Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

Poma originally marketed the Alpha drive terminal as "upgradeable" to a detachable.

The Falcon lift was installed originally as a fixed grip and upgraded to a detachable. The detachable equipment is placed infront of the existing drive terminal and the fixed return is usually torn out and replaced.

Poma sold many of this type. Finally, they decided to stay with the Alpha terminal for fixed grips and stopped upgrading because it was less expensive to replace the entire terminal with a new one for a detachable lift.

That makes since now because the Midway Shuttle at Crystal Mountain, WA said that it was designed to be upgraded to a HSQ in the future. I always wondered what that ment.

Thanks SkiReg

Yes it does make sense. So did they put in the proper drive equipment into the existing alpha terminal?

Did they do somethig similar with the Sunshine Dopp tripple at Steamboat? Or have the plans to upgrade it been rescent?

I have no idea when the Sunshine triple at Steamboat will be upgraded. However, the Mueller's mentioned that if they were to buy it, the Sunshine would be upgraded to a HSQ.

I do believe that if you look at the Steamboat lookup at this site it does say something about it becoming a high speed lift. But that might not be the best info so I'd search the net.

I know there are plans for it to be upgraded, I just don't know when. I mean the resort is owned by ASC.

You would guess that it would be upgraded, but like many other resorts, the question is when. According to this site there are gondolas planned at Copper and Breck, while there is also a HSQ planned at Breck.
This post has been edited by highspeedquad: 10 February 2005 - 05:34 PM

The summit HSQ at Breck right now is planed for next year but it may or may not happen. The gondola will probably wait a few years.

poloxskier, on Feb 9 2005, 07:08 PM, said:

That looks just like the drive terminal of the Loon Mt, NH gondola, a 1988 dopp. I had always assumed the lower shaft was a PTO because of its diameter and use of u-joints.

I'll get pictures today...

The Northwoods, Vista Bahn, Mountain Top and Game Creek at Vail are of this design too. I'm not sure about the Avanti, Born Free, and Orient but I think they are.

Zage, on Feb 9 2005, 03:51 PM, said:

No, I don't, actually. Read my signature, plus we've put a great deal of money into upgrades and I don't think we're finished yet. It runs fine and does its job. The only thing about its age I don't like is the terminal skin- I like the slightly newer Competition models where there is a lot of headroom. Note there isn't a lot of it here.

Had it been converted, the Midway Shuttle would have looked like the Flyer mechanically, and like Rex as far as the terminal covering went. I don't know if they would have kept the tension as it was on the original lift, or converted it to one like the Flyer's.

Yes, at places I have found info that the gondi will wait. I seem to remember that the summit HSQ would be next year, but I may not be remembering correctly.

Well they are hoping to break ground this spring on the gondola but they probably won't due to the lack of sales of condo and home sales at the new peak 8 base area and the slow market that has made it so there have not been many sales at the grand timber lodge either so it probably will wait.

The little headroom is one of the few disadvantages about the stations like the flyer. Other than that I like it because you get to see the mechanics.

bmccaff, on Feb 11 2005, 01:13 AM, said:

Here is a PTO shaft described by liftmech above. This is the drive (top) terminal of the gondola at Loon Mountain, NH. At the lower terminal, there is a simlar PTO above the bullwheel.

Forgive my earlier post, I didn't totally understand the topic at hand. Hope this helps to illustrate the topic.

Brian

 loon_gondola_cadencing_pto.jpg (139.65K)
Number of downloads: 75
(edited to include linebreak)
This post has been edited by bmccaff: 11 February 2005 - 07:16 PM

So a basic rule of thumb would be if there is a fixture directly under the bullwheel leading to the ground then it is a vault drive?

highspeedquad, on Feb 11 2005, 11:15 PM, said:

Yep. By fixture, I think you are refering to the drive shaft, which comes out of the roof of the drive house.

A vault drive is when instead of a lift having its electric and auxilary motors overhead, they are below. Usually, they are underground in little one room concrete drive houses. Vault drives are usually found on older Riblets, although some early HSQs had them. I beleive there are a couple of older POMAs that had them too. (Glades Triple @ Kmart, one of the few vault drive's on the East Coast.)

Attached is a picture of the upper station of Burlingame, an older riblet at Snowmass, CO. Notice how the bullwheel is being driven by a shaft coming up out of the roof of the drive house.

(edited for logic and spelling)
This post has been edited by Durrrant: 11 February 2005 - 08:35 PM

That's more help than the HSQ pics, because many have the drive houses out of view. Do they do that today?