http://www.tahoe-wor.../News/110050009
0
Squaw Valley Tram
Started by Kelly, Oct 06 2005 05:43 PM
1 reply to this topic
#2
-
- Administrator II
- 2,851 Posts:
Founder
Posted 06 October 2005 - 08:07 PM
CABLE GUYS: Think your job is tough? Try inspecting 1.5 miles of steel cable at Squaw Valley USA.
Men walking on a wire, or, rather the mile and a half span of fist-sized cable, is something people cruising around Squaw Valley may be able to see for the next week or so as the Cable Car crew finish up their month-long project on the aerial tramway system's stationary cables.
The continuous stationary cable rising 2,000 vertical feet from the bottom of the mountain to High Camp that the crew is working on provides the "flexible train track" that the car rides on, according to Squaw Valley USA Cable Car Manager David "Coach" Peters. For approximately 20 years, it has not moved from its anchored positions around a bollard at the top of the mountain, and at its connecting points to the counterweights at the bottom.
Standing at the edge of the maintenance platform and looking down on the top of the carriage and cables, Peters describes the saddle of the carriage that the lubricated cables slide along. He explains concepts of drive systems, weight distribution and basic mechanics in a way that evidences his initial career choice as a teacher, before hopping on with Squaw's cable car crew13 years ago.
The four track ropes provide stability and support for the two cabins, and the haul rope attached to the carriage on each cabin and the electric drive system, provides the movement of the cabins up and down the mountain.
The Squaw Valley crew, aided by a specialized team from companies Doppelmayr CTEC and Garaventa, manufacturers of the cable car, have been slipping each of the four track cables down 40 meters, roughly 130 feet, at a time in order to inspect it, clean it and create a standard timeline of inspection. The track rope rests on the saddle of each of the towers that the cabins pass over on their way up or down the mountain.
Twice a month, the crew sends two guys up each tower (tower one rising 52 and a half feet and tower two's height of 137 and a half feet) to grease the section that the rope rests on. On this project, they are now moving each track rope down 130 feet so that a new portion of rope is sitting on the saddle.
The 92 millimeter-wide (approx. 3.5 inches) tension ropes that connect the two inch wide track ropes to the counterweight (both concrete counterweights nearing 300,000 pounds are visible in the windows of the cable car building) are near the end of their life, and are being replaced.
Every October the cable car shuts down for their special once-a-year inspections, in addition to the routine checks they perform during the week. Peters said that there has been such technological advancement with inspection devices (an electromagnetic machine is used to inspect the track cables at Squaw), that for this fall's check-up they called over to Europe for advice on this particular project.
Climbing over one hundred feet in the air on steel towers, walking along a narrow cable line or catwalk while looking over the grand bowls and ski slopes that the cable car travels over, may make some uneasy. But according to Peters, the trick is to just focus on the job.
The next time they will perform this particular project, slipping the cables, cutting off a 1200 pound section and reforming new socket ends, is 12 years from now. After 24 years, all four track ropes will be replaced.
With four men at the top of the cable car working on track three to loosen the clamps that secure the cable from its position wrapped five times around the anchoring cement bollard, they are ahead of the guys at the bottom who, aided by a winch and a 12-way 50-ton block (a super-strength pulley system) to take up the slack, are also working on the cable.
The guys at the bottom are cutting off the 130 foot section of cable, and are preparing to reconnect it with the tension rope attached to the counterweight.
Doppelmayr Project Manager Red Blomer has been working on straightening each wire on one end of the rope. He straightens them, cleans them with gasoline and then eventually the end points of the cable are encased in a special socket, created by heating up TEGO, a mostly zinc compound, that when hardened provides a six-to-one weight ratio against each 6,000 pound empty cabin's counterweight. Blomer described the socket ends as indestructible, stating relatively "the middle of the cable would break before the end connections would."
Blomer received certification for making this type of socket end in Europe. Twelve new sockets will be made on this project, and from the point of straightening and cleaning the wires, to the creation of the socket - the hours Blomer puts in can range from six in the morning to 11 at night, staying late on colder nights and holding a heater to the socket to make sure that the outside is not cooling faster than the inside.
For five weeks, the Squaw crew has put in on average 10 hour-plus days, six days a week. The uniqueness of the project, and working on the cable car in general however, has drawn former cable car employees back to work at the cable car, he said. "Not many people can say they've done this."
bilde.jpg (37.68K)
Number of downloads: 72
Franz Spichtit and David "Coach" Peters, hold two wrenches, custom-made especially for this project, that are used to tighten the socket ends connecting the cable car's track rope with the tension rope.
bilde2.jpg (65.39K)
Number of downloads: 83
Squaw Valley's cable car crew have been working with specialists from Doppelmayr CTEC and Garaventa since Sept. 7 on a project that they will not need to do again for 12 years. They're charged with maintaining the 1.5 miles of cable that takes visitors from the floor of Squaw Valley to High Camp.
Men walking on a wire, or, rather the mile and a half span of fist-sized cable, is something people cruising around Squaw Valley may be able to see for the next week or so as the Cable Car crew finish up their month-long project on the aerial tramway system's stationary cables.
The continuous stationary cable rising 2,000 vertical feet from the bottom of the mountain to High Camp that the crew is working on provides the "flexible train track" that the car rides on, according to Squaw Valley USA Cable Car Manager David "Coach" Peters. For approximately 20 years, it has not moved from its anchored positions around a bollard at the top of the mountain, and at its connecting points to the counterweights at the bottom.
Standing at the edge of the maintenance platform and looking down on the top of the carriage and cables, Peters describes the saddle of the carriage that the lubricated cables slide along. He explains concepts of drive systems, weight distribution and basic mechanics in a way that evidences his initial career choice as a teacher, before hopping on with Squaw's cable car crew13 years ago.
The four track ropes provide stability and support for the two cabins, and the haul rope attached to the carriage on each cabin and the electric drive system, provides the movement of the cabins up and down the mountain.
The Squaw Valley crew, aided by a specialized team from companies Doppelmayr CTEC and Garaventa, manufacturers of the cable car, have been slipping each of the four track cables down 40 meters, roughly 130 feet, at a time in order to inspect it, clean it and create a standard timeline of inspection. The track rope rests on the saddle of each of the towers that the cabins pass over on their way up or down the mountain.
Twice a month, the crew sends two guys up each tower (tower one rising 52 and a half feet and tower two's height of 137 and a half feet) to grease the section that the rope rests on. On this project, they are now moving each track rope down 130 feet so that a new portion of rope is sitting on the saddle.
The 92 millimeter-wide (approx. 3.5 inches) tension ropes that connect the two inch wide track ropes to the counterweight (both concrete counterweights nearing 300,000 pounds are visible in the windows of the cable car building) are near the end of their life, and are being replaced.
Every October the cable car shuts down for their special once-a-year inspections, in addition to the routine checks they perform during the week. Peters said that there has been such technological advancement with inspection devices (an electromagnetic machine is used to inspect the track cables at Squaw), that for this fall's check-up they called over to Europe for advice on this particular project.
Climbing over one hundred feet in the air on steel towers, walking along a narrow cable line or catwalk while looking over the grand bowls and ski slopes that the cable car travels over, may make some uneasy. But according to Peters, the trick is to just focus on the job.
The next time they will perform this particular project, slipping the cables, cutting off a 1200 pound section and reforming new socket ends, is 12 years from now. After 24 years, all four track ropes will be replaced.
With four men at the top of the cable car working on track three to loosen the clamps that secure the cable from its position wrapped five times around the anchoring cement bollard, they are ahead of the guys at the bottom who, aided by a winch and a 12-way 50-ton block (a super-strength pulley system) to take up the slack, are also working on the cable.
The guys at the bottom are cutting off the 130 foot section of cable, and are preparing to reconnect it with the tension rope attached to the counterweight.
Doppelmayr Project Manager Red Blomer has been working on straightening each wire on one end of the rope. He straightens them, cleans them with gasoline and then eventually the end points of the cable are encased in a special socket, created by heating up TEGO, a mostly zinc compound, that when hardened provides a six-to-one weight ratio against each 6,000 pound empty cabin's counterweight. Blomer described the socket ends as indestructible, stating relatively "the middle of the cable would break before the end connections would."
Blomer received certification for making this type of socket end in Europe. Twelve new sockets will be made on this project, and from the point of straightening and cleaning the wires, to the creation of the socket - the hours Blomer puts in can range from six in the morning to 11 at night, staying late on colder nights and holding a heater to the socket to make sure that the outside is not cooling faster than the inside.
For five weeks, the Squaw crew has put in on average 10 hour-plus days, six days a week. The uniqueness of the project, and working on the cable car in general however, has drawn former cable car employees back to work at the cable car, he said. "Not many people can say they've done this."
bilde.jpg (37.68K)
Number of downloads: 72
Franz Spichtit and David "Coach" Peters, hold two wrenches, custom-made especially for this project, that are used to tighten the socket ends connecting the cable car's track rope with the tension rope.
bilde2.jpg (65.39K)
Number of downloads: 83
Squaw Valley's cable car crew have been working with specialists from Doppelmayr CTEC and Garaventa since Sept. 7 on a project that they will not need to do again for 12 years. They're charged with maintaining the 1.5 miles of cable that takes visitors from the floor of Squaw Valley to High Camp.
1 User(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users
