Streetcar or Bus Collection Farebox.
Streetcar or Bus Collection Farebox.
If you rode trolleys, streetcars, or buses from the early teens until the late 1960s there is a better than average chance that the token, nickel or dime or in later years the quarter that you used to pay your fare was dropped into a Johnson or Cleveland farebox.
The name Johnson Farebox came from its founder Tom Loftin Johnson (1854-1911). Settling in Louisville, Kentucky, he worked for the street railroad owned by members of the Du Pont family and gained their respect when he invented the first farebox for coins in 1880. In May 1888 he affiliated himself with the Saint Louis Car Company. After his death, the company continued as the Johnson Farebox Company.
In the early years, fare boxes were not that widely used. Streetcars were set up in a way that the conductor would walk around the car and hand collect the fares and ring them up on an overhead fare register.
In the early part of the century a type of car known as a PAYE (pay as you enter) or pay as you pass the conductor became standard on many streetcar properties and the use of a farebox became more practical.
In 1909, 1912 and 1914 Tom L. Johnson was granted patents to build and refine a registering farebox. This fare box was to evolve into the Type D that was the mainstay of the Johnson Fare Box Company for many years. The early models had a larger body but the same registering mechanism. The early models were manual "crankers," whereby the operator or conductor cranked a handle on the side to run the money through the counting mechanism. Then he or she took the change out of the bottom. The cyclometers on the faceplate registered the money that passed through. At the beginning of the run or shift, the operator or conductor took a reading. At the end of the run or shift, another reading was taken and he or she was responsible to turn in the amount of money that was registered.
In the 1930s when one-person crews were coming into being, an electric version of the D box was developed. This model had a 12volt motor attached to the bottom of the main housing by means of a belt connecting two pulleys. The electric motor did the work of cranking the box. Many of the earlier D boxes were motorized as Johnson sold a kit to do this. The motorized boxes were taller than the manual ones.
In the early years, Johnson made another model, the J-box. This model was not as widely used as was the D. It was more common in small systems that had a single coin fare. The J was slow to load since it took one coin at a time and was not practical in a big city system that had heavy patronage. The D boxes could take multiple coins at the same time, which made for faster loading at stops. Both types of boxes were factory set to take any type and size of coin or token as specified by the transit company ordering them. The J-box only came as an electric model.
Sometime before World War II, the Johnson Fare Box Company acquired the Cleveland Fare Box Company. This company only made manual dump boxes where the money went into a vault. The name Cleveland Fare Box was retained for that model but had the Johnson Fare Box Company name added to the oval builder’s plate attached to the front of the box. The final version of the Cleveland, the type 5, had no builder name anywhere on the body but could still be recognized as a Cleveland. These boxes took any size coin but were not suitable for paper money unless it was folded twice.
In the late 1940s, the D and J models dropped out of production and were replaced by the K box, with its stainless steel body and re-designed tower. The earlier Ks sat on a pedestal and the later versions had a two-piece body that extended to the floor. A short time later the K50 model was offered which designated that it took half-dollars. The K25 only took up to a quarter. The very late K50s even took the Susan B. Anthony Dollar coin. The K boxes were available either as a model where money could be retrieved after it was registered or as a vault box.
The one big thing that finished off the D boxes was the movement in the late 1960s where the streetcar and bus operators carried no change. Transit systems were required to have fare boxes with vaults. In 1970 when Los Angeles went to an exact fare policy, all D boxes were withdrawn from service. This was the most recent use of the longtime flagship D boxes that I know of by a major transit system, in their original form.
In the mid-1960s the name Johnson, Fare Box Company disappeared from the scene when the company was absorbed by Keene. K box line now was called Keene Boxes. The Cleveland line was also retained but, retained its Cleveland name.
In the 1980s Keene was absorbed by General Fare Industries (GFI), who also later took over the Duncan Fare Box line to get the dollar bill track design. Currently, the two major builders of fare boxes are GFI and Cubic.
Item Code - MIS8E121MC
Width: 9 1/2" Height: 19" Depth: 7 1/2" Weight: 15.876 kg
