[PRCo] Re: Johnstown party bus

[Schneider Fred]

Brings back a few memories.

I remember chartering a car in Johnstown.   The response from  
Johnstown Traction Company was not on a letterhead, it was simply a  
postcard signed by the dispatcher.   They were not into wasting money  
except on buying PCCs and trolley buses.   I guess the owner thought  
the boom in the steel industry would go on forever.

That picture shows four of the six trolley coaches Warren Reitz  
bought for the Horner Street line in 1951.   Was probably taken on a  
Saturday ...  I'll bet one was on the route and the other was in the  
shop.

Russ Jackson remembered sitting in the substation one Sunday after  
the conversion to trolley coaches.   He glanced at the ammeter and  
saw it sitting at zero.   Both trolley coaches were sitting in the  
loops at the ends of the lines.

I orchestrated two trips in Johnstown.   One was spur of the moment  
and one was planned.   The first was when John Bowman, Bill Allen and  
I went to Pittsburgh with a stop in Johnstown on Good Friday 1958.    
We wanted to ride the Southmont Oakhurst franchise car.  We called  
the car house from the railroad station and were told, "Oh, this is a  
holiday.   We don't run that on today."   We had ridden all night  
only to be skunked.   Well, we walked out to the carbarn taking  
pictures in route.  When we got there we approached the dispatcher  
with the question, "Any chance of chartering a car to ride up to  
Southmont?"   His answer was not quite what I expected.   "Sure.    
Seven dollars an hour.   Minimum of three hours.   Do you want it or  
not?"   We each surveyed our wallets, pulled out seven dollars and  
handed it to him.   He said, "Go out in the yard and take pictures.   
I'll call a motorman in."   We covered the whole system in 311 and  
one of the 350s.   John Bromley is selling one of my color pictures  
on Oakhurst on eBay right now.   Then we went on to Pittsburgh,  
caught a Penny local back out to Pitcairn, rode 62 and rode back in  
on 64 to finish the day.

The second Johnstown fantrip was July 12, 1958.   I had drummed up  
support for a two-day NRHS fantrip in Johnstown and Pittsburgh.   We  
used 311, 356 and 401 in Johnstown.  The next day we had 1707 in  
Pittsburgh.   Because we lost money on Pittsburgh and two of us paid  
for the loss on the car, one of the NRHS members also thought we  
should refund the chapter treasury the $10 in advertising costs.  He  
was very unhappy.   Strange that I would think of that because his  
funeral was four hours ago.   Why 1707?   Because it was freshly  
painted on Friday and we had it on Sunday.   How did we loose  
money?   We had a little left over from the Johnstown trip but we  
only had eight people on the car in Pittsburgh to split a fare of  
$94.80.   I still have the receipt.   Were there advantages to a  
small trip?   Yup.   Roy Taylor, the motorman, let everyone of us run  
the car (except for the seven-year-old son of one member) everywhere  
we had private right-of-way.   We each got several cracks at it.   I  
had 38-A and part of route 56.





On Dec 19, 2008, at 11:30 AM, Gray, George wrote:

> What a great photo.  It would take a mighty big bottle opener to open
> that Pepsi cap.  But nowadays we have pop tops and screw tops, so most
> of the bottle openers have gotten lost.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of  
> Ken
> and Tracie
> Sent: Friday, December 19, 2008 10:28 AM
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Johnstown party bus
>
> Here's a Johnstown Party Bus I'd ride:
>
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