I’m sorry if this seems an insignificant detail to you, but I have to ask. At the very beginning of Thimbleweed Park, there is a close-up of the padlock used on the factory gate, and you can see it moving. Here’s a screenshot:
Do you have any idea about what this “moving padlock” was about? Can it be correlated to any of the many fan “theories” that have been published?
Even hypotheses and vague metaphorical meanings are perfectly acceptable.
At the beginning of each iteration of the game, the factory is closed again, hence the padlock moving, and the controlling signals start broadcasting… I assume it’s the world “resetting”.
Oh, that makes sense. 
If I move my fantasy knob to eleven, I can almost ear the sound of Chuck’s uncoupled tube that counts a new reset.
Talking about uncoupled tubes… I wonder if there any extra content if you play the game after finishing it. Since the time counter in savegames doesn’t reset.
I played a lot after finishing the first run and the second run, but I didn’t find any extra content.
Or it’s just the wind …
Oh, wait. You guys wanted a vague hypotheses. Hm. Ok. What about: The souls of the dead characters from the last iteration are pulling on the padlock …
That’s also a good hypothesis, but why did they show us a padlock pushed by the wind, if this image had no connection to anything else in the game?
That’s also an acceptable hypothesis.
I had assumed it was the wind too. Now I just feel dumb for not giving it more thought.
In hindsight, I just felt like it was a symbolic offering of the focal point of the whole game… or the hub of the game. It’s the one place which all the playable characters become obsessed with and it’s the brain of the game. I just took the moving padlock to be a result of a stiff wind, which was chosen for dramatic effect and not much else.
So, I just checked the opening cutscenes again, and there is an accompanying wind sound effect for the padlock scene. It doesn’t mean there isn’t an additional meaning there however — after all, it does follow a scene which depicts the sound of the factory and tubes and machinery turning seemingly on and off, or rather beating as though it were a living organism.
Hah.,…I always thought there is a ghost trying to get in or out 
but it could be just a hint: “the lock belongs to place you should be aware of”
I don’t know if this is meant ironically. 
So I will give a serious answer - at least for readers that haven’t played the game yet: Large parts of the game are about this padlock. The padlock prevents that you can get into the factory. You first have to find the key to this padlock.
The close-up of the moving padlock at the beginning is just there to set up the mood of the game. It’s just a dramaturgical trick.
If you are talking about the “clack” and “buzz” sounds while the lamp at the top of the antenna lights on and off, that’s the typical sound of an ARC lamp.
I agree with @Someone and others that the moving padlock was done purely for dramatic effect and to set the mood. That it does well.
dZ.
I still find it very interesting how (often) the people are (trying) to interpret something into several things and scenes in the game. This is not only valid for TWP, there are similar discussions about movies and books. In the most cases the developer/author/filmmaker just thought nothing (the scene was just fun) or he/she/it just wanted to set up a mood.
It is really a bit like saying “what is the significance of the tree in the Maniac Mansion intro? Of course it then pans to the meteor crashing but at first the tree was in focus so it HAS to mean something!”
Maybe there was an impressive tree at the Skywalker ranch?
Clearly it’s an ancestor of a particular tree, foreshadowing events concerning Bobbin Threadbare.
