 The incline 's original steam engine was disconnected on January 6 , 1912 , and replaced with an electric motor . The cars used on the incline were originally double @-@ deckers , but were reconfigured into a single @-@ decker design in 1921 . The double @-@ decker cars had horses and wagons riding on the main , upper deck and passengers riding in a compartment below . Only one human fatality has occurred at the incline , though 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 below . Bethlehem Steel , the successor to Cambria Iron , sold the Johnstown Inclined Plane to the borough of Westmont in April 1935 . On March 17 , 1936 , nearly 4 @,@ 000 people were evacuated from Johnstown to higher ground via the incline as the <unk> and Conemaugh Rivers overflowed their banks . The floodwaters continued downstream and eventually reached Pittsburgh . 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 . Bethlehem Steel stopped supplying electricity to the Johnstown Inclined Plane when the factory switched to " an incompatible power system " , forcing the incline to close on January 31 , 1962 . Because of public pressure to keep the incline operating , it was reopened in July 1962 after an extensive renovation , in which the electric motor was rewound , ties were replaced , and the cars were repainted . 
