In watching the video I noticed there were no bristles on the "rear" end of the car. Are they missing or was it streetcar practice to move the bristles to the end that was plowing?

The second set hadn't been re-installed yet. The car came from Philly with a deteriorated, neglected set of bamboo bristles; I think the new ones are rubber tubes. They are also still tweaking various things in/with the sweeper--last I heard, it's still only running on two of its four motors.

Video link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seajay42/4198444762/