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I came across this website for a new Doppelmayr CTEC skyride in Jamaica which opened in June. It appears that the uphill and downhill lines leave terminals like a normal lift but are directly above each other in the middle. In some pictures it looks like the two lines are at a diagonal. The website states, "The latest design in chairlift towers – the "F" tower – was also specifically selected to dramatically reduce impact to the forest environment. Rather than cut a 36 foot path through the forest, we only needed to cut 12 feet. It cost much more but was more ecologically sensitive." Anyone know anything more about this? These are the only pictures I could find.

On another note, this project was originally listed on Mad River Lifts' website in 2004 as one of their projects.

Edit: I found a video: http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&...85-34edd99f88ce

That's pretty awesome looking. My only gripe is for the sake of the maintenance crew. What happens when there's a hurricane? The line would get OWNED by the trees falling on it

yep... 0-gage

google "rain forest trams" with locations in Costa Rica(2) , Dominica, St Lucius, Jamaica, And if rumours are correct one coming soon to SE Alaska

aug, on Sep 22 2008, 07:22 PM, said:

Yeah, the company says on their site they are building one in Alaska. All the others besides the Jamaica one are jig-back open air trams.

Does anyone from Doppelmayr have further information on the unique design of this lift and how the angle changes are accomplished? I am guessing that it has multiple turns accomplished with angled sheaves over 3 towers like at Moonlight Basin, Snowbird, The Canyons, and Deer Valley. Also, the F shaped towers look nearly identical to Yan's half towers because they have no lifting frames.

Heres the link to the USA today article on the one in Alaska.
SE Alaska Skyride

It is proposed to be built in the same manner with the F towers. I am kind of supprised that this is making national news especially since there is not much talk arround Ketchikan about it, even within the tourisim industry. The word gets arround the industry fairly quickly so I wouldn't anticipate it going in too soon, I could be wrong though. I know several people who work for the rainforest sanctuary that I will check with to see when this project may go forward, if at all. The view from the top of Fawn Mountain is beautiful but only when you can see it. With the amount of low clouds and rain we recieve in Ketchikan an open skyride may not be the best fit.

Skier, on Sep 22 2008, 08:45 PM, said:

I must correct you some of the instalations are old riblet equip running as a 0 gauge in a pulse gondola arrangment . others are ctec as a pulse gondola

Besides having a narrower tree clearing gauge, I bet the idea is to let you view the 'top' of the canopy and also to travel lower thru the 'jungle'?

From the little I could see from the video, it looked like it used canted sheaves for the angle change. I agree, the half towers look quite "Yannish."

If my memory serves me correctly the Retro-Riblet installs were designed by Aerial Engineering ( the Ellis clan) his tower X- arms resemble yans design with the X-arm being closed box tube and the x and y axis through bolt adjustments.
This post has been edited by aug: 23 September 2008 - 04:49 PM

aug, on Sep 23 2008, 05:48 PM, said:

Just a few additions.
The over-under guage lift was designed originally by an east coast engineer. (I will remember his name or look up a file tomorrow)
First Riblet one was built in Costa Rica. Second Riblet one in Dominica.
Costa Rica is a bottom vault drive, top temsion originally from Northstar. Dominica is an overhead bottom drive, bottom tension.
The Riblets were used on two of the installs using the classic Riblet clamp style crossarm with box tubing and x & y adjustment .
The others are CTEC and Doppelmayr CTEC using the Jan Leonard/Mark Ballentyne clamp style Thiokol then CTEC style crossarm.
St. Lucia uses a similiar clamp style crossarm designed by John Dalton and was fabricated in Venezuela.
All the CTEC crossarms use a removable lifting frame. The Riblets use one on the upper crossarm.....the lower one you would rig to the upper crossarm above.
Getting to the zero guage and out of the zero guage is done a couple towers out by canting the sheave assemblies. Lots of shims and custom secondary axles. Hard part was pulling the cable and keeping the cable in the sheaves with no tension.
The Riblets are zero guage. Costa Rica and St. Lucia CTEC/Doppelmayr are standard guage with offset crossarms. (one high road and one low road)
Jamacia is the first zero guage using CTEC/Doppelmayr equipment.
All the cabins (except Jamacia which used chairs) were designed and fabricated in Costa Rica.
None of the Rainforest Trams are jig-backs, they all go around the bullwheels.
No pulse type systems either, all are equally spaced cabins. All cabins are slowed down to creep speed to go around the bullwheels.
Some bullwheels have special support rings to keep the grips in the grooves with all the cabin weight. (7-9 passengers) (each cabin has a guide)
Most cabins have two chair stems and grips, Dominica has four stems and grips. The stems are nounted on a frame that articulates when it goes around the bullwheel so the Riblet type grips dont peel out of the bullwheels.
Built two of them, maintained them all for awhile.
This post has been edited by Outback: 23 September 2008 - 08:44 PM

Outback, on Sep 23 2008, 09:41 PM, said:

thanks for the detailed correction Outback
This post has been edited by aug: 23 September 2008 - 09:00 PM

Do you have any pictures of them craig?

skiersage, on Sep 24 2008, 04:52 AM, said:

I do! These are all from Flickr of the 2 in Coast Rica:

Here is what I could find of the one in Dominica:

And St. Lucia:

In the case of the quad, isn't there a maximum height for open chairlifts? It seems that the upper line well exceeds that limit.

Too High in Jamaica? Are you kidding?

Seriously, I know of no tower/cable height restrictions for chairlifts.

Dino

Shown in the Dominica pictures (the one with the strut) is the evacuation system for the tramway between towers 16 and 17. System is back to side by side guage at this point traversing over a gorge approximately 200" wide and 450" deep! Evacuation system is run with a continuous cable around a live capstain winch which pulls a rescue platform out to the stranded cabin in the span. One rescue platform that pivots on a docking station and hooks to either side of the system you need it on. Also a suspension bridge had to be built over the gorge to get people down from the top and provide access when we were building it. Bridge started as a single cable (zipline) that you would pull yourself back and forth with across the gorge. After the helicopter left the island we had to weld up the evacuation system and also lower a tower a couple of feet in height (engineering). The portable welding machine had to be dissassembled and carried in pieces to the top. then reassembled before using. Always a drag when you would forget something and have to hike all the way back to the bottom. I will dig up some pictures and post soon. The longer the time passes after the job was completed I can say now I think I had a good time!

Lift Dinosaur, on Sep 24 2008, 04:00 PM, said:

I obviously missed this post Lift Dino LOL . Are you going to be at PNSAA conference?