American Hoist and Ditcher *PIC*

Uintah Railway hoist and ditcher sets on the siding at the "big Slide" on Baxter Pass in the mid 1920's. Self powered, this unit was up on the "hill" alot in the 1920 and 1930's as the Uintah continued to try to keep the mud slide from over taking hte tracks. Always pushing out on the tracks from the right, the ditcher was kept busy shoveling one bucket full of mud at time from the hill on the right to the slope on the left. Large blocks and pieces of sandstone, were loaded in to the gondolas or flat cars and taken to various bridge abutments along the line. Two deaths were associated with the use of this machine at theis location and as one can imagine the 7 1/2% grade, along with mud, made blocking the unit up for safe operation difficult.