30 replies to this topic

[missouriskier]

I brought this up in the Snowshoe Mountain triva topic I made (#102).

There are several detachable quad lifts that I know of that have a midstation for loading in certain seasons, early or late usually.
They do not have a way of detaching the chairs, so the lift must be slowed down to 450 feet per minute if it is a quad, right?
When this happens would the station that is still used as a detachable station, such as the top of the Western Express be very slow when you were getting off?
I am including pictures of the lifts I know about, if you know of any more, just add them to this topic.

The Western Express at Snowshoe has this station which is used in the early season some years when snow cannot be made all the way to the bottom.

 IMG00288-20100227-1247.jpg (332.81K)
Number of downloads: 107

The Kosciuszko Express at Thredbo in Australia has a midstation which is used for loading in the spring when the snow melts too much at the bottom.

(It seems as though I can't get the picture I wanted for Kosciuszko Express right now, I will try again later.)

Edit: I got the picture now.


The Screaming Eagle Express at Grouse also has a midstation like these, but when is it used?



And how about the Palmer Express at Timberline, it has a midstation for summer use, but I think it is detachable.



What are your thoughts on these kinds of midstations?

[Cameron]

The Horse Hill Access detachable quad at Mt Buller in Australia has a non-detaching mid-station too (for loading). Often this will be used in the middle of the day (with the lift slowed down); but in the morning and evening (when lots of people are going to/from the Horse Hill car-park) they close the mid-loading station and run the lift at full speed. The sheaves are actually mounted on hydraulic rams, such that they can be lowered when the mid-loading station is used and raised for full-speed operation. When using the mid-loading station they will only load every second (or third) chair from the car-park end - depending upon how busy it is.

This lift is also odd in that it has (I think) 8 enclosed gondolas too - naturally these aren't run on the line while the mid-loading station is in use.

Cameron.

PS: I haven't been to Buller for over 15 years - so forgive me if this information is now out of date :)

[floridaskier]

Here's the summer midstation on Payday at PCMR. The lift runs probably somewhere around 250 feet per minute, pretty much a crawl, so people can walk on and off.



The speed of the chairs inside detachable stations is determined by how fast the rope is going, so whatever the normal station-to-line speed ratio is would still be the case when the lift is running slow.

[missouriskier]

Cameron, on 07 January 2011 - 12:31 PM, said:

The Horse Hill Access detachable quad at Mt Buller in Australia has a non-detaching mid-station too (for loading). Often this will be used in the middle of the day (with the lift slowed down); but in the morning and evening (when lots of people are going to/from the Horse Hill car-park) they close the mid-loading station and run the lift at full speed. The sheaves are actually mounted on hydraulic rams, such that they can be lowered when the mid-loading station is used and raised for full-speed operation. When using the mid-loading station they will only load every second (or third) chair from the car-park end - depending upon how busy it is.

This lift is also odd in that it has (I think) 8 enclosed gondolas too - naturally these aren't run on the line while the mid-loading station is in use.

Cameron.

PS: I haven't been to Buller for over 15 years - so forgive me if this information is now out of date :)

I didn't realize that Horse Hill was detachable until earlier today when I saw a Wikipedia article on chondolas. I always just thought it was a fixed grip quad. This makes sense now on why it has a midstation and how it works. When the midstation is not operating, is it still possible to use Horse Hill to ski that terrain?

[missouriskier]

floridaskier, on 07 January 2011 - 04:06 PM, said:

Here's the summer midstation on Payday at PCMR. The lift runs probably somewhere around 250 feet per minute, pretty much a crawl, so people can walk on and off.



The speed of the chairs inside detachable stations is determined by how fast the rope is going, so whatever the normal station-to-line speed ratio is would still be the case when the lift is running slow.

I didn't remember seeing this midstation when I skiied at Park City in 2007. What is near it that people would want to get off the lift for?

Also, this does mean that the chairs in the station would be going 25% of their usual speed if Payday usually runs at 1000 fpm, right?

[floridaskier]

The Payday midstation is used in the summer for the alpine slide, the zipline, and some other attractions around there. It's not used in the winter at all, but it's been there since the Payday six pack was installed in 1997

[willis]

The Palmer Express is a fully detachable station used in during the busiest part of the summer for loading only. Rope flies over the terminal during the other seasons, but the lift is put to bed most winters because of heavy ice loads

[Aussierob]

7th Heaven at Blackcomb used to have a midstation at towers 16 and 17. This was removed in 2000 as it was never used and we wanted to get rid of the line friction. The few times it was used a snowcat was used to provide hydraulic power and once the assenblies were lowered the lift was forced into medium speed and went 2.5 m/s max. If you ride the lift today you will notice the next tower after 15 is 18.

[Cameron]

missouriskier, on 07 January 2011 - 04:37 PM, said:

I didn't realize that Horse Hill was detachable until earlier today when I saw a Wikipedia article on chondolas. I always just thought it was a fixed grip quad. This makes sense now on why it has a midstation and how it works. When the midstation is not operating, is it still possible to use Horse Hill to ski that terrain?

Horse-Hill was originally a fixed grip triple when it opened in the early 80s; however a few years later it was replaced with the chondola, and the old lift was moved to Helicopter Flat (replacing the three Poma surface lifts). When the mid-load station is not in use it's not possible to use that lift for skiing that terrain - you need to use the Village or Tyrol T-Bars. It can get pretty crowded down there! I believe that it doesn't take long to activate the mid-load station though, so on busy days they do use it (only once the morning rush has finished from the car-park).

I did find a detailed an interesting draft for improvements to the mountain, which I'll post in another thread..

Cameron.

[sphrrt]

floridaskier, on 07 January 2011 - 06:57 PM, said:

The Payday midstation is used in the summer for the alpine slide, the zipline, and some other attractions around there. It's not used in the winter at all, but it's been there since the Payday six pack was installed in 1997

I may be wrong as it may have been the original Payday fixed grip triple but I believe that the Payday mid-station was used in winter a few times, back when snowmaking was concentrated on CB's for World Cup and there was only enough snowmaking available to blow small amounts on lower Payday run. WIsh I could remember better, but I'm fairly sure they did this at least once w/the six-pack...

[Bogong]

Missouriskier and Cameron, you are both right. Both the Kosci Express at Thredbo and Horse Hill at Mt Buller are long detachable quads with non detaching mid-stations.

Both also have gondolas that can be attached between the chairs. Thredbo still uses them, especially at night to take diners to the restaurant at the top of the lift. However I don't think Buller has bothered attaching their gondolas to the Horse Hill cable in recent years. They are the only two "Chondolas" operating in Australia at the moment.

The mid-station on the Horse Hill quad at Buller isn't used much because it mostly runs parallel to the Tirol T-bar, so people who want to ski slopes like Cow Camp and Dam Run can use the T-bar and opening the chairlift's mid-station isn't really necessary.

Missouriskier. The purpose of the Horse Hill lift at Mt Buller is to move skiers from the day car park to the slopes, bypassing the town. It is a bit over a mile long. The first 10% of the journey is downhill. It crosses over the main resort access road and continues down to a creek, from there the rest of the trip is uphill. People use the Tirol T-bar for skiing slopes near the route of the Horse Hill Quad..

Cameron, the Village T-bar was removed in 2003 and wasn't replaced. You need to come home and get in touch with Buller again.

: Trail map of Buller's Northern slopes There is another map showing the longer south facing slopes.

P.S. My directory of every Australian ski lift, including the 60 lifts that have been built at Mt Buller. http://wikiski.com/w...ctory#Mt_Buller

This post has been edited by Bogong: 10 January 2011 - 10:29 PM

[floridaskier]

sphrrt, on 10 January 2011 - 07:36 PM, said:

I may be wrong as it may have been the original Payday fixed grip triple but I believe that the Payday mid-station was used in winter a few times, back when snowmaking was concentrated on CB's for World Cup and there was only enough snowmaking available to blow small amounts on lower Payday run. WIsh I could remember better, but I'm fairly sure they did this at least once w/the six-pack...

I have a picture in a coffee table book that shows the 1995 World Cup races on CB's without a flake of natural snow, and that was before the six pack. I don't remember any snow years that bad since then, with the possible exception of 1998. That might have been the year. Never heard of them doing it though

[liftmech]

The midstation on Eagle at Grouse Mountain is used early season when there isn't enough snow at the bottom terminal. The base is around 1000 m, so in November and December it's likely raining there. I've loaded there before, I want to say it was just before Christmas.

[CH3skier]

sphrrt, on 10 January 2011 - 07:36 PM, said:

I may be wrong as it may have been the original Payday fixed grip triple but I believe that the Payday mid-station was used in winter a few times, back when snowmaking was concentrated on CB's for World Cup and there was only enough snowmaking available to blow small amounts on lower Payday run. WIsh I could remember better, but I'm fairly sure they did this at least once w/the six-pack...

I have never seen the six pack unload at the mid-station, but the old triple did use it a few times in early season when they were making snow like you said.

[Skiing#1]

See the picture of old Payday midstation.

http://www.skilifts....h=1

[missouriskier]

Does anyone have pictures of the Horse Hill lift at Mt. Buller? I would like to see it, but haven't been able to find any yet.

Also, was Payday at PCMR a double at one time? In the old pictures with the old midstation that is what I seem to see. I guess I just thought it had always been a triple.

This post has been edited by missouriskier: 14 January 2011 - 03:30 PM

[floridaskier]

Payday was originally an SLI double, then it was replaced with a Yan triple in 1981, then the CTEC six pack on a new line in 1997

[DakarNick]

Hi everyone. Looking through one of my Dopp World Books (not sure which year, its the one with the map on it) I see a detachable quad in Paolina, Italy that has a winter-only, offloading-only mid-station. It is this way due to difficult terrain above the mid-station. The station is cantilevered from two pylons with hydraulic cylinders allowing it to lift off the line. That made me think of the slack that must be available in the line to be able to deflect it to an offload area. In winter, the chairs are approximately 20 inches off the snow surface. I don't know how much snow is needed for the offload ramp. If the snow is six inches, then that is 26" between chair and ramp. That is mid-station in use with no snow. I'm guessing that when the station is lifted out of the way some tension is put into the line to compensate for the tension the station was providing? I don't know how much the line would rise vertically. It would be so much easier to draw this!

Sorry for the paragraphs, or lack of. I'm on my Blackberry.

[martinnv]

Here is a picture of the Cut chair mid-station on Grouse Mtn., taken last year just before the Olympics:

Attached File(s)

•  cutchair.jpg (237.85K)
  Number of downloads: 138

[seilbahnbilder.ch]

Since when is the mid-station (Screaming Eagle Chair/Cut Chair) used in winter?

This post has been edited by seilbahnbilder.ch: 01 February 2011 - 05:08 PM