12 replies to this topic

[SidBurn]

First, I noticed that it is now known as the "Steamboat gondola." Why did they stop calling it the Silver Bullet? Was it a copyright issue or something?

Second, when I was there last year, I noticed that there was one gondola car that was newer and shinier than the others. This one was made of blue plexiglass instead of silver metal. Could this mean that Steamboat is planning to replace all their cabins with more of these shinier ones in the future?

[ccslider]

Who knows, but since the machine was originally installed in 1985, it is little wonder that they would occasionally be replacing a few of the cabins.

[skierdude9450]

I think that their contract with Coors ended, so they started calling it Steamboat Gondola rather than Silver Bullet. As far as the new car, I noticed that it was #129 which is the highest on the line. So my guess is that they added 1 car to it and they liked that design.

[lstone19]

I'm just back from a week at Steamboat. I saw an article in one of the freebee magazines in the room that mentioned that they had custom-built a cabin that could accomodate a wheelchair so I assume that new cabin #129 is it. I suspect the different color is to help the lifities spot it.

While I'm posting about it, I'll mention I was watching them switch some cargo cabins off and on at the top having just been ahead of a couple riding up and saw a liftie manage to e-stop the gondola by doing something out of sequence in the swithcing process. Oops. (In his defense, I'm not convinced it was totally his fault as it appeared to me that it might have been an electrical switch (controlling one of the motors that moves cabins on the storage spur) that appeared to be in the correct position while the control system thought it wasn't - for that matter, I did see and experience more gondola stops than I've seen in the past so maybe there is some intermittent issue but what do I know. Then again, I assume loading a wheelchair in the new cabin requires a full stop so that would account for some of it).

Skipped skiing Wednesday which turned out to be a good thing since the gondola was down for wind until early afternoon and apparently the Thunderhead HSQ, the only other way up the mountain, was up and down all morning with some mechanical issue. Did get to ride Thunderhead Thursday afternoon while they were giving the diesel its weekly "practice" work - I was surprised how quiet it was.

This post has been edited by lstone19: 20 February 2006 - 04:42 AM

[carrietride]

skierdude9450, on Feb 19 2006, 01:32 PM, said:

I think that their contract with Coors ended, so they started calling it Steamboat Gondola rather than Silver Bullet. As far as the new car, I noticed that it was #129 which is the highest on the line. So my guess is that they added 1 car to it and they liked that design.

This is true...Budweiser , their new "beer" sponser requested that they change the name..

[SidBurn]

carrietride, on Feb 23 2006, 01:24 PM, said:

This is true...Budweiser , their new "beer" sponser requested that they change the name..

So the gondola was named after a beer, not because of Steamboat's "old west" theme?

[skier2]

That is correct. As for the Thunderhead... I was wondering, has anybody ever ridden it when it had a weird tension thing and it would jerk from normal speed to really fast every once in a while throughout the ride? When I was there in the beginning of February, it was like this.

[SkiBachelor]

Is this when the lift would stop or during normal operation? If the lift was in the process of moving a regular speed and the lift would just suddenly start to jerk, probably a gearbox issue rather than tensioning.

[skierdude9450]

Storm Peak Exp. does that quite frequently as does Northwoods Exp. at Vail. It will surge in speed. It will be going 850 fpm or less and then jump up to well over 1100 and will keep doing this, repeating going in cycles abot every 5 seconds.

[SkiBachelor]

I'm pretty sure that's physics you guys. Basically, you can feel the velocity change at different heights even though the lift is moving the same speed. If you ever ride the Powder Gulch Express at Silver Woods, it has this same type of effect on tower 1. The incline is so steep and when you level off, you get this weightless effect. The haul rope bounces all over the place. It's probably one of the best lifts to ride for this effect.

[liftmech]

Think of it this way: The haul rope, even though it's made of steel, is like a giant rubber band. Especially on a longer lift, especially when there are several long spans between towers, there will be strange dynamics placed upon a loaded rope. You describe the situation as 'repeating every five seconds'- this tells you that it's a harmonic effect from a full load. I imagine if the lift were to run continuously for several hours you wouldn't notice it as much toward the end of that time. The effect has time to subside. Also, if a lift stops and starts quite a bit without the operators taking the time to let the line 'settle', the effect can be amplified.

[chuckm]

It was my understanding that the "silver bullet" was named for the speed and the color of the cabins- it was the worlds first 8 passenger gondola. we load tested with 700 odd kegs of coors light. Coors wanted to get some marketing out of it but really never did- Steamboat had the name first. Too bad they would change the name for marketing reasons-- Perhaps they would like to change "Steamboat" too, maybe something more new jersey-ish !

[floridaskier]

liftmech, on Feb 27 2006, 12:55 PM, said:

Think of it this way: The haul rope, even though it's made of steel, is like a giant rubber band. Especially on a longer lift, especially when there are several long spans between towers, there will be strange dynamics placed upon a loaded rope. You describe the situation as 'repeating every five seconds'- this tells you that it's a harmonic effect from a full load. I imagine if the lift were to run continuously for several hours you wouldn't notice it as much toward the end of that time. The effect has time to subside. Also, if a lift stops and starts quite a bit without the operators taking the time to let the line 'settle', the effect can be amplified.

The six packs at PCMR are really bad for that. They bounce all over the place, and if you get to a tower in the low part of the bounce, you get the weightless effect