10 replies to this topic

[Peter]

Northway - A full report
Crystal Mountain, WA

Manufacturer: Doppelmayr CTEC
Length: 5,210 feet
Vertical Rise: 1,816 feet
Number of towers: 19
Number of chairs: 196
Type of chairs: Doppelmayr EJ Double
Capacity: 1200 pph
Speed: 550 fpm
Bottom Terminal: Pegasis Tension Return
Top Terminal: Uni-Star Drive
Bottom Elevation:4,933 feet
Top Elevation: 6,749 feet
Cost: $3.5 Million

Bottom Station:

This post has been edited by Skier: 05 January 2008 - 11:43 AM

[Peter]

Lower Lift Line:

[Peter]

Middle Lift Line:

[Peter]

Upper Lift Line:

[Peter]

Top Station:

[chair1]

Nice Pictures Skier.

This post has been edited by chair1: 06 January 2008 - 10:08 PM

[floridaskier]

How did your school project on Northway end up?

Also, is there no top operator shack, or is that building in the background close enough?

[Peter]

The building in the back is the top operator shack. My project went well, I just have to put everything together for a June presentation.

Also notice the bottom electronics are powered by a small wheel that is connected to the bullwheel with a chain.

[floridaskier]

The bottom terminal of Dreamcatcher at The Canyons is powered by a setup like that. I guess they do that when they can't (afford to) run power down to the bottom

They sure give you plenty of time for that. I bet your project is gonna be something they haven't seen before. I wish we had the chance to do something that open-ended

[liftmech]

Me too, 'course we din't have senior projects when I was in school.
I don't think that that it was a matter of 'can't afford to' run power down there. There is so little power draw that this was probably easier anyway. The shack can be heated by a propane stove and the controls are powered from the top. That leaves only the tension pump and I imagine it's an on-demand setup where the pump only runs when the pressure in the accumulator drops. I've also seen this at Stevens Pass, on the bottom of the Jupiter chair. Another thought- perhaps the bullwheel runs pump directly instead, and there's no power generation at all.

[SuperRat]

From the bit that I could see in the picture it looks like Northway has the same bullwheel driven alternator we have on our Intrepid return / tension terminal. A chain ring about 1 meter in diameter is attached to the bullwheel hub. The bullwheel chain drives a smaller chain ring on the input shaft of a small gearbox and the output shaft drives a v-belt pulley (the part visable in one of the pics of Northway) which drives the alternator. The alternator system charges the 24 volt batteries which supply power for the tension system's pump motor. The tension is only on demand so the pump only runs occasionally to maintain system pressure as the load on the chair changes. The next time we have the cover off the unit I'll try to takes some pictures.

This post has been edited by SuperRat: 10 January 2008 - 04:28 PM