The exact origins of very unique Philadelphia and Western Freight Motor #402 remain somewhat unclear. It can be reasonably assumed that the car was constructed around 1920 in the Highland Park shops of the Detroit United Railway and numbered 2010. The DUR both built and reconstructed a number of cars in house during the 1920s that have similar construction details to the 2010.
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The Rockhill Trolley Museum collection includes two snowsweepers, both of which are quite rare. Snowsweeper #107 is from Scranton, PA, and is a single-truck, four-wheeled car with rotating brooms at both ends. It is a “steeple cab” design with operator controls only in the middle.
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The car that is now known as D-39, which has a long and varied career, began its life in 1908 as PRT ash car 2621. It was constructed at Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company’s 6th Street (Kensington) Shops and was used to haul ashes from PRT’s power houses to several dumps located within the city. It was also used to haul garbage under a contract PRT signed with the City of Philadelphia in 1908. Upon the cancellation of the rubbish contract in 1915, PRT had a surplus of ash cars.
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