Skagit River Railway Newhalem, WA 1951 скачать в хорошем качестве

Skagit River Railway Newhalem, WA 1951

Former BCER motorman Victor Les Sharman takes a trip down memory lane as he narrates a film created by Kenneth Hodgeson depicting the Sharman family & Kenneth Hodgeson as they take an excursion at the Skagit River Railway in the Skagit River Valley in 1951. (Newhalem, Washington) Footage shows retired interurban coaches from the Oregon Electric Railway de-motorized, being pulled as trailers by electric locomotives along the scenic route. ----- The Skagit River Railway was built by Seattle City Light to haul personnel and supplies to construction projects in the Skagit River Valley, about 140 miles northeast of Seattle. From the Great Northern railhead at Rockport, a 23-mile steam-powered division was completed by 1920 to the site of the Gorge powerhouse and dam at Newhalem. The only route to the base of the next project, the Diablo Dam, was so steep (4-5%) and winding that steam power was impractical, so a 9-mile electrified division was built. Seven trolley freight locomotives and two electric box motors from defunct Seattle and Tacoma lines provided the motive power. Four classic wooden interurban cars from the Puget Sound Electric Railway and five more from the Oregon Electric were all demotorized and used as passenger trailers. The line had no electric-powered passenger cars, although they had two old J.G. Brill rail-buses for low-volume through service with the steam division. In 1953 plans were drawn to replace the original Gorge Dam at Newhalem with a new higher dam which would flood most of the electric division's right-of-way. Rather than rebuild the line, Seattle City Light elected to use the almost-completed parallel highway (State Route 20). The Skagit River Railway became a memory, with its last train on April 4, 1954. #skagitvalley #washington #excursion #train #vintage