Sleet Scrapers In Action!

This was posted a while back to Facebook, and it's by far the best picture I've ever seen of the CA&E's air-powered sleet scrapers in action.  The train is approaching us; the motorman had control over the scrapers only on the car he was operating.  The scrapers are connected to the third rail shoes with shunts, so they act as current collectors when in contact with the rail.  And this provided a dramatic light show when the train was moving.

This picture shows the very last passenger train to operate on the CA&E: a fan trip on December 7, 1958.  The location is just east of the 5th Avenue station in Maywood and this is probably at the end of the trip, which began and finished there.  (In the morning there was no snow on the ground.)  Evidently the train continued somewhat east of the station, just because they could, and then returned, running wrong main.  Today the 319 is preserved at IRM, of course, and the second car was the 320, now at Mt. Pleasant.  Those were the days....