Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad

After World War I, ridership started to decline in both the steam and electric divisions. The steam line acquired gas-powered cars to take patrons to the Sacandaga Park in the early 1920s and FJ&G management concluded by 1932 that reequipping the passenger car fleet on the electric line would reverse matters even though the Depression had been underway since 1930. In 1932 at considerable expense, five lightweight, fast, comfortable, and power-efficient Brill Bullet interurban cars were purchased from J. G. Brill and Company of Philadelphia.[1][2] The bright orange FJ&G interurbans ran hourly into Schenectady where they looped around Crescent Park. Ridership did initially improve with the operation of the new Bullet cars, but increased auto ownership, improved paved roads, the deepening of the Depression, and a further decline in the glove business brought on another ridership reversal. The first sale of the unique Bullet cars by Brill had been to the Philadelphia and Western Railroad. The second and last sale was to the FJ&G. One of the FJ&G's five Bullet cars has made its way (via Salt Lake City's Bamberger Railway) to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, California, where it is being restored. It still has its bright orange FJ&G paint. As late as the 1950s, FJ&G RR still made a daily passenger run to the village of Broadalbin, a single wood-clad 1880s vintage coach—usually with zero to two passengers—pushed or dragged by a Diesel switching locomotive. It was said that this was done to maintain the railroad's charter.

The Great Depression deepened and glove and fine leather manufacturing in Gloversville and Johnstown declined. The FJ&G's Mohawk River bridge had been damaged ten years earlier by river ice and was finally condemned by New York State in 1935 as too dangerous for any public transport. It had carried pedestrians and cars as well as the FJ&G trolleys. The interurban cars now no longer ran into Schenectady and looped to reverse direction at Crescent Park. The FJ&G was forced to go back to using older interurbans that could reverse operating direction without having to turn around. In 1938, the FJ&G decided to abandon the entire electric car service and shut the line down. The Bullet cars eventually went to the Bamberger Railroad interurban in Utah.[1][3] What had once been a 45-minute trolley ride from Schenectady to Gloversville now took 90 minutes or longer by motorbus.

As the next few decades passed following the abandonment of passenger service, freight business continued. With the collapse of the leather business and other industry leaving, traffic declined to the point of the FJ&G closing down after 104 years of private ownership in January 1974. The Delaware Otsego Corporation acquired the line in 1974, but after only a decade of ownership the Delaware Otsego System abandoned the line in 1984. A trackmobile formed one last train that traveled the line collecting any equipment left on the dormant line in 1988, and the tracks were removed 2 years later. Some of the right of way was turned into a recreational trail from just south of the city of Johnstown to Denny's Crossing near Broadalbin Junction. Another small portion near Vail Mills has also been converted to trail use, but the remainder of the original and now trackless FJ&G has remained unchanged for over 2 decades due to lack of funding, land disputes, and lack of interest. A small portion of the roadbed south of the city of Johnstown was built on by the Wal-Mart Distribution Center and the right of way in Vail Mills near routes 30 and 29 is soon to be altered with the intersection being converted to a traffic circle.

If the rails to trails is to continue the FJ&G will need to be paved from Denny's Crossing toward Vail Mills to form a connection in that area and onward into Broadalbin. On the southern portion, the original right of way will need to be altered to go around the industrial park to continue south toward Fonda.