JTC (also J&S and Southern Cambria)

[Fred W. Schneider III]

I'm trying to remember economic conditions but a lot of this is from weak
memory.  In general, the economy was strong after World War II as the nation
factories attempted to produce consumer goods to satisfy a pent up demand that
existed since 1942.  Remember that no one had a new automobile from early 1942
until 1946.  We know pretty well when auto production caught up to demand and the
waiting lists evaporated because the auto makers introduced all new cars that
year to attract the public's attention.  The year was 1949.  The auto industry
was now back to selling cars instead of simply giving the customers restyled 1942
cars. Many other industries were also catching up to demand ... remember that
many factories had ceased producing consumer goods and turned to defense
production in the early 1940s.  Umbrella factories turned to parachutes.
Machining plants produced shell casings.  The early 1950s were strong because of
the Korean "police action" ... unlike World War II there were no major
restrictions on consumer goods (but some of us remember the model builders
telling us that steel rail was better than brass because they couldn't get
brass). But the economy did turn down in the summer of 1953 owing to the end of
defense production.  The year 1955 was again incredibly strong ... so strong in
fact that the Pennsylvania Railroad restored steam operations to areas that had
lost it several years earlier, i.e. west of Renova to Driftwood and Buffalo, and
the Pittsburgh Division from Altoona to Pitcairn yard.  There was also steam in
Blairsville on the mainline bypass.  Some of the extra business vanished late in
1955 ... there were a lot of stored steam engines at Pitcairn in the spring of
1956.  But in general 1956 remained a very strong year until  July when a steel
strike knocked the props out of car loadings.  I think the economic picture in
1957 was still strong.  If memory serves, the next recession was 1959-1960.  But
by the early 1960s the economy was as strong as or stronger than it is now.
Lancaster was a workers' market in Lancaster in 1962, 1963, 1964 with
unemployment here as low as 1.4 percent ... employers were not scraping the
bottom of the barrel here, rather they were turning it over and wiping the moss
off the underside and trying to get the moss to be productive for a few hours a
day.  I remember Jim Shuman's comments in the early to middle 1960s that the
railroad carloadings were at their strongest level since World War II (sadly the
contents of those cars had shifted from high tariff freight such as machined
products and perishable foods to low tariff items such as coal and grain).  By
now we are into the 1960s and it has no relevance to transit in Johnstown.

Derrick J Brashear wrote:

> On Tue, 3 Oct 2000, John Swindler wrote:
>
> > In addition to newspapers, JTC was regulated by PUC.
>
> JTC was regulated by newspapers? (sorry, couldn't resist)
>
> > Therefore, there will
> > be petitions to convert to trackless, then to bus.  It might be interesting
> > to see what testimony was provided by Glenn Reitz during PUC hearings.
> > Available on microfilm in basement of North Office Building in Harrisburg.
> >
> > However, would suspect local employment situation was significant
> > cause/effect.  You mentioned economic downturn in 1957.  Vague recollection
> > of a Cambria County Planning study from mid-1970s showing that almost half
> > of remaining riders disappeared around 1967.
>
> Well, there was a steel strike in 1959, that I know. Beyond that I don't
> know a whole lot.
>
> > On May 1, 1947, JTC's equipment included 85 buses and 70 streetcars
> >
> > In Dec. 1965 JTC fleet included 40 buses, 25 trackless, 16 school buses and
> > 6 coaches for charters.
> >
> > As of August 1971, JTC fleet included 32 transit buses, 49 school buses and
> > 4 coaches for charters.
>
> What as I recall is a 400-series-numbered old look GMC bus still wearing
> JTC colors was in a scrapyard along the route out of Johnstown which *was*
> route 53 before the revisionists removed that designation back to just shy
> of South Fork. And in 1989 Harold Jenkins (at the time the GM of CCTA) let
> me go out to the barn and take a look at another JTC bus they still had,
> serviceable for parades and such.
>
> Not a streetcar or a trolleybus, but the only vehicles outside what's at
> PTM and RTY that I've seen of Johnstown.
>
> For what it's worth earlier today some work was going on on the Maple
> Avenue bridge (which had paving work done not long ago; this looked to be
> repainting), and the short bridge across the Little Conemaugh to get into
> Woodvale from downtown was also being replaced (the old concrete span was
> totally gone and traffic was using a temporary span)
>
> When I was making the turn into Franklin Boro the pavement was so worn
> that I could see bricks in what appeared to be a radial pattern, but... it
> looked like where the track was had a just-wider-than-track-width section
> of concrete.
>
> I headed north, and decided randomly to head back down to the river at the
> village of "Echo", and realized at the bottom that I was presumably on the
> Southern Cambria right of way.
>
> On the way into Johnstown I had gone through Jerome, and as you head
> inbound what I assume is a pretty obvious trace of the Johnstown and
> Somerset is visible (as I thought I remembered) parallel to the road.
>
> I was pressed for time, and indeed I barely got back to Somerset in time
> for dinner with my wife's cousin and her husband. Maybe I'll have some
> time to go poke around the J&S and the Southern Cambria lines over the
> winter. Maybe I'll even take useful maps with me.
>
> -D