New Jersey Transit Sweeper #5246

• 1921

  • Double truck snow sweeper, built by the Russell Car and Snow Plow Company, and delivered to the Trenton & Mercer County Traction Company as No. 51. As with all Trenton service cars, was painted a dark brown. Assigned to the Lalor Street car house.

• 1923

  • By New Jersey law, trolley companies were unable to own bus lines, so T&MC formed the Central Transportation Company to operate its buses.

• 1929

  • November 23, 1929: Once the law was changed, Trenton & Mercer County Traction Company and Central Transportation Company were merged to form the Trenton Transit Company.

• 1934

  • Fall: Sold to the Third Avenue Railway System, along with sweepers 37, 39 and 53, becoming TARS No. 82 in the series 80-83.

  • December 9, 1934: The last streetcar left from State and Broad Streets at 1:00 A.M. and Trenton’s last active streetcar line, Stuyvesant Avenue-Hamilton Avenue, ended service at 1:36 A.M.

  • December 28, 1934: Power was turned off at 3:00 P.M., and street railway service officially ended in Trenton.

• 1947

  • September 26, 1947: Resold, along with the other three sweepers, to the Toronto Transportation Commission, now becoming S-39.

• 1970

  • TTC reached agreement with the City of Toronto to transfer all streetcar line snow removal to the city, and immediately began phasing out its snow removal equipment.

• 1971

  • A fire in the Newark City Subway destroyed ex Public Service single truck sweeper 5173, the remains of which are presently owned by NJERHS.

• 1973

  • Toronto sweeper S-39 was purchased by Transport of New Jersey to handle snow removal in the Newark City Subway. The car was returned to New Jersey rails for the first time since 1934, and was renumbered to 5246. (This may have occurred in 1974.)

• 1979

  • New Jersey Transit Corporation was created by the New Jersey Public Transportation Act of 1979.

• 1980

  • NJ Transit purchased Transport of New Jersey, the state’s largest private bus company at the time.

• 1983

  • January 1, 1983: A second subsidiary, NJ Transit Rail Operations, Inc. was launched to assume commuter rail operations in the state. (Photos from NYCSubway.org, show the Newark City Subway cars still sporting TNJ logos in Nov. 1980, but by 1984 they’re lettered for NJ Transit.) ed.

• 2000-01

  • NJ Transit upgraded the catenary on the Newark City Subway in anticipation of the new Light Rail Vehicles, and retrofitted pantographs to all of their older equipment, including 5246.

  • August 24, 2001: The PCC cars were retired from the NCS after 47 years of service.

• 2005

  • January 23, 2005: Sweeper 5246 was called on, one last time, to clear snow from the Newark Light Rail, becoming the last trolley sweeper to be operated by a public transit system.

• 2015?

• 2020

  • October 23-24, 2020: Sweeper 5246 was returned to the Bloomfield light rail facility after spending 5 years in storage at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum.

• 2026