These are the wheel sets (trucks) of a Twin Cities streetcar, manufactured at the company shops. Each four-wheel truck had a pair of 50 horsepower motors geared to the axles. The metal blades in the foreground are snow scrapers.
This specialized work car, called a cupola car, was built in 1914 to crush rock into gravel that could then be used as the ballast layer in track construction. It is pictured at Nicollet Station in south Minneapolis.
Looking east from Snelling Avenue at the north half of the Snelling streetcar shops, the Master Mechanic's Office, and the Truck & Machine Building. Montgomery Wards tower is in the distance.