CARBARN COMMENT
by Harold Ahlstrom
In the study of interurban lines, there were many facets and areas of interest. My specialty was always the rolling stock, what the company had, and the use and scheduling of same. You had to know a line very well to know the percent of spare cars owned over and above the basic basic schedule.
The Warren and Jamestown line, in its last days, was very simple. They had three lightweight cars and one old heavyweight which had been rebuilt to one-man operation. They needed three to maintain the schedule, the so had one to spare. In percentage, this was high, but a two car wreck would crimp the service. They had no reason to run specials or any seasonal changes of schedules, so this was probably the right reserve for them, or all that they could afford.
The Chautauqua Traction, in its heyday, had twelve closed cars and four opens. Their heaviest schedule needed five cars, but the need for specials to Sylvan Park and the Chautauqua Institution called on the entire fleet at times. Some of the closed cars were old and small and not in basic service, but were there when they needed to handle a crowd.
The Jamestown, Westfield & Northwestern was unique in that it was a fairly new line and its ten cars were bought almost together, 1914 and 1916. There were never more than four cars on the line at once, but they used a "each crew has their own car" system, so as many as eight cars could be on the line during a working day. Having no old, partly worn out cars, they had to cover themselves with all new equipment. The reserve was called in for picnic specials to Midway Park, and baseball specials to meet the New York Central for Cleveland excursions. As the two lines were under the same ownership, they had the advantage of pooling cars in extreme periods.
During World War II, the Niagara, St. Catherines & Toronto had ten interurban cars and only needed four for base service. They had· peaks to cover for Toronto Boat Trains and heavy days to Niagara Falls. Their flexibility was great in that most of their interurban cars could MU they could and rather than rev up the schedule, they could just hook on an extra car to the regularly scheduled cars. They also had six suburban cars which could and did substitute on the interurban lines. By 1959, they were down to three cars, and only needed one for the schedule, but on the sad last day of operation they used all three and could have used more.
The "spare" cars were usually the oldest, and to this day I will try to be in Philadelphia or Chicago to ride during the rush hours to sample these cars.