Local officials wondering if Johnstown/Freightcar America plans to pull out of Johnstown, Pa

[dwil89]

Oficials of Franklin Borough are wondering what the future plans of Johnstown/Freightcar America are, especially since the Company is leasing space from NS in Roanoke.Here is a link to an article http://www.tribune-democrat.com/articles/2005/01/25/news/news03.txt Being that the name of the Company has changed also is feeding speculation. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

[Modelcar]

Wow, Dave......that is an eyeopener....! Wonder what is really going on. 600 employees is nothing to not be serious about. The valley is rich with empoyees that have worked with steel dating far back in time. If it really does happen, we wonder why....Is it a tax structure of Pennsylvania....Union demands too high....Surely if it is something tangible it can be corrected. The Johnstown valley has been hit hard in the past few decades and one would think the other side should appear once....
Hope it doesn't happen and the employment can be saved.

[dwil89]

Well it is interesting to note that the Company has changed its name, and is leasing space elsewhere,...does it not need the placename in its title anymore because of a potential move? It would be a major blow to an area that has already lost so much industry in recent years, if the Company did move out. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

[ericsp]

It now looks like Virginia is for freight car lovers.

[Junctionfan]

I have to admit, they would be foolish not to jump on that deal. Free money is nice especially when you're a business. It's just a shame that it seems that Johnstown will loose jobs.

[conrailman]

They have alot of business to go around for 3 places to build new Cars. I wounld't worry about the business. This biggest boom for New Railcars since 2000.[2c]

[Junctionfan]

What projects are they doing or have done recently?

[dwil89]

80 Autoracks for Amtrak's AutoTrain is the latest project. Narrow Gauge hoppers for a South American Railroad is another...those are only a couple that come to mind at the moment...Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

[dwil89]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

What projects are they doing or have done recently?

Here is a link to their homepage press releases,which discuss major orders. Scroll through the years on left side of page to view prior activity. http://www.johnstownamerica.com/new/index.htm This will show the scope of manufacturing of freight cars that JA/FCA has been involved in. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

[Modelcar]

...Lets hope they are just ramping up capacity for the upbeat in orders now....And again, I hope that upbeat order book continues to enlarge. We won't think ahead for now when the cycle turns down.
Their ability to build different types of rail cars seems to be increasing all the time. And the fairly large order from Amtrak for the car haulers is a good one.....I've been reading articles of the Auto Train and how desperate in need they really are for those new car haulers.

[dwil89]

There is a luncheonette across the street from the Johnstown America Plant in Woodvale that has been in business for at least half a century, called Ritchies. I usually make it a point to eat lunch there at least once everytime I come in for a visit. The owner has filled me in on alot of local history. She recalled the days when the Steel Mills were still bustling with activity there, and how her place used to fill up at Lunchtime.Now, business is alot slower than back then, but she still gets lunchtime business from the JA plant. Hopefully, the JA Plant will remain in Johnstown as 600 employees is a major factor to the local area. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

[Modelcar]

....Dave I'm older than you and have first hand knowledge of the hustle and bustle in the downtown Johnstown area many years ago with activity at shift change times for the Mills, etc....I can remember especially the busyness there at Main and Franklin with activity of Mill workers getting on and off the street cars during the day etc....it was a real busy time....Plus all the downtown major stores up and down Main St...etc....
I love to visit Johnstown every time we visit the area but my mind reflects back when we do to how busy the downtown really was....A beehive of activity.
Now we like to stop in for lunch at Johnny's there on Main St.

[conrailman]

Amtrak really needs them New Autoracks.

[Junctionfan]

Thankyou dwil89.

That's right; I should have remembered about the aluminum autoracks.

Doesn't NS have them? I know CP and CN/ FURX has them.

[dwil89]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Modelcar

....Dave I'm older than you and have first hand knowledge of the hustle and bustle in the downtown Johnstown area many years ago with activity at shift change times for the Mills, etc....I can remember especially the busyness there at Main and Franklin with activity of Mill workers getting on and off the street cars during the day etc....it was a real busy time....Plus all the downtown major stores up and down Main St...etc....
I love to visit Johnstown every time we visit the area but my mind reflects back when we do to how busy the downtown really was....A beehive of activity.
Now we like to stop in for lunch at Johnny's there on Main St.

My parents were born and raised in South Fork, several miles Railroad East of Johnstown. South Fork is now a quiet town, but it was once bustling too. Coal mining in the valley itself was once extensive. Up until 1980, the mine at Ehrenfeld was still active.where the huge man-made mountain of mine waste still exists today) I used to sit in my Grandparent's back yard and look across the valley and watch the coal cars being shuffled around the tipple. My father did the same thing when he was young, except back then, it was a steam engine switcher doing the shuffling.That trackage was ripped out in the early 80's....it joined the mainline on the curve by 'SO' heading out of South Fork It was called the Summerhill Branch. I went down to the South Fork Library a few months ago. They are selling a DVD and Video on South Fork in 1938. Apparently, back then, film crews used to go around and film day to day activities in average towns. The feature was called..This is your Town! It was silent, with music, but showed the hustle and bustle, coal miners, schools, the Old South Fork Brewery. When I watch that tape, it puts into pictures the stories that my parents and grandparents have told me over the years of how things were in the 'Good old Days' Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

[dwil89]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

Thankyou dwil89.

That's right; I should have remembered about the aluminum autoracks.

Doesn't NS have them? I know CP and CN/ FURX has them.

I'm not sure who else has them. The press release link to FCA a couple of posts up will shown past major orders if you scroll through past years... Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

[dwil89]

Another couple of vivid memories for me from stays with my family in South Fork included sitting outside on a warm summer evening, and looking towards the west and seeing the sky light up at night from the steelmills in Johnstown. Quite a sight to see the sky light up. Another thing that was common when the wind blew in from that direction was the sulphur smell in the air from the Mills. A story I've read about, and my Grandparents related to me was about an incident back in 1965, a Westbound PRR Freight stopped in the valley at South Fork with a hot box. The hotbox caught the car it was attached to, on fire....Worse yet, it was a tankcar full of rocket fuel. The flames shot up 100 ft in the air and the whole valley was lit up like morning. My grandparents thought it was morning when they saw the glow out their window, it was actually the middle of the night. Rails were warped for 100 feet in either direction. Luckily nobody was injured, and damage was contained to the car and railroad. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

[Modelcar]

....Dave, I had forgotten about the light in the sky from the blast furnaces in Johnstown....Some times more vivid than others. Our vantage point was from my home which was 20 miles south of Johnstown and when the clouds were just right it really lit up the sky even from that distance. Any time I think about how those major Companies...Bethlem and US Steel allowed the world economy to rob them of such business really makes one feel pretty helpless....25,000 plus employees effected...!! I wonder what could have been done if we in our government and other phases of business would have jumped on the problem much earlier...if the damage could have been minimized....Perhaps not...Pittsburgh and South of Chicago to a certain extent got hammered similarly.

[dwil89]

It seems that one reason that area is hard up on employment these days is that during the heyday, now I'm referring to the period from the late 1800's through WWII, most of the employment around the Johnstown area was for the Railroad, Steel Mills, or the Coal Mines.... Once the majority of the mines played out, and the Steel Mills shut down, unemployment rose. My parents' hometown of South Fork is nothing like it was when they were kids. Now, it is a quiet town which belies its history. The Railroad still runs through the middle of the Valley, and South Fork still hosts a Yard and an active Secondary Branch however, so railfans sill find it a nice location to watch trains. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

[Modelcar]

...Yes, it for the most part has been brought on by the changing economy but the foreign countries that beat down the price of steel and dumped it over in our country had a big hand in us not being a major suplier of steel these past few decades. The country still consumes steel in products but probably not as much as in the boom times. Another item was involved in the downfall was the major mills not modernizing in our area....and the flood of 1977 was another killing blow....doing much damage to the Bethlem system in the valley.