29 replies to this topic

[NHskier13]

The visual appearance of lifts change from time to time, from hard-to-not-notice stuff such as new chairs, to things that are easy to pass by such as a new sign.
I decided to make this thread after I went to Bretton Woods today. (my apoligies if there's already one created. I searched and did not find one)
The Bethlehem Express has a new coat of paint and a new nameplate:
(I am comparing to older images, but I borrowed some from various sites because in my earlier days of picture taking I did not get any good ones of the terminals:)
2013 :


Early 2015 :
 SAM_1610.JPG (1.56MB)
Number of downloads: 91

Learning Center Quad
2012 :

Early 2015:
 SAM_1609.JPG (1.54MB)
Number of downloads: 91

West Mountain Express

 SAM_1659.JPG (474.53K)
Number of downloads: 52

Currently, i'm still in the process of sorting out all of my images, but if I find anything else i'll post it. I've already seen some repaintings going on at other places (Breck, for example)

[DonaldMReif]

I may have shown this in my thread with the new gallery of the Colorado SuperChair, but the Rocky Mountain SuperChair has been subjected to this in the past year:

From the 2012-2013 or 2013-2014 season:


The same view in December 2014:


The two differences you see are that in the second photo, there are map displays on the chairs, not present before 2014. In the first photo, the support columns were painted gray. In the second photo, they're painted a brownish-tan.

[DonaldMReif]

The Kensho SuperChair has been subjected to this, since it received a nameplate for the bottom terminal in 2014.


In January 2014:


In December 2014:

[DonaldMReif]

Keystone did repaint their lifts a couple years back, from 2011 to 2013. It was gradual, starting with the Dercum Mountain lifts and ending with the lifts on North Peak and the Outback. They repainted lift terminals from beige to dark green.

Here it is on Wayback:

2011:


2013:



The same can be said of the Montezuma Express lift. Interestingly, with the Montezuma Express lift, the upper terminal got repainted dark green in 2011, but the bottom terminal wasn't repainted to match it until 2012. But here's the before and after on the bottom terminal:

Before:


After:

[DonaldMReif]

The chair parking shed at the top of the Peru Express lift was replaced in 2011:

The original shed:


The new shed:


You will also notice that in the original photo, a lift nameplate is attached to the stack that contains the drive motor. It's not present in the second photo. It should be noted that the Keystone lifts actually were painted entirely in dark green to start with, but then they were repainted around 2005 to have beige terminals and gray lift towers (the Ruby Express lift's tower tubes actually used to be painted green). Then in 2011 and 2012, the beige was undone 'restored' to the original dark green, although the towers remain painted gray. The Peru Express was painted with beige terminals from 2005 to 2011.

[DonaldMReif]

Furthermore, for an idea of how a lift's paint job has evolved, here's the Outback Express lift:

In 2006, all of the infrastructure, including the storage shed, the terminal, and the parking rails, was painted green:



Come repainting time in 2007, that lift nameplate on the operator shack stayed, but the underside of the terminal was repainted gray, as was the shack and the parking rails, while the stack and sides of the terminal were painted beige:


In 2012, the shack and the parking rails were repainted dark green, as was the siding and the stack on the lift terminal itself:


If I took out picture 2, the only differences that would have happened would have been that the underside of the terminal was repainted silver and the nameplate was removed from the operator shack.

[DonaldMReif]

Back to Breck, but I wanted to note that prior to 2008, the Mercury SuperChair actually had its name painted onto both the top and bottom terminals, along with the Breckenridge 'B' and the Poma logo:

Pre-2008:


In 2014:



It's more noticeable on the bottom terminal that prior to 2008, the lift name was painted onto the bottom terminal, at least on the uphill side:


Since 2009, the lift name is displayed in Times New Roman font on a blue nameplate near where the Breckenridge 'B' was in the previous photo (a similar type of nameplate was used on the original Colorado SuperChair, and on the Rocky Mountain SuperChair from 2009 to 2014):

[NHskier13]

DonaldMReif, on 03 January 2015 - 08:26 PM, said:

In 2014:

That chair coming out of the top station looks like a newer LPA Omega carrier, do you know anything about that?

[NHskier13]

A new nameplate was added to the Zephyr Quad:
 SAM_1613.JPG (1.5MB)
Number of downloads: 46

[DonaldMReif]

NHskier13, on 04 January 2015 - 09:55 AM, said:

That chair coming out of the top station looks like a newer LPA Omega carrier, do you know anything about that?

The chairs on the Mercury SuperChair are still the original Omega chairs from its construction in 1997. They have not been replaced at all.

[RibStaThiok]

Love the green. It needs to stay.

[DonaldMReif]

I can say the same with how the Outback Express lift's upper terminal has changed:


Here's what it looked like in 2006/early 2007, when it was painted all-green:


From 2007 to 2014 the upper terminal was painted with beige sides and gray supports, underside and bullwheel:


And for the 2014-2015 season, they finally repainted the upper terminal's beige in dark green to match the bottom terminal:


You may notice that the chairs appear to be closer spaced in the third photo, the one with the terminal in green and gray. Your eyes aren't playing tricks. They actually made two modifications to the Outback Express lift this year: they repainted the upper terminal to match the bottom terminal, and they added 24 additional chairs to the lift to increase the uphill capacity of the lift to 2,400 pph. Seven of the new chairs formerly were chairs 136-142 on the Peru Express lift (which now has 135 chairs; it had 142 prior to 2013), and another 17 used to be chairs 151-168 on the Montezuma Express

[NHskier13]

I could say the same about the lifts near me, as well. I personally find the color white boring. It blends in too much, and in some cases it's just downright ugly.
Here's some before and after :
Bethlehem Express Quad


White Peaks Express Quad


It appears the amount of images I can use per post is limited. I will continue in a new post.

This post has been edited by NHskier13: 09 January 2015 - 03:11 PM

[NHskier13]

I like the new coat of paint on the terminals of the duckling double, but I don't like how it's boarded up, because that's probably bad.



More changes in a new post...

[NHskier13]

I like what Sunday River did, from Black and Blue (Bruises, as I liked to joke) to Red and Silver or Black.
Pre 2012 : Chondola was the only lift to have the new paint scheme, as it was installed that way.
2012 : Locke Mountain Triple, Barker Mountain Express, South Ridge Express, North Peak Express were repainted.
2013 : The White Cap Quads recieved some minor repainting, Jordan Bowl Express and Jordan Mountain Double, and Aurora Peak Quad repainted. No news on Oz Quad, or Spruce Peak Triple.


The Towers :


(Of course, this lift used to be all YAN before it was retrofitted by POMA, but that's pretty obvious...)
It is also worth noting that all of the High Speed Quad chairlifts had the Sunday River logo painted/decal on the backrest.
(That would be North Peak Express, South Ridge Express, Barker Mountain Express, and Jordan Bowl Express. The Chondola does not, the last time I checked, probably because the seat dividers would make it a little hard, or because they did not want to anyway.)

This post has been edited by NHskier13: 09 January 2015 - 03:24 PM

[Yooper Skier]

NHskier13, on 09 January 2015 - 03:22 PM, said:

I like what Sunday River did, from Black and Blue (Bruises, as I liked to joke) to Red and Silver or Black.
Pre 2012 : Chondola was the only lift to have the new paint scheme, as it was installed that way.
2012 : Locke Mountain Triple, Barker Mountain Express, South Ridge Express, North Peak Express were repainted.
2013 : The White Cap Quads recieved some minor repainting, Jordan Bowl Express and Jordan Mountain Double, and Aurora Peak Quad repainted. No news on Oz Quad, or Spruce Peak Triple.


The Towers :


(Of course, this lift used to be all YAN before it was retrofitted by POMA, but that's pretty obvious...)
It is also worth noting that all of the High Speed Quad chairlifts had the Sunday River logo painted/decal on the backrest.
(That would be North Peak Express, South Ridge Express, Barker Mountain Express, and Jordan Bowl Express. The Chondola does not, the last time I checked, probably because the seat dividers would make it a little hard, or because they did not want to anyway.)

Locke, Barker, South Ridge, North Peak, and the motor room of Quantum were painted prior to 2010/2011 season. I started in October of '10 and they were as they are now. White Cap and White Heat received new paint summer 2011. I don't recall if Little White Cap happened in '11 or '12. Summer 2013 saw new paint on Jordan Bowl, Jordan Double, Oz, Aurora, Spruce, and the towers and return of Quantum Leap.
And yes, all four of SR's high-speed quads have the Sunday River sun logo embroidered on the backs. The Chondola has individual seat cushions for all six seats so that would not really be an option.

[boardski]

On the "Duckling double", how does one who is more than 5' tall not whack their head on the paneling on the lower terminal when boarding that lift?

[vons]

boardski, on 10 January 2015 - 09:17 AM, said:

On the "Duckling double", how does one who is more than 5' tall not whack their head on the paneling on the lower terminal when boarding that lift?

It looks like you load uphill of the lift not under the terminal.

[NHskier13]

vons, on 10 January 2015 - 12:01 PM, said:

It looks like you load uphill of the lift not under the terminal.

I wouldn't say uphill exactly, but kind of.
You load this like most hall's (I call it hallway loading personally for that reason)
The chair goes around the bullwheel around 15 feet behind where you load/

I also noticed that the wooden slats on the chairs were painted from green to orange between the two photos.

[boardski]

In looking at that "Duckling double", the lift rotates the opposite direction than what I thought when I first looked at the picture, now it makes sense, I see where people get on. Interesting design. Most of the Halls I have seen (in Colorado) have either no protective housing or very different from the picture. Looks like a similar set up to the Heritage Square Alpine slide lift.