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While in switzerland a few years ago I saw an intesting setup on a gondola outside of Grindelwald. There was one bullwheel that was vertical a side view would be (I) with the I being the Bull wheel. Two other bullwheels transfered the cable to a horizontal angle. What is the purpose of this? This is just a picture of the line, anyone know this one?
This post has been edited by crazyskier91: 13 May 2004 - 10:08 AM

Vertical floating bullwheel on a detachable lift. More widely used in Europe than here as I know. More compact than horizontal tensioning tracks.
This post has been edited by Dr Frankenstein: 13 May 2004 - 12:43 PM

Hey Grant, yea I at this place this past summer but I didn't ride the gondola because my parents were with me. However, I did take a few pictures of this gondola from the base. But anyway, the name of the gondola is the Mannlichenbahn GGM.

Hey Grant, while you were in Grindelwald, did you go on the Firstbahn gondola? Here is a picture I took from inside the terminal. I hope this is what you mean by the two bullwheels. I believe those bullwheels used for the counterweight. I guess Von Roll at this time wasn't really into the new hydraulic tension units. B)

Yes I went to both of those gondolas. I was there hiking with my parents. That was before I got into skilifts. Yes that is the bullwheel setup I meant.

I like the towers :)

Another term for "vertical bullwheel"
I believe you are looking at counterweight sheaves - also called deviation sheaves.
This system is quite common on long lifts with flat spans, as this profile type requires large carriage travel for loading extremes.

Ryan B

Here's another shot of one of our lifts. Not the best pic in the world though :)

Quote

No. Vertical haul rope bullwheel.

Yes that is the setup I meant but the bullwheels were about 15 feet in diameter and all of equal size. The top terminal had a driveshaft connected to the vertical bullwheel. It was fixed in place so what purpose would that serve tensionwise?

I didn't know that there are vertical drive bullwheels.

Unless I saw it wrong thats what it seemed like. Would this be more efficient or something?

I believe trams use vertical bullwheels and maybe a few funitels. I have only seen the motor room of a Garaventa funitel and the bullwheel was only slanted.

The bullwheels are slanted (at least on the CTEC Stealth 3) I think for tensioning. For the funitel, the motor room is one floor below the terminal, so it eliminates the need for extra depression sheaves

It just seems like it would save money by only having one bullwheel.

I can't see having vertical bullwheels being more efficient than a normal horizontal, you would have to change the angle of the rope quite a bit to go to the verticle wheel, which you would probably have to use some strange sheave assembly to change the angle in the space in the terminal. Not to mention the funny driveshafts (and possible additional gearboxes) there would have to be to drive this bullwheel. There was a picture of a funitel I saw that used two vertical bullwheels to bring the rope into the machine room - but these were just idlers. I'm glad this isn't on any lift I work on!! :)

There were no complicated sheave assemblys in this setup, just two bullwheels.

Oh yeah - just re-read the original post - it sounds like the funitel picture I saw... it must have had four bullwheels though.

Doppelmayr funitels have vertical bulwheels, and i think the return on the squaw funitel is vertical

Allan why would it need four bulwheels? Think of two of them as the idler wheels with the bullwheel made vertical.