Construction of a $20,000 to $30,000 car skip on which fully
loaded flatcars can be shunted from the regular government railroad at the west
axis of Grand Coulee Dam, down a steep incline to the trestle deck spanning the
dam was started on September 2, 1938.
The drop from the upper railroad to the trestle is about 130
feet. The length of the inclined rails is only 200 feet, showing how steep the
drop actually is. It is a grade of 80 percent, or 38.50 degrees.
Cars would be rolled on a platform over the skid runway. The
platform would then roll downhill with
the aid of a counterweight. A hoist brought the cars back up.
The construction eliminated the building of an expensive
railroad spur from the cement silos along the pump-plant base to the trestle.
The USBR had previously prohibited building a trestle over the old slide area.
The cars will run down the steel incline endways instead of
sideways as usual. Thousands of tons of steel will be brought down the line.
Unknown is when the skip was removed and a regular track
installed, likely due to the sheer number of railroad cars that needed access
to the construction trestle.
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