I have two old shots to share (but honestly only for those of you interested in old traction, like myself).
These are Richard H Young photos.
First is a plow at the Roseville Car house.
http://knox.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1541499
Second is of two open summer cars also at Newark.
http://knox.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1541500
All I know about Young is that he was from Clifton, NJ.
CF
Love these type of photos, just looking at the building detail takes a while.
Had the think about how the “sweeper” car would have worked, but I think I got it.
Thanks for posting these shot and all the others, keep em’ coming.
I presume the sweepers were “trolley snow sweepers” used for snow sweeping, as opposed to “street sweeping” ? [Ed, I could understand if you don’t quite get that “snow” concept !]
Emmanuel Reider had a heckuva article in Model Railroader back in the 1960s about building a working scale model of snow sweeper, complete with prototype photos - Philadelphia Transit Co., I think they were. I’ll have to look in my copy of Middleton’s The Time of the Trolley to see if he has any good photos or explanations of them.
In the meantime, I just looked in my copy of the Allentown NRHS’ booklet, History of the LEHIGH VALLEY TRANSIT COMPANY - Railway Operations. On the bottom half of page 36 is an “action” photo of a snow sweeper with a could of snow flying away from it, credited to Randolph L. Kulp, captioned as “Double truck snow sweeper No. 523 crosses 6th and St. John Streets intersection, Allentown, on February 13, 1940 (No. 523, LVT, 1923; converted from passenger car No. 134)”. My company has done a lot of engineering work in the vicinity of that intersection in the last 6 years or so, so there will be some interest here and with our client in that photo - never noticed it before !
I’m wondering why use a sweeper instead of just a plow ? Perhaps because often under the terms of the franchise from the city that most trolley companies utilized to be able to operate in the city streets, the trolley company was made responsible for snow removal in the vicinity of their tracks. Back in the day, removal of just enough snow by a plow to allow motor vehicles to operate as is done today may not have been good enough - it may have had to have been “broom clean” for the old time autos, horses, people on foot, street vendors with carts, etc. Of course, since the trolley
My thoughts are that plows would pile up snow on either side of the track causing blockage while a sweeper would throw it further away and keep the area either side of the track clear for both passengers and other traffic. And I do believe there was some non-snow sweeping, too, but I am sure it was dampened before sweeping. I don’t remember the Newark trolleys but do the Hoboken to Jersey City line up the hill via the viaduct…got to ride it at least once,too! Orange and white cars started at the upper level at Hoboken Terminal next to DL&W’s track one and did not hit terra ferma until the top of Union Hill!
I wrote the sentence about the windrow before I found the LVT photo, and didn’t think to go back and revise it. After seeing the photo, I’m sure there wasn’t any windrow (or long pile) left behind the snow sweeper - it had the effect of blowing and scattering the snow from the track area over the rest of the street. Maybe a real heavy wet snow wouldn’t go too far, but even a deep light fluffy snow would effectively disappear, I think. So that’s probably why the sweepers were preferred over plows. Maybe someone with experience (such as at a museum) or access to a recollection of someone who worked with them, etc. can tell us better.
Here’s the reference to Manny Reider’s article from 1965 (glad I still have that issue):
Philadelphia snow sweeper, followed by scratchbuild article
Model Railroader, October 1965 page 38
( 
DRAWING, INTERURBAN, “REIDER, EMANUEL”, 
SCRATCHBUILD, SNOWPLOW, TRACTION,
CONSTRUCTION, 
PROTOTYPE, MR )
I’m reading a book about the Hudson River Line of the PSCT (which these cars were not on, of course), but they mention that that line had a rotary plow. The problem was that as houses and business got built along the line, the rotary would pick up rocks and had the power to blow those rocks through the nearby buildings (not just through the windows, mind you), so the decision was quickly made to remove the rotary from service.
I don’t doubt it. Not for nothing are rotaries called “the ultimate snow fighting machine” ! The power of those things has been seen, heard, and felt to be appreciated.
In a similar vein: Do a Google Advanced Image Search for “trolley” as a word and “snow sweeper” as a phrase, and a bunch of photos will come back. One of them shows a Dec. 2005 photo of a former Washington D.C. snow sweeper in action in what looks like a heavy snowstorm, at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82269993@N00/70321269/
Also, here’s an excerpt from the text on a National Capitol Trolley Museum web page regarding one of their former snow sweepers - Capitol Transit Co. [“CTCo.”] No. 07, which was destroyed in a Sept. 28, 2003 fire - see:
http://www.dctrolley.org/lost.htm
(emphasis added - PDN; note that from the context, I think “Barnmen” means like a mechanic or technician, other than the Motorman):
The sweepers were equipped with rotating brooms of bamboo reeds which would throw snow to the right side of the track. CTCo posted Duties of Motormen and Barnmen on Snow Sweepers on each car. “Motormen will be governed by the regulations and schedules applying to the operation of a passenger car, but must bear in mind that they are handling an extraordinary piece of machinery that should be at all times under absolute control…When horses standing in the street show signs of fright, notify barnman to stop brooms and wait for someone to go ahead and hold horses…Care must be used not to throw snow or slush on pedestrians…Notify barnman when to run and when to stop running the brooms…Barnmen do not run brooms except when necessary.”
The Adirondack Railroad (as operated during the 1980 Olympics) tried to use a sweeper to keep the line clear during that period. Apparently an attempt to use power from a locomotive didn’t go well and something (not the locomotive) fried, ending the attempt.
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The photos of the snow equipment on the Shore Line Trolley Museum’s site weren’t displaying, though others were. But the caption for the snow sweeper says this [emphasis added - PDN.]:
“Snow sweepers were more effective than plows in moderate snow, because they avoided packing down ice into the track. S-36 passed through New York and Boston before ending its career in Toronto.”
Thanks for sharing !
You can still trace the remains of the long gone North Jersey Rapid Transit system through here, as a matter of fact it went right past the library I am currently at. I figured out that the terminus would have been right by my house, and it also ran through the town I work in, not far from where I work. How convenient it would have been!
Gee, I’m sorry. I guess it wouldn’t be. Nice pics anyway…
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