8 THE CALL BOARD NEWSLETTER OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER, N.R.H.S.

By Ken Haselton

January 1992(

UnitedTractionCompanySnow Sweepers

One of the most important, though oftoverlooked, pieces of traction equipmentin this climate was the snow sweeper. Thesepieces of work equipment, together withplows and sand cars, were vital to winteroperation on the United Traction Companyas winter weather in the Capital Districtcould be harsh. The snow sweeper wasperhaps the most interesting of the non-revenue equipment owned by the UTC. aswell as other traction companies in theNorth America where severe snow condi-tions prevailed. While snow sweepers wereproduced in both single-truck and double-truck models, the single-truck type waspredominant.

The most popular of the commercially-built single-truck snow sweepers were thoseof McGuire-Cummings Manufacturing Co.According to their 1911 sales brochure,1400 of the company's sweepers were op-erating on U.S. and Canadian properties atthat time. The United Traction Companyowned one sweeper of this manufacture.

United Traction Company snow sweeper No. 40, a McGuire-Cummings model, working eastbound onMadison -Avenue near Knox Street on March 3, 1943. As can be seen, the snow sweepers provided quitea dramatic scene when throwing the snow off the tracks. (Photo by Fred B. Abele) .

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January 1992 NEWSLETTER OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER, N.R.H.S. THE CALL BOARD 9

The nextmostpopular models were thoseproduced by the J.G. Brill Company. TheBrill sweepers were essentially of two types:the "Standard Type" and the "KuhlmanLong Broom." The "Standard Type" had ashort broom (brush) with round or hexago-nal ends on the carbody. The "KuhlmanLong Broom," as its name indicates, had along broom and rounded ends on thecarbody. The UTC owned two Brill snowsweepers.

Lewis & Fowler Manufacturing Com-pany and the Russell Car & Snow PlowCompany were the next most popular mod-els. Cincinnati Car Company and BemisCar Company were also known to haveproduced limited numbers of snow sweep-ers.

Some traction companies either builttheir own snow sweepers "from scratch" oradapted existing passenger cars to the pur-pose of sweeping snow. Some of these"homemade" models were rather unusual.In addition, a few companies which hadpreviously operated horse-drawn or cablecars converted them to electric operation.Parts were available from some of the manu-facturers for these conversions, adaptationsand new constructions undertaken by trac-tion companies.

Double-truck snow sweepers were theleast common type and were produced com-mercially by three major car builders. TheRussell Car & Snow Plow Company ofRidgway, Pennsylvania was the predomi-nant builder and its snow sweepers were inservice primarily in the northern and north-eastern parts of the United States andCanada. The Russell sweepers had a fairlystandard body design. Their beveled geardrive for the brooms provided dependable,trouble-free service under severe winterconditions. As a consequence, these sweep-ers often had several owners during theirlives, being passed on from one company toanother as owners went out of business. Forexample, New York State Railways, Syra-cuse Division No. 3016 became Philadel-phia Suburban No.5 in 1941. This is be-lieved to be the last double-truck Russellsnow sweeper to operate on a U.S. prop-erty.

McGuire-Cummings built relatively fewdouble-truck snow sweepers, compared toRussell. McGuire-Cummings sweeperswere in service primarily on western andmid-western traction systems in the UnitedStates and Canada. The one exception wasdie Philadelphia Suburban TransportationCompany. During the warm weather thesesweepers were often used as freight motorsor line cars after simply removing their

broom beams and chain drives. They didnot seem to move from one owner to an-other as the Russell sweepers did.

Double-truck snow sweepers built byJ.G. Brill were quite rare. That builderevidently produced only ten of the units, allof which were built for the PhiladelphiaRapid Transit Company. Several traction

companies converted double-truck freightmotors and passenger cars to snow sweeperoperation.

The United Traction Company equip-ment roster lists eleven snow sweepers, allof single truck design. Of these, five arelisted as being built by the United TractionCompany, the J.G. Brill Company is listed

This Interior view of No. 40 shows some of the motors, drive shafts,controlers and other equipment necessary In the operation of a snowsweeper. Fred Abele took this photo on March 16, 1941.

10 THE CALL BOARD NEWSLETTER OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER, N.R.H.S. January 1992

Albany traction enthusiast John Dunn Murphy caught No. 40workingnorth on North Pearl Street near State. The date John took the photoIs unknown. (Fred B. Abele Collection)

as the manufacturer of two of these andthree are listed as being built by McGuire.The fact that four of eleven (three UnitedTraction and one Brill) have "old" numbersand "new" numbers might indicate thatthese sweepers were adapted or convertedfrom passenger or freight units. More likely,they originally belonged to otherpredeces-sor companies, as all four were built beforethe consolidation of the companies into theUnited Traction Company in 1900. In addi-tion to the eleven snow sweepers, the UTCroster lists 13 snow plows in its armory ofsnow fighting equipment.

It is not possible to determine from theUTC roster when each of the snow sweep-ers was taken out of service and how manyof them were in service at the close of streetcar operations in 1946. However, Nos. 37,38,40,41 and 42 are the only ones whichappear in photographs of the Fred AbeleCollection. The single photo found of No.37 is dated 1936, while Nos. 38,40,41 and42 all appear in photos in the 1940's. Sincethe UTC scrapped a lot of cars in 1937 at theQuail Street carbarn to make room for new

Roster ofUnited Traction Company Snow Sweepers

Old New Manufacturer Date Bit. Truck(s) Body Overall .No. No. Length Length

9 34 United Traction Co. 1896 Single 21'6" 28'8"

25 35 United Traction Co. 1897 Single 21'6" 28'8"

28 38 United Traction Co. 1897 Single 21'6" 28'8"

29 United Traction Co. 1894 Single 21'6" 28'8"

37 McGuire-Cummings 1903 Single 23'4" 28'4"

39 United Traction Co. 1894 Single 21'6" 28'8"

59 43 J.G. Brill Co. 1894 Single 21'4" 28'

67 J.G. Brill Co. 1894 Single 21'4" 28'

40 McGuire-Cummings 1915 Single 24'3" 28'3"

41 McGuire-Cummings 1915 Single 24'3" 28'3"

42 McGuire-Cummings 1915 Single 24'3" 28'3"

January 1992 NEWSLETTER OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER, N.R.H.S. THE CALL BOARD 11

buses, all snow sweepers except Nos. 38,40,41 and 42 may have been scrapped atthat time. Furthermore, there is no indica-tion as to which part of the UTC system(Albany, Troy, Watervliet or Cohoes) theywere assigned at a particular time.

It is interesting to note that three of thesnow sweepers, Nos. 25, 59 and 67, are alllisted as having no traction motors eventhough broom motors are listed. It is pos-sible that these three may have been pushedby another traction work vehicle.

In addition, the roster lists only Nos. 37and 39 as having electric heat. Even thenewest of the models, the McGuire-Cummings sweepers built in 1915, are listedin the equipment roster as having no heat.Evidently the other cars had no heat, anunpleasant thought considering the sever-ity of Albany winters.

The United Traction Company providedvirtually all of what snow removal therewas in Albany at the time. The UTC equip-ment would sweep the streets clean, downto the bare stone paving. During a storm,the Traction Company would probably besweeping the streets along the trolley routesthroughout the night. The city's reliance onthe Traction Company to perform this vitaltask may have been responsible for therepu tation Albany later acquired for excep-tionally poor snow removal.

Traction enthusiast John Murphy re-calls that, when he was in grade school, hewould alter his usual route when walkingfrom home on Morris Street to the Cathe-dral Academy on Eagle Street so as to havethe advantage of the streets cleaned by theUTC. Instead of his usual route, he wouldinstead go by the way of Madison Avenue,

(From Page 5)Bridge Moved on Colonie Main ••• Overthe Thanksgiving weekend the bridge inWaterford on the Colonie Main over theNew York State Barge Canal was movedlaterally about six feet (see Trackside).Since the line had been a two-track: mainand was now single track, the bridge wasmoved toward the center of the right-of-way in order to maximize clearances. Thestructure, built in the early part of thisqntury, turned out to weigh far morethan originally anticipated. In addition,the job took longer than initially planned.

D&H Business Continues to Grow •••Intermodal trains 553/554 are being

Fred Abele found No. 42 at work on North Pearl Street near Van TrompStreet on a snowy February 20, 1946. Note the First Prize meatdelivery truck in front of the Grand Cash Market, now the site of theCapital Repertory Theater. (Fred B. Abele Collection)

Lark Street and Hamilton Street to EagleStreet.

John also recalls that when the sweeperswere operating during a storm, the snowflew very dramatically with the high-speedrotation of the brooms. Unlike the UnitedTraction passenger equipment the snowsweepers had a single pole, so the operatorhad to get off the equipment and turn thepole around when he was ready to reversedirection.

The snow sweepers of the United Trac-tion Company and other street railwayswere a vital, though often overlooked, pieceof equipment. While they haven't receivedas much prominence among enthusiasts as

changed from five-day-a-week to seven-daya-a-week service. Other D&H businesscontinues to grow as well. Italian Lines hasbecome a new customer at Marport, NJ forMontreal-bound containers in trains 554/263. It is hoped that with this additionalbusiness Conrail will put on a dedicatedtrain to protect the handling of this trafficover the CR segment on the New Jersey toMontreal route.

Oak Island Issues Not Resolved ••• Theissues involving Oak Island, NJ and D&HTerminals, Inc. are still not resolved. CP/D&H is not presently using Oak Island forintermodal traffic. The Bankruptcy Courtruled this fall that CP/D&H must honor the

passenger cars, they are perhaps the mostinteresting piece of traction work equip-ment and deserve to have their story told.They will be long remembered by thosefortunate enough to have seen them oper-ate.

References:A. W. Maginnis, Work Cars, Part I, inTrolley Talk, No. 54, June 1965.

Andrew W. Maginnis, Work Cars, Part III,in Trolley Talk, No. 57, February 1966.

John Dunn Murphy, personal conversa-tion.

franchise of D&H Terminals to operateOak Island Terminal and that the fran-chise did not transfer to CP with the saleof other D&H assets. Further litigation ispending which involves CP/D&H, theD&H Trustee and D&H Terminals, Inc.(a company which has no legal corporateconnection with the D&H, but adoptedthe D&H name during the bankruptcyperiod).

D&HNews _

D&H Not Interested in LV Line ••• Ac-cording to some public reports from CP/D&H officials, CP/D&H is not interestedin acquiring any part of the former LehighValley line (Conrail) between Waverly,NY and Allentown, PA. (RaiItimes)