On Tuesday, March 20, 2012, National Capital Trolley Museum accepted delivery of Capital Transit Company (CTCo) 09, a vintage 1899 snow sweeper from the collection of Rockhill Trolley Museum in Rockhill, PA. Part of a trade between the two museums involving a similar car from Iowa and other parts, CTCo 09 replaces CTCo 07 which was lost in the 2003 fire at National Capital Trolley Museum.

Matt Nawn, Vice President of Rockhill Trolley Museum commented “I'm really glad CTCo 09 is headed home to Washington, DC. I believe that our directors' unanimous decision is a reflection of the fact that Rockhill Trolley Museum felt it was truly the right thing to do.” Ken Rucker, President of National Capital Trolley Museum, has been working for several years to locate a suitable replacement for the car lost in the 2003 fire. Rucker notes, “We designed Street Car Hall, the Museum’s new exhibit space, to showcase cars from the Museum’s collections. The acquisition of CTCo 09 from our friends in Pennsylvania allows us to display one of these unique cars along with others from the Washington Street Car Collection.”

Built in 1899 by the McGuire Manufacturing Company in Chicago, Illinois, CTCo 09 is part of an order of ten cars purchased by the Columbia Railway for the Washington Traction and Electric Company, a predecessor of the Capital Transit Company. The fleet of sweepers faithfully served Washington for 63 winters until the end of street car service in Washington on January 28, 1962. In addition to CTCo 09, CTCo 010 is preserved at the Connecticut Trolley Museum in East Windsor, CT.

McGuire-Cummings constructed IT 3 in 1913 for the Mason City & Clear Lake. The sweeper was later transferred to Iowa Terminal Railroad and was stored at the Iowa Threshers operation for a time in the 1970s before returning to Mason City as part of the collection at Iowa Trolley Park. National Capital Trolley Museum acquired IT 3 in 2004 and contracted with Shore Line Trolley Museum for painting and mechanical work. The sweeper remained stored at Shore Line until the recent trade.

A special bell salute to Bill Wall for his assistance with this project.

Wesley

CTCo 09 and IT 3 meet for the last time at Rockhill Trolley Museum. Joel Salomon photo.

Good to hear! Since the Cleveland Auction/ Swaps it is nice to see a spirit of cooperation among the museums.

Does this swap make Rockville the museum with the most operating traction snow removal equipment? They have two sweepers and a beautiful shear plow.

Ted.

I'm going to assume, from the timetable presented, that this trade was engineered almost immediately after the tragic fire at Wheaton, seeing as the IT car was acquired the year after the fire. Is it too much to ask whether this entire trade has been in the works since 2004, or even late 2003? Was IT 3 acquired specifically to trade for CTCo 09, or did things just transpire that way after years of haggling?

No matter what, good show from all concerned! I have a few such trades I wish *I* could "engineer" in a similar fashion, but it seems things work differently with other, not-to-be-named-here organizations.....

The IT car was acquired in 2004 when it became available (now or never) in hopes that someday a trade would happen involving either CTCo 09 or 010. And for many years it seemed that IT 3 would be our replacement sweeper. It was only recently when the stars and planets all came together that a trade was arranged for CTCo 09, thanks to our friends at Rockhill.

Wesley

Congrats to both museums for a successful swap deal. It's especially good to see NCTM further recovering from their unfortunate fire.

Pennsylvania Trolley Museum is also "well sweepered" with a double truck and two single truck sweepers. We also acquired the bones of another single truck sweeper as an offshoot of the Cleveland deals.

But aside from an occasional demonstration or "photo-op" we have no plans to use these elderly (1896 in one case) machines in any regular operations when and if PTM goes to year-round operations. That is why our under-conversion 25 ton GE diesel will be equipped with plow blades on both ends. With it's 72.5" wheelbase it can traverse any of our curves and loops and thus clear the entire line.

Iowa Terminal 3 1964 Emery, IA

As a member of NCTM, I would like to convey my deepest personal gratitude to the members of RTM for making this swap possible.

The loss of four of our Washington cars to the fire was extremely painful. This generous swap does a great deal to heal our hearts.

Presenting the history of Washington's street railways to our visitors is very important to us. RTM's openness to this swap has materially improved our ability to meet this part of our mission.


Thank you, friends.


With warm esteem,

Erik Ledbetter

Not all snow sweepers are pushing the century mark or older. The tramway system in Bucharest, Romania apparently has a fleet of snow sweepers that are quite modern in appearance.

http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/ro/tra ... uresti.jpg

http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/ro/tra ... uresti.jpg

http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/ro/tra ... 4_tram.jpg

http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/ro/tra ... uresti.jpg

Most of the time while 3 was at Branford, it was painted orange with an Iowa Terminal RR herald on each side. Was that also an authentic scheme for that line?

The orange scheme was applied in the 1960s.

Wesley

Here are a few recent photos of IT #3 at Rockhill Trolley Museum courtesy of Joel Salomon. I'll let him add some details.

Wesley

It was a historic day as sweeper 3 made its first trip to Blacklog Narrows on Saturday afternoon April 7. The one photo shows the sweeper in the pocket track at Blacklog Narrows next to Chicago Aurora & Elgin 315. This was the first time in 11 years that car 315 operated to Blacklog Narrows. Extensive work has been accomplished on the end of the car that is shown, recanvassing the roof and new wiring and repairing a bulging sidewall on the far side of the car.

We plan to operate our "new" sweeper for the museum's Members Day in May.

Thanks for posting the pictures Wes!

Joel