Eastern Mass. St. Ry. P-601

The Eastern Mass. St. Ry. ordered twelve snow sweepers from the Russell Plow Company to be delivered prior to the 1919-1920 snow season, but only three made the schedule, including our P-601, which went into service at Taunton, MA, on January 31st, 1920. Eventually, all the sweepers arrived, numbered P-600 through P-611. The standard trucks for the twelve sweepers were Brill 27E 1 & 1/2, but for some reason P-600 and P-601 came with Bay State 12 trucks. P-601 received its Brill trucks when the Eastern Mass. began scrapping its early 1300 series cars. The snow sweeper had large rotary sweepers (brushes) at either end of the car so that it was bi-directional. The brush at the “front” direction of travel would drop down to sweep the snow off between the rails. Each brush had its own GE67 motor and K-Controller. The sweeper was also equipped with wing blades to clear the snow off to the sides along the right-of-way. In July of 1932, buses replaced streetcars around Taunton, making P-601 redundant. It was transferred to the Brockton Division for a time, and then to the Quincy Division. In the spring of 1935, it was moved to the Lynn Division where it became one of six sweepers sold to New York City’s Third Avenue Railway System (TARS). The six sweepers were gathered at the General Electric Lynn plant and shipped. Eventually eleven of the original twelve sweepers were sold to TARS, with P-603 the only one of the group to remain in the Boston area, being sold to the Boston Elevated Railway as part of Boston Elevated acquisition of the Chelsea Division in 1936. The sweepers that were bought by TARS became numbers 85 through 95, with P-601 becoming 86. TARS served the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and lower Westchester County. Number 86 (No. P-601) was dispatched to the Bronx. The Eastern Mass sweeper never worked in Manhattan, since the line featured conduit with a slot in the middle for pick up, rather than overhead wire. New York City’s Board of Transportation had for years been applying pressure to the streetcar companies to use buses. Beginning in 1928, TARS began converting to buses, and by 1948 all streetcar service ceased in Manhattan and the Bronx. Once again, the sweeper became redundant. On December 12th, 1944, the City of Toronto, Canada experienced a very severe snow storm that brought most of their streetcar system to a standstill. TTC realized that their existing fleet of single-truck sweepers were not up to the task, and something bigger and more powerful was needed. TTC purchased twelve sweepers from TARS, all but one of which originally came from the Eastern Mass. This single car came from the Trenton & Mercer County Traction Co. in New Jersey. Four sweepers were shipped in 1947, and eight other, including No. 86, were shipped 1948. TARS No. 86 (P-601) became Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) No. S-31 and was regauged to Toronto’s 4’ 10 7/8”. The sweeper was painted TTC “old” dark red with TTC standard cream roof. The sweepers’ future looked secure until 1970, when TTC reached an agreement with the City of Toronto to transfer all streetcar line snow removal to the city. TTC immediately began phasing out snow removal along its street right-of-way. In 1973, TTC announced that the sweepers were surplus and were available for purchase. Seashore Trolley Museum began to explore the possibility of securing one of the surplus sweepers. STM member Kevin T. Farrell began discussions with the Ontario Electrical Railway Historical Society, which was brokering the sale of the equipment for TTC. STM purchased S-31 based upon the maintenance records provided by the Society and conversations Kevin had with TTC employees. Kevin then coordinated and raised the funds necessary to have the car shipped by rail to Kennebunk, ME. P-601 arrived in the Kennebunk rail yard on November 2nd, 1973. It was reloaded onto a flat bed and delivered to STM the following day. In November of 1974, its wide gauge Brill trucks were replaced with Standard C50P trucks from Boston bottom-dump No. 3618. The bottom-dump eventually ended up at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, where it is still operating. 1975 saw the roof rehabilitated, with some roof boards replaced and new canvas being applied. Letterboards and trolley boards were also replaced. This work was sponsored largely by one of the Seashore Trolley Museum founders, John Amlaw. In 1977 Number S-31 joined the select group of STM equipment to be temporarily returned to the MBTA to help cover specific equipment shortages. Ex-Claremont Line car No 4 made a trip to Boston in 1969 and again in 1975. Bottom-dump No. 3617 went in the 80’s, and snow plow No. 5106 in 1996, On January 12th, 1977, the MBTA contacted STM looking for snow removal equipment. Two days later MBTA officials arrived to look at S-31, but the inspection almost killed the deal – S-31 was frozen to the rails in South Boston Barn, and the brooms wouldn’t turn due to frozen lube oil craters in the gear boxes. All major issues were resolved, and S-31 was loaded onto a truck on January 21 for a road trip to the MBTA’s Mattapan Yard. It was assigned to work the Mattapan-Ashmont High Speed Line. The line’s only plow was out of service, and the last storm had closed the line down since the only piece of equipment to clear the line was a Pettibone speed swing. S-31 promptly made a clearance run over the line, reportedly with a sizable crew of Seashore Trolley Museum MBTA members. S-31 had to wait until February 20th to be put to use. After that, it only went out two more times before winter finally ended. In mid-March, a special fan trip was organized with about 20 STM members making several runs on the High Speed Line between Mattapan and Cedar Grove. This was done on a Sunday while the line was closed while work was being done on the Ashmont Station. The Mattapan-Ashmont Line was then shut down for a major summer rehab project, and S-31 was trucked back to STM. MBTA wanted to keep it longer, but the museum had concern about the security of the car. Volunteer workers continued to work on the car as private funding became available. . In early 1981, it was decided to restore the sweeper to its original Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway P-601 appearance. On May 23, 1981, P-601 was officially outshopped, painted and lettered in Eastern Mass. style. The car had received all new sheathing and the four sliding doors had been reglued, reglazed, stripped and primed. Rotted wood framing was replaced. The roof had all new canvas. Various pieces of external hardware were either relocated or removed to give the car its original Eastern appearance. The brooms were disassembled and recaned. Two coats of “pencil” yellow Eastern Mass. paint were applied. One set of the Brill trucks was torn down, and the two wheel sets sent to the BAR to have them regauged. But once it was found that the Standard C50P trucks worked well, it was decided move on to other priorities. In 1982, in preparation for the February 14 “Winter on Trolley Line”, it was found that broom #2 had gear box issues, leaving only #1 broom operational for the demonstration. Parts were eventually secured in New Jersey from the owner of one of P-601’s sisters. This “sister” was originally Trenton No. 31 that went to TARS (No. 82), then TTC (S-39). It ended up going to New Jersey Transit (No.5246) to work on their city subway trolley line in Newark, New Jersey. Work was completed at the end of 1982, and P-601 was ready to go for 1983.