Turbine & Tailrace




The Inclined Plane was powered by using water from the upper level of the canal to run a huge Reaction Turbine located in a chamber beneath the powerhouse. This powerful machine could move the wheeled cradle car and Canal Boat loaded with 70 tons of coal, from a dead stop, up the plane, over the summit and down into the upper level of the canal. Once used, water was carried away from the turbine chamber in a Tailrace Tunnel that led back into the canal at the bottom of the plane. From the powerhouse, the Plane Tender controlled the operation by adjusting the speed of the turbine and tightening a brake on the cable winding drum shaft. At Plane 9 West, boats were raised or lowered 100 vertical feet in about 15 minutes.



Water was brought to the powerhouse from the upper level of the canal in a headrace flume that ended just behind the building at the level of the second floor. A valve allowed the water to be dropped about 50 feet through a penstock pipe to the turbine chamber and up into the turbine from below. Jets of water from the turbine rotor’s four curved nozzles force it to turn at approximately 67 RPM. A drive shaft attached to the rotor was geared to the cable winding drum in the powerhouse overhead.