The Johnstown Inclined Plane is a funicular in Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, U.S. The incline and its two stations connect the city of Johnstown, situated in a valley at the confluence of the Stonycreek and the Little Conemaugh rivers, to the borough of Westmont on Yoder Hill. Designed by Hungarian-American engineer Samuel Diescher, it was completed in 1891 following the Johnstown Flood two years prior. The funicular was intended to serve as an escape route during floods—a purpose it served during the Johnstown floods of 1936 and 1977—as well as a convenient mode of transportation for residents atop Yoder Hill. With a grade of approximately 72%, it holds the Guinness World Record as the steepest vehicular funicular in the world. The incline is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is designated a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.
The funicular consists of two cars running on parallel tracks, which travel an route and ascend vertically, making the journey in 90 seconds. The cars are open to the elements, with an enclosed seating area, and can carry both passengers and automobiles. The cables connecting the cars are steel wire rope, wound around a drum that is powered by an electric motor. As one car descends, the other ascends and acts as a counterweight. The incline's upper station in Westmont contains a visitor center, gift shop, and observation deck, while the lower station in Johnstown is accessed by the Inclined Plane Bridge.
Originally operated by Cambria Iron Company and its successor Bethlehem Steel, the Johnstown Incline was initially well-used, but ridership began to decline after 1919 because of the growing popularity of automobiles. Following two attempts to close it down, the funicular was sold to the borough of Westmont in 1935. The incline was briefly shut down in January 1962 when its supply of power from Bethlehem Steel was terminated, and the Cambria County Tourist Council took over operations that July following a renovation. The Cambria County Transit Authority (now CamTran) took over the incline in 1983, and the funicular reopened in August 1984 following an 18-month renovation. The incline's lower station was temporarily closed in the early 2000s due to the replacement of the Inclined Plane Bridge. The incline closed in 2021 for an extensive rehabilitation project and reopened to the public on September 10, 2026.
Design Route and tracks The Johnstown Inclined Plane was designed by Hungarian-American engineer Samuel Diescher, who had also designed the Duquesne, Castle Shannon and Fort Pitt inclines in Pittsburgh. The funicular consists of a parallel set of broad gauge railroad tracks. With a grade of approximately 72%, it holds the Guinness World Record as the steepest vehicular funicular in the world. The incline is long, ascending vertically to the top of Yoder Hill and the borough of Westmont. The upper station, atop Yoder Hill, is at an elevation of above sea level. Originally, each station had wrought-iron railings and boom barriers.
The rails are supported by 720 railroad ties made from Southern Yellow Pine, each measuring long. The incline is illuminated at night by 114 high-pressure sodium-vapor lamps mounted along the sides of tracks. There was a stairway between the tracks with 966 steps; this was removed .
Vehicles Two cars traverse the slope; as one descends, the other ascends and acts as a counterweight. The cars are wide and about long, with a roof measuring high. Each car has space for either 65 people, 6 motorcycles, or an automobile. Although the cars are open to the elements, an enclosed seating area with a bench is situated along the outer side of the incline.
The cables connecting the cars are , 6×36 right regular lay, steel wire rope. They are wound around a , drum that connects the cars. The cable on the north track is long, while the south cable is shorter. Each car weighs , but they and the cables can carry an additional load of . A electric motor drives the drum, simultaneously winding and unwinding the cable, to propel the incline. The Johnstown Inclined Plane is unusual in that the motor and winch are located at a 90-degree angle to the incline instead of directly underneath it. Operation of the incline is controlled via a foot pedal located in a booth in the upper station.
An emergency brake engages if the air pressure needed to control the incline is insufficient; the brake also engages if a dead man's switch is tripped in the operator's booth. In addition to the hauling cables, a safety cable capable of withstanding is connected to the cars.
History Background and construction Inclines are common in Europe, and immigrants, like the German, Slavic, and Welsh people who settled near Johnstown, remembered them from their native lands and brought the concept to the United States. The earliest inclines in the United States were a series of 10 that were built in the 1830s as part of the Allegheny Portage Railroad. The portage railroad carried canal boats over the Allegheny Mountains to connect the canals from Pittsburgh to the ones from Philadelphia. Pittsburgh at one time also had "at least 17" inclines, many of which carried both passengers and freight; two of these inclines (including the Nunnery Hill Incline) were curved.
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam collapsed upstream of Johnstown on the Little Conemaugh River. The resulting deluge devastated the city, killing 2,209 people and destroying 1,600 houses in low-lying areas. As the city rebuilt, the Cambria Iron Company started work on a residential development atop Yoder Hill. To provide easy transportation on the steep slope for residents of the new community of Westmont, the company constructed an inclined plane. In addition to being a convenient mode of transportation, the Johnstown Inclined Plane doubled as an escape route in case Johnstown was flooded again.
Diescher was hired by Cambria Iron to design the incline. The rails used in the incline were manufactured in Johnstown at Cambria Iron, and many of the construction tools handcrafted there. The Inclined Plane Bridge was also built to connect the lower station with the rest of Johnstown. Originally named the Cambria Inclined Plane, the Johnstown Inclined Plane opened on June 1, 1891. It had cost $133,296 to build. The funicular was originally operated by the Cambria Inclined Plane Company, a subsidiary of Cambria Iron.
Cambria Iron ownership The convenience the incline provided stimulated a rapid growth of population in Westmont and made the borough one of the country's first suburbs. Over 40 million trips were taken on the incline in its first 80 years of operation. When the incline was built, it used double-decker cars that were wide and long. The double-decker cars had horses and wagons riding on the main, upper deck and passengers riding in a compartment below. Originally, the incline used a compressed air system to reverse direction. In its heyday, the funicular operated 24 hours a day, and both cars ran continuously. Only one human fatality has occurred at the incline; it was determined that the incident was not caused by the incline itself. There were two incidents in the 1920s when horses aboard the incline became spooked and leapt from the car onto the tracks.
The incline's original steam engine was disconnected on January 6, 1912, and replaced with an electric motor. After receiving complaints about fares, Pennsylvania's Public Service Commission (PSC) mandated in 1915 that the Cambria Inclined Plane Company revise the fares for the route. The Johnstown Inclined Plane saw its highest-ever annual ridership in 1919, when the incline carried 1,356,393 pedestrians and 124,825 vehicles. Afterward, ridership steadily declined due to the increased popularity of vehicular transport. The double-decker cars were reconfigured into a single-decker design in 1921.
Ridership was one-third of 1919 levels by the 1930s, prompting the Cambria Inclined Plane Company to ask the PSC for permission to discontinue service in December 1930. The company claimed that the funicular was unprofitable, that the approach roads to the stations were in disrepair, and that vehicles could just use highways nearby, but local automobile owners and Johnstown's city council opposed the proposal to close the Cambria Incline to vehicles. The PSC ultimately declined the closure request in May 1931, mandating that the approach roads be repaired, though the Cambria Inclined Plane Company claimed that it would be impractical to repair the approach roads. The company again applied for permission to abandon the incline in December 1934.
Westmont government ownership Mid-1930s to early 1960s
To avert the funicular's closure, Bethlehem Steel, the successor to Cambria Iron, proposed selling the Johnstown Inclined Plane to the Westmont borough government. A new law and two orders had to be enacted to allow the Westmont government to take over the Cambria Inclined Plane. The Pennsylvania General Assembly passed the first of these bills in February 1935, allowing Westmont to buy the Cambria Inclined Plane Company. The borough of Westmont finalized its purchase in April 1935 for a nominal fee of $1. That June, the General Assembly passed a second bill permitting Westmont to operate feeder bus services to the funicular's stations, and Governor George Howard Earle III signed the bill. In the year after it took over the incline's operation, Westmont earned $1,603 from the route.
During the Johnstown flood on March 17, 1936, nearly 4,000 people were evacuated from Johnstown to higher ground via the incline; afterward, rescue workers used the funicular to help with the flood-cleanup efforts. The Johnstown Incline also continued to serve as a mode of public transportation between the bottom and top of the hill. From February 1938 to July 1953, the Johnstown Traction Company operated transit buses from Johnstown to Westmont with the "fully loaded public buses" being carried by the incline. Newer buses were too large to fit on the incline's cars, leading to the discontinuation of the bus service on the incline. As a result, commuters had to transfer from local buses on either end of the incline.
Ridership on the incline increased again in the 1940s, when it accommodated 700,000 annual passengers, some of whom rode the funicular to avoid paying for gasoline during World War II. The construction of highways nearby in the 1950s prompted many of the incline's former riders to drive instead, and by 1957 the borough of Westmont was contemplating closing the incline. Though the Johnstown Incline remained open, was losing $25,000 a year by 1961. Around that time, volunteers renovated the Johnstown Inclined Plane to attract visitors; this work included painting the Inclined Plane Bridge near the lower station.
Cambria County Tourist Council takeover Bethlehem Steel stopped supplying electricity to the Johnstown Inclined Plane when the factory switched to a system that could not be used on the incline. This forced the incline to close on January 31, 1962. The closure prompted the public to advocate for the incline's continued operation; as a result, the electric motor was rewound, ties were replaced, and the cars were repainted. The Cambria County Tourist Council was organized to raise money to operate the incline, with the goal of raising $10,200 before the end of February 1962, and it solicited donations from Pennsylvania residents. The Westmont government subsequently said that it did not want to demolish the incline but was also unwilling to sell or continue operating it. In April, the borough government agreed to lease the incline to the Cambria County Tourist Council.