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This is MY baby.

It'll be fully functional again, after a twenty-year hibernation,..... for the 2009-2010 season.
This post has been edited by Don Coyote®: 13 April 2009 - 06:42 PM

Don Coyote®, on Apr 11 2009, 08:51 PM, said:

Where is that?

Don Coyote®, on Apr 11 2009, 08:51 PM, said:

Is this Mt. Frederic or the backside of Tyrolean??? MY guesses

Golly... Wow!

Is that an original Poma lift? What year is it?

That's Mount Mancelona. I believe the two Pomas were installed (brand new) in 1965. (I could be wrong). The T-Bar was first, around 1957-ish.

I need to get a current pic of that exact location,......... those teeny-weeny pine trees now completely conceal the lift. That pic is a digital copy of a postcard that I found on eBay. Mt Mancelona closed in 1984. I put a 1966 Evinrude Snowmobile engine on it about ten years ago,..... then I moved out of town. After running out of projects,..... I got "The Bug" again,... and continued to rebuild this lift again. I've replaced the old two-stroke with a 16hp riding lawnmower four-stroke Briggs, and made five carriages, (Sheaves?), at work..... but unfortunately, I made the wrong ones. Mt Mancelona has TWO platter lifts, and they spin opposite each other. Neither of the two Pomas had any carriages on them. They were either sold at auction when the place closed, or were stolen by vandals. Only ONE of the lifts had a single "Hanger Arm" still on it, and that's the one that I used for a model.

.....It doesn't work on MY poma.

But if we ever fix the OTHER lift,..... they'll work just fine.


THIS summer's project is to get the T-Bar back in operation. My buddy that OWNS the property is looking to turn the place into a Bed-and-Breakfast. A kind-of "Rent-Your-Own-Ski-Resort" kinda thing.

.....(Genius)


But I'll likely make five new Hanger Arms for MY Poma, as well..... I really want to get to the top of that hill!!!
This post has been edited by Don Coyote®: 12 April 2009 - 07:39 PM

Just for clarification, the piece that attaches the platter stick to the cable is called the grip. Sheaves are the wheels attached to the towers which support the cable.

Mount Mancelona.... Huh. I pass it every day. 'Good' luck on that one.

skiersage, on Apr 12 2009, 10:56 PM, said:

That makes more sense.

(It's nice to have found some people to talk to, who know things).

One of my home-made "Grips".



..............................

The Original,......... my model. ...................

Great to see that somebody has a big heart for the genious Poma oldtimers.
Many thanks !

I'm a great fan of Pomas. When cranked up to full speed they can go as fast as a detachable quad and they are low, so you often stay out of the stronger winds.

Falls Creek resort has a dozen quad chairs but they've kept two old Pomas. It's wonderful to go there and play on them.

The International Poma is 40 years old, 1.25 km long (I think that's just under a mile in American measurement), and moves at 4.2 metres a second. Best of all it has a corner which allows punters to get some air time as you go around it.



The International Poma at Falls Creek, Victoria, Australia on 6 August 2008 during a rare moment with no queue.

Facebook Fan group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#...gid=14361012614
This post has been edited by Bogong: 15 April 2009 - 06:27 PM

I got some air on a tight corner on a Poma drag in France, unfortunately the French hanger jammed and left me swinging in the air. Not my proudest appearance at the top terminal.

I really do like drag lifts, I have often wondered how the grip works, as apparently, the haul rope runs freely through the grip in the lower terminal (Poma Detachable Models) and it is "kicked" into action, I cant work these out though as I have no material of the grip attaching - too busy absorbing the pull from the initial acceleration to 100mph

I reckon we will see more Poma lifts in Europe, as the reccession makes HSQ and Gondolas too expensive, and they are a cheaper solution to getting keen skiiers up a hill :)

The grip operates completely on friction. If you look at Don Coyote's pictures, you'll see the vertical part he's holding is hinged on the horizontal part. In the rack, the grip is held so that the horizontal part is parallel to the rope and the rope 'runs freely through it'. Once the stick is released from the rack, it's no longer held perpendicular and gravity pulls the stick downward, locking the grip on the rope at the upper front and lower rear.
Good luck, Don Coyote. We have one of those and they're quite, ah, 'maintenance-intensive' once they're fired up for the season.

Yes, when the skiier pulls back on the carriage, the grip "Kinks" the cable and the "friction-grasp" is enough to keep the grip from slipping on the cable.

.....(As long as you have the proper part).


I was 14 when Mt Mancelona shut down. I didn't start skiing until I was 17. I never got to see these lifts in operation. Hell, I never even SAW a Poma lift until around 1992, so I had ALOT to learn when I began working on this thing.

I've learned alot.

I was GOING TO attach my home-made carriage directly to the cable, but then I realized that the grip ISN'T ATTACHED to the cable. I wanted to keep it close to original, so I copied one and made five more. Plus, I didn't want to trust a rigid clamp on the cable, I thought it might cause more damage than the cable could withstand. (It's a very thin cable,..... and very rusty, as well). I was glad to find that there was ONE original grip that was not previously removed. (I'm not certain if they were sold off, or stolen by vandals). It was a dissapointment for this year, but I'll have all the bugs out for NEXT season.

One of my OTHER beloved hobbies is collecting and rebuilding, (not actually restoring ...), antique snowmobiles. I primarilly like the Ski-Doo's from 1959 to 1965. These ski-lifts really match my other hobbies quite well.

(This Ski-Doo Alpine is a 1968,..... I only have it because it's an Alpine. You'll see my 1963 Alpine on a trailer in the background and my 1964 Olympic in front of it. The '64 is my daily-driver. I've been known to cause a few accidents out on the trails because more people are watching ME instead of watching where they're going).
This post has been edited by Don Coyote®: 18 April 2009 - 05:40 PM

liftmech, on Apr 19 2009, 12:28 AM, said:

Maybe this additional drawing from the "book Doppelmayr" explains a bit more; the maintenance affort is known in Europe too....

I find a half a dozen or so of these grips every year at our t-bar from the poma lift that was removed here in the early 80s.

liftmech- jump in here and help me, but the picture in Post #1 doesn't appear to have a "slide rack" required for a detachable poma, and the grip shown in Post #10 doesn't have the "notches" in the button like I remember or as shown in the Doppel drawing supplied by Petz.

Dino

Think based on the shortness of Don Coyotee´s Poma there´s no necessity for a long rack even when no storage of the hangers in the lower station was planned.
This is a picture of a shorter Poma fitted with a rather small rack but this lift surely was longer then Don´s.