to own and would pay the premium price for its black grip.
