3 replies to this topic

[bradleyhig]

In 1978 a skyway car at Six Flags St. Louis bumped into a damaged tower and fell killing three after a seized bushing called a rocker arm to fall and get pulled down by the cable. Reportly the vonroll specs called for bronze bushigs in the towers but vonroll allowed them to use nylon why would they use nylon and not bronze? What part of the grip got bumped that knocked the car off the cable? We rode that thing a few days before the accident and everything seemed fine. The accident has haunted me most of my life. When my sister rode a skilife in Iowa she got creeped out and starting thinking about the accident. Also aret there any diagrams for the grips and the part of the pivot shaft were the bushings are?

I have some old newpaper articles here

http://www.sfstlskyw...m/accident.html

Look at this mess.

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•  skytower.jpg (68.98K)
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[SkiBachelor]

Hi Bradley and welcome to the forum.

Here's a diagram of the grip that might have been used on the skyride. As you can see in the diagram, once the principle roller wheels are hit in an upward motion, the grip is designed to detach from the haulrope. This is what probably led to the accident when those wheels hit the sheave assembly causing the grip jaw to open at it passed over it.

 Klemme_20VR104_202.jpg (44.8K)
Number of downloads: 43

[Nordo]

though the picture of the gondola is a bit dark, it sure looks like it used the von roll grips that were on the disneyland sky ride and that are still in use at the san diego zoo and at sea world san diego. These grips have a pair of wheels on both sides of the grip, but i have forgotten exactly how the grip is opened and closed. i found some pics of disneyland and the zoo on chairlift.org:


http://www.chairlift...yland/disl1.jpg


http://www.chairlift...diego/sand1.jpg


what do you think?

[bradleyhig]

Here's an old postcard you can see one of the grips close up. I miss that ride its the only skyride I have ridden. They took it out because the cable was running high and had to rotate the rollers and relevel the roller banks how is that done?

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•  skyway4.jpg (11.92K)
  Number of downloads: 46