57 replies to this topic

[Lift Dinosaur]

Spend 1/2 your time looking for stuff buried in snow.
Spend 1/2 your time trying to stay warm.
Spend the rest of your time building the Lift... Strong work, my friends.

Dino

[Kicking Horse]

that's crazy.

[Peter]

Chairs are on but now L-P doesn't expect it to open until mid-late March. http://www.skimarble.com/blog-post/lp

[Peter]

Sounds like the latest problem has to do with old sheaves and new LPA grips being incompatible.

Update here: http://www.skimarble...blog-post/21815

[Andy1962]

Peter, on 18 February 2015 - 05:58 PM, said:

Sounds like the latest problem has to do with old sheaves and new LPA grips being incompatible.

Update here: http://www.skimarble...blog-post/21815

Having followed this story from the very beginning, that was my guess as soon as I heard they were flying in a LPA Engineer last week. Got to suck, trying to save a few bucks on a $4.5 million dollar chairlift installation and your season gets toasted by the attempt to save the last $500,000. After the fact, would love to know what the difference is between a 1995 sheave assembly and the modern 2015 sheave assembly that would make the 2015 grips incompatible with the 1995 sheaves and cause the new lift not to run..

[LuvPow]

Andy1962, on 18 February 2015 - 06:33 PM, said:

Having followed this story from the very beginning, that was my guess as soon as I heard they were flying in a LPA Engineer last week. Got to suck, trying to save a few bucks on a $4.5 million dollar chairlift installation and your season gets toasted by the attempt to save the last $500,000. After the fact, would love to know what the difference is between a 1995 sheave assembly and the modern 2015 sheave assembly that would make the 2015 grips incompatible with the 1995 sheaves and cause the new lift not to run..

I don't think it was a matter of trying to save money necessarily .... I think it was a push to get the lift installed initially and this issue might have been overlooked. It is probably due to clearance issues as the grip moves over the sheaves is my guess. Sounds like a part is being manufactured to solve this issue as the sheave assemblies were flown off the line the other day.

This post has been edited by LuvPow: 19 February 2015 - 11:21 AM

[Andy1962]

Andy1962, on 13 November 2014 - 05:17 PM, said:

see http://www.skilifts....pic=10069&st=20 Some the parts from this torched lift are headed to Tremblant Quebec to fix the burned lift there. I left my comments in the Tremblant forum since that seems a more relevalant place for them. This forum seems to be mostly finished for comment, there probably won't be any more unusual developments at Marble.

kind of interesting to look back and see that the sheave assemblies were removed from the lift and flown off the mountain for non destructive testing and (whatever else needed to be done) on September 9, 2014. That was five months before the rebuild was finished and chairs were ready to go back on. Should have been lots of time to do whatever needed to be done. (like real testing and comparison measurements, the stuff that counts )

The only winner out of this fire (early August 2014) and subsequent rebuild is Mont Tremblant because they only missed about three weeks of ski operating days when they had their TGV quad fire in October 2014. (parts of the old Marble Mountain lift were shipped to Tremblant to repair TGV and TGV was back in action by mid December 2014).

This thread is not closed and done until the first paying Newfie gets a ride on it about two weeks before the end of the Marble ski season. Sad. Hats off to the Newfies and the LPA guys on the ground who froze their asses off to get this new lift built. Today I worked on a ski hill at -30 C windchill (for 4 hours only ) and tomorrow it will be -32 to -35 C windchill again for four hours work) You guys worked ten to twelve hours per day for weeks on end to build the Lightning Express. Cheers.

This post has been edited by Andy1962: 19 February 2015 - 07:14 PM

[LuvPow]

I believe when the sheave assemblies were flown the first time, this was the ski area that did this not LP- and only the sheave assemblies that were damaged, not the entire lift line. I think it is just a matter of engineering not catching this issue when designing the job of new/old parts working together.....

[Andy1962]

LuvPow, on 20 February 2015 - 11:04 AM, said:

I believe when the sheave assemblies were flown the first time, this was the ski area that did this not LP- and only the sheave assemblies that were damaged, not the entire lift line. I think it is just a matter of engineering not catching this issue when designing the job of new/old parts working together.....

Yes I agree on all of the who did what when statements. The entire rebuild was an unusual situation, both in why it needed to be done and the time of year it was done in. Not your usual chairlift replacement where everything gets ripped out including the concrete foundations and you start from bare rock. It is what it is. Hopefully lessons got learned from it.

This post has been edited by Andy1962: 20 February 2015 - 10:29 PM

[liftmech]

I'm not surprised the old sheaves didn't work with the new grips. Pre-'96 sheaves don't work with the Omega grips either, as we found out a few years ago when the E crew put some of my sheaves on their lift. Hopefully this mod goes well and they get at least a few weeks out of the lift.

[floridaskier]

What's the difference that makes them incompatible? Thinking of merger-era Doppelmayr CTEC lifts, they mixed and matched plenty between CTEC chairs and Doppelmayr line gear

[LuvPow]

floridaskier, on 21 February 2015 - 09:31 PM, said:

What's the difference that makes them incompatible? Thinking of merger-era Doppelmayr CTEC lifts, they mixed and matched plenty between CTEC chairs and Doppelmayr line gear

I believe it is a matter of clearance as the grip moves over and through the assembly, not just the sheaves themselves... the position of the line equipment in relation to what the grip needs to move over them... the grip has changed since that line equipment was installed

This post has been edited by LuvPow: 22 February 2015 - 11:50 AM

[liftmech]

You are correct. The TB grips that the lift had run with a larger diameter outer flange; the newer grips need more room so they hit the flange on those older sheaves. I'm guessing Poma either had to make new sheaves or machine down the old ones.

[LuvPow]

sounds as though the clearance issue with the grip had to do with the cable catcher on the older assembly

[liftmech]

Ah. Makes sense as well.

[Peter]

Opening now scheduled for March 21: http://www.skimarble...ightningopening

[RibStaThiok]

Well better late than never.. Glad to see it get a little use this season. Good work to the team that got her back up and running.

[LuvPow]

http://www.thewester...ess-chairlift/1

The new 103-chair, high-speed detachable quad chairlift replaces the Governor's Express lift that was put out of commission following a lightning strike at the downhill ski facility in Steady Brook this past summer.
The lightning strike caused a fire that destroyed the lift shack at the top of the mountain and the cable supporting the chair lift to snap and the chairs to collapse to the ground.
The new lift cost $4.7 million, with $3.5 million of that provided by the province and the remaining $1.2 million covered by insurance.