  We investigate the dynamics of the phase variable of an ideal underdamped
Josephson junction in switching current experiments. These experiments have
provided the first evidence for macroscopic quantum tunneling in large
Josephson junctions and are currently used for state read-out of
superconducting qubits. We calculate the shape of the resulting macroscopic
wavepacket and find that the propagation of the wavepacket long enough after a
switching event leads to an average voltage increasing linearly with time.
