As pictured above (and below), these cars are available in various different configurations (vis'a'vis cabs, crew quarters and blades).
Spreaders were originally invented for trackwork uses; which can include, but are not limited to: cutting and clearing drainage ditches, spreading ballast and removing sand blown over tracks. They later came to be used to remove snow, providing it is not too deep, and also on double track; to push accumulated snow onto a track so that a Rotary Snowplow can remove it.
I don't know what specific prototype(s) these models might be based on, but Jordan Spreaders have been around since at least the 1920s and remain in service to this day.
