11 replies to this topic

[RibStaThiok]

Anyone have any info on the Grouse Mountain Gondola? Looking for whatever details are available- Manufacturer, year installed, and what not. I believe they are 49 people cabins. Looking for the config for about 1989/1990 era. Looks like a beautiful ride.



Thanks

[teachme]

Briefly, there are two parallel cable cars. First (Blue) was built in 1967 or so. It is about 50 people and now only used in heavy wind and for staff / freight. The second (Red) was built in about 1980 and is about 100 people. Second is Garaventa. Before the blue cable car access to the mountain was via a double chair up from north Vancouver to the bottom of the Cut run. That chair had wooden towers. Building the Red cable car bankrupted the mountain as it was followed by a few very poor ski years. I think the current owners (who are now selling) were the family before bankruptcy but managed to regain ownership.

What else?

TME

[RibStaThiok]

That's very helpful right there. I appreciate that. Is it still in pretty good shape?

[Andy1962]

teachme, on 07 December 2016 - 08:22 PM, said:

Briefly, there are two parallel cable cars. First (Blue) was built in 1967 or so. It is about 50 people and now only used in heavy wind and for staff / freight. The second (Red) was built in about 1980 and is about 100 people. Second is Garaventa. Before the blue cable car access to the mountain was via a double chair up from north Vancouver to the bottom of the Cut run. That chair had wooden towers. Building the Red cable car bankrupted the mountain as it was followed by a few very poor ski years. I think the current owners (who are now selling) were the family before bankruptcy but managed to regain ownership.

What else?

TME

https://www.grousemountain.com/about to read about Grouse Mountain history in general, including building of ski lifts and cable cars

http://www.bcbusines...in-mountain-man about the history of the MacLaughlin family's ownership of the mountain. Briefly Grouse Mountain was a public traded company in the early 70's when Bruce MacLaughlin (father of current president Stauart Maclaughlin) bought into the company. The company went bankrupt in early 70's and the MacLaughlin family bought out the other shareholders and retained control.

Grouse Mountain was put up for sale in September 2016
https://www.biv.com/...-mountain-sale/

This post has been edited by Andy1962: 08 December 2016 - 06:41 AM

[RibStaThiok]

Great info, thanks

[Liftkid99]

Red was built in 1976 by Garaventa and is doing great. Cabin interiors were fixed up in around 2011, then it got new Garaventa hangers and carriages in 2013 followed by new controls and a new drive bullwheel. Blue was built by Voest in 1965 with 45 passenger cabins and like teachme said is used for staff, windy weather, freight and also ski school kids over Christmas break when Red gets very busy. The Blue skyride was originally painted red before the new Red aka "Super Skyride" was built, I believe Blue is also slightly steeper than Red. Happy to get more info if you want

[RibStaThiok]

Thanks, I was wondering the difference between Red and Blue. In another episode of MacGyver from 1990, titled "Cease Fire" (Season 5) they Film much of the episode at Grouse, which is supposed to represent Mont Seleve "The Balcony of Geneva" Switzerland. aka Geneva. They feature the Gondolas quite a bit, and show the old drive system in the episode. It's what got me curious about Grouse.

This post has been edited by RibStaThiok: 09 December 2016 - 10:56 PM

[Liftkid99]

Oh cool I haven't seen that before, They also filmed an X Files episode on Blue called "Ascension" which also shows the lift off. . For some reason the pics aren't working but in general Red is a tricable system and blue is a bicable. Red is also much faster and more updated than Blue. Red has new controls with touch screens in the cabins where as blue has what looks like the original controls from '65. Blue's motor room/ drive system doesent seem to look like it's changed much since it was built where as Red's has gotten a pretty nice makeover. Here's a recent picture of Blue's motor room. Let me know if there's anything else in particular you would like to know. I work there so I ride the skyrides all the time.

Attached File(s)

•  image.jpeg (87.47K)
  Number of downloads: 68

[RibStaThiok]

Excellent! That seems to look like what they filmed in the movie. Nice to see this.

[Liftkid99]

Glad to hear it!, definitely hasn't changed much

[Mike12164]

Was given a tour of both the Red and Blue a couple years ago on a college field trip.
Here's a few photos of the blue drive room.

The main drive motor, you can also see the high speed brake in behind, something the newer Super Sky Ride lacks entirely or at least did at the time, not sure about nowadays:
 IMG_0409.JPG (1.5MB)
Number of downloads: 84

The DC generator:
 IMG_0412.JPG (1.1MB)
Number of downloads: 101

Gearbox:
 IMG_0413.JPG (1.01MB)
Number of downloads: 86

The bullwheel brake:
 IMG_0423.JPG (1.09MB)
Number of downloads: 85

The APU:
 IMG_0419.JPG (1.2MB)
Number of downloads: 63

I think I've also got some pictures and videos of the Red drive room pre-refit, I'll dig around a bit...

This post has been edited by Mike12164: 27 January 2017 - 09:28 PM

[RibStaThiok]

Cool, thank you for sharing!