We purchased a property in the Lake George, NY area with an older trolley car on it. It was used as a camp for many years and we are looking to restore the car. However, we know very little about the rail history and have had difficulty finding information locally.

We know the car was originally stained dark green and has original stamped step boards. The original slider door is still in the car and all locations for doors/windows are intact. The neighbors believe this was moved onto the property in the 50s.

Just looking for comments or a bit of history anyone may know on the cars.
We are curious what the original interior looked like as well as the original rail line.

Sam Freeman of Adirondack (New York) Rwy. did acquire a snow sweeper from Philadelphia Transportation Co. in the mid 1970s, but it was built by Brill. The pin for the tow bar was mounted lower than the one in the photo.

Well that is an odd carbody to acquire for a cabin. It is a sweeper, a snow sweeping vehicle. It never had passenger seats, and the interior was pretty bare. Just some mechanical equipment and room for shovels and tools. A crew rode it out to sweep snow off the track, and they stopped occasionally to shovel spots that needed attention.

It is smaller than a regular streetcar, and that is probably why they selected it.

Steve, Russell did build large and long double truck snow sweepers. The motors for the brooms would be inside.

This is an interior shot of sweeper C145 at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum a few years back.....

From Frank Hicks and the Preserved Traction blog:



On Monday, August 23, 2021, Frank Hicks <fullparallel@wideopenwest.com> wrote:
Wesley,

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner on this, I've been having issues with accessing my email while traveling and I just returned tonight from a business trip. I saw that on RyPN - pretty interesting! My guess, given its location, is that it's from the Hudson Valley Railway, an interurban line that ran from Albany to Warrensburg past Lake George, which apparently is where the body is. Of course the car could be from almost anywhere - the Albany or Schenectady city systems, one of the many lines in Massachusetts, or somewhere further afield - but most bodies tend to be from local systems and HVR is the local system. Unfortunately, while there's a book that was written many years ago on HVR, I don't own a copy and there are vanishingly few photos from the company available online.

Most Russell sweepers built in the 1920s had nice curved ends, but there's a 1912 Russell-built work car from the Newark subway that's preserved and it has a three-panel flat end similar to the upstate New York body. So this may just be a slightly older Russell.

Frank

Does someone have a copy of A History of the Hudson Valley Railway
by David F. Nestle in their museum or personal library?

Wesley

Md. Rail Heritage Library, Baltimore Streetcar Museum, has two in "fair" condition, softcover, 1967, 104 pp., according to the latest catalogue listing I have.

Seeing as I'd be the one to process an e-mailed request from another group or researcher as their "computer jockey," PM me with a formal request and I'll see if I can arrange an "Inter-Library Loan"............

There are three copies on Abebooks.com
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=nestle%20david&tn=history%20hudson%20valley%20railway&cm_sp=mbc-_-ats-_-all

There's a copy in the Charles J. Van Depoele Library at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton. Ed Blossom Collection.

As to using a retired sweeper for a shed, look at the Philly sweeper interior in this thread. Take out the sweeper parts and you've got a big wood box that can hold almost anything.

Phil Mulligan

This just in from a volunteer at the Maryland Rail Heritage Library.



In January 1992, Ken Haselton wrote an article about United Traction Company sweepers for The Call newsletter of the Mohawk and Hudson Chapter of the NRHS. Does anyone out there have access to a copy of the article. Here is a link to a preview on Scribd.



Wesley

Guess who else archives newsletters from regional RR clubs?

That's right, the Maryland Rail Heritage Library!

I'm not sure if they archived The Call, however--though I think they did...........

The owner measured the interior length as 32 feet. Would that be typical of a single truck sweeper?

At 32’ it’s in the range of size for a single truck sweeper. For comparison, Public Service (NJ) single truck sweepers were just over 30’ in length.

Interesting to note that the side window placement, side door, and end construction are quite similar to PS single truck sweepers.

- Matt Nawn

Regarding the interior length, scale drawings for DC Transit Brill and Maguire sweepers show a 28 foot length overall. This means 32 feet is not outside the realm of possibility for a single truck sweeper.

Looking at the roof line over the front platform, could this body be home built by a traction company using castings and machinery supplied by Russell?

Wesley