19 replies to this topic

[rniemi]

Hi all,

Was out hiking at Willamette Pass yesterday. Took a few pics for anyone interested. Two quick questions others in the forum might know the answer for, I noticed the Twilight lift, a CTEC Enterprise terminal, FGT, doesn't appear to have a bullwheel E-Stop brake. Am I missing it somewhere? There's obviously a planetary final in the hub so I was surprised not to see a bullwheel brake at some location after the final. The CTEC rollback brake is there and of a nifty design now that I've seen one in person.

Twilight FGT (CTEC Enterprise terminal) Bullwheel Hub:


CTEC Enterprise terminal:


Bullwheel retention brackets:


CTEC rollback brake - Rods engage the bullwheel spokes and can pivot one direction, but reverse rotation rotates the rod holder and pulls a pin out of the notch in the jaw, which drops to catch the bullwheel spoke:


Edited: Nuked photos of the halfpipe cutters near the Willamette Pass boneyard. Didn't know what they were, posts below clarified what they were.

Cheers,
-Ryan

This post has been edited by rniemi: 30 July 2009 - 04:50 PM

[NoPainNoJane]

halfpipe cutters, one looks to be for a normal pipe and the bigger one is a superpipe cutter

[rniemi]

Additional Willamette Pass pics.

Twilight (CTEC FGT / Enterprise terminal) splice tuck:


Twilight lift - Garaventa PCB-style brittle bars and CTEC fixed grip:


Twilight lift - Hydraulic tension cylinders and carriage travel limit switches.


Twilight lift - Control panel.


Twilight lift - Enterprise terminal, work chair in the terminal:


Twilight lift - CTEC tower base (with slightly tweaked bolt):


Twilight lift - Lift line:


Twilight lift - CTEC tower head clamp:


Twilight lift - CTEC tower head.


Twilight lift - Evener shaft and sheave train mounting.


Cheers,
-Ryan

[rniemi]

Additional Willamette Pass pics - Eagle Peak Accelerator (CTEC/Garaventa/Dopp HSS/gondola):

Stealth 3 (?) terminal:


Work chair:


Garaventa AK400 grip on work chair:


Garaventa AK400 grip on work chair:


Parking rail:


Gondola guides in floor in base terminal:


Gondola door opening mechanism:


Gondola door opening mechanism on hangar arm:


Gondola carrier in base terminal:


Accelerator tire bank on exit side and snow brush:


Track switch joint to parking rail:


Trumpet rail on exit side:


Lift line:


Tower foundation:


Tower head attachment:


CTEC sheaves:


Garaventa PCB-style brittle bars and rope catcher with roller.


Parking rail with HSS carriers:


Cheers,
-Ryan

This post has been edited by rniemi: 23 July 2009 - 07:51 AM

[rniemi]

NoPainNoJane, on 23 July 2009 - 06:10 AM, said:

halfpipe cutters, one looks to be for a normal pipe and the bigger one is a superpipe cutter

Ah, that explains it. Thanks!

-Ryan

[rniemi]

Additional Willamette Pass pics - Sleepy Hollow lift (Riblet FGD, converted to FGT with parts from the summit lift when it came down):



Base terminal:


Lift line (bunny hill):


Bullwheel:


Planetary final in bullwheel hub:


Photos removed:
Upper side of bullwheel, rollback brake cleats visible.
Hydraulic tension cylinders.
Combination assemblies on base terminal.

Riblet combination assemblies and tower head:


Photos removed:
Motor room (viewed through the side window).
Motor room, E-brake / service brake hand pump.
Motor room, batteries for 24VDC circuits.
Motor room, front window.

Cheers,
-Ryan

This post has been edited by rniemi: 25 July 2009 - 07:59 AM

[rniemi]

Edited: Photos of Sleepy Hollow startup / operating procedures sheets on the wall of the motor room (visible through the motor room windows) removed.

Cheers,
-Ryan

This post has been edited by rniemi: 25 July 2009 - 08:01 AM

[rniemi]

Additional Willamette Pass pics - Midway lift. Plain vanilla late-model Riblet FGT.

Bullwheel E-stop brake, rollback brake ratchett visible between bullwheel spokes:


Planetary final in bullwheel hub:


Bullwheel and hydraulic tension cylinder:


Motor room tension lateral guide roller:
(Correction from FSJ who worked at Riblet, these are thrust wheels primarily intended to transfer driving/braking torque to the support rails)


Rollback switch with "whisker" probe:


Typical Riblet tower foundation:


Bottom terminal:


Tower head attachment (curved bolt style):


Riblet clip:


Cheers,
-Ryan

This post has been edited by rniemi: 24 July 2009 - 11:20 AM

[FSJ]

Twilight has a cat planetary from a scaper(earth mover). These have a drum brake (was used as wheel brake) built into the planetary unit.

The 8x8 gantry as used on Sleepy Hollow, was designed to resist the driving/braking torque through the original tension cables, which were locked together. They cannot use a twin cylinder active tension of the typical design. That is why the cylinders are "locked" while the lift is in use. Whitewater in BC has a similar system. Gene Rice did a write up on the fixed tension system for the Whitewater lift. On the Midway lift the roller you indicated as a lateral guide roller is called a thrust wheel and transfers the driving/braking torque to the support rails, but yes, it does also guide the carriage latterally.

BTW, the conversion of Sleepy Hollow to a triple is the last project at Riblet I did. An extension flange was added to the original bullwheel. The extension's profile is similar to the bullwheel on Midway and uses the same style sway ring.

[rniemi]

FSJ, on 23 July 2009 - 10:23 AM, said:

Twilight has a cat planetary from a scaper(earth mover). These have a drum brake (was used as wheel brake) built into the planetary unit.

The 8x8 gantry as used on Sleepy Hollow, was designed to resist the driving/braking torque through the original tension cables, which were locked together. They cannot use a twin cylinder active tension of the typical design. That is why the cylinders are "locked" while the lift is in use. Whitewater in BC has a similar system. Gene Rice did a write up on the fixed tension system for the Whitewater lift. On the Midway lift the roller you indicated as a lateral guide roller is called a thrust wheel and transfers the driving/braking torque to the support rails, but yes, it does also guide the carriage latterally.

BTW, the conversion of Sleepy Hollow to a triple is the last project at Riblet I did. An extension flange was added to the original bullwheel. The extension's profile is similar to the bullwheel on Midway and uses the same style sway ring.

Hi FSJ,

Thanks for the info! I went back and edited the Midway post to correct the thrust wheel description. That makes sense now on the Cat planetary on Twilight, I didn't realize there's an internal drum brake in the planetary. I wasn't sure that was the Cat planetary because the track sprocket flange as used on the D11 wasn't there, but now that I think of it, I've seen Doppelmayr welding up bullwheels around D11 planetaries that also lacked the sprocket flange (custom order from Caterpillar?).

Also makes sense now why Sleepy Hollow has to run with fixed tension and how the original bullwheel was modified. I spotted an extra set of bullwheels in the boneyard that I assumed were the original Sleepy Hollow bullwheels, but not sure now (maybe they're from the old summit lift).

Cheers,
-Ryan

[rniemi]

Pics of an extra set of bullwheels in the Willamette Pass boneyard:







Cheers,
-Ryan

[liftmech]

Hey Ryan-- nice pics, but did you have permission to be climbing around on the motor room/terminal structure? Most places don't take kindly to random people 'exploring' their lifts, even if it's just to take pictures. If you had permission, however, it's not a big deal.

[rniemi]

liftmech, on 24 July 2009 - 03:41 PM, said:

Hey Ryan-- nice pics, but did you have permission to be climbing around on the motor room/terminal structure? Most places don't take kindly to random people 'exploring' their lifts, even if it's just to take pictures. If you had permission, however, it's not a big deal.

Hi liftmech,

On arrival, I went to the maintenance shop where two guys were rebuilding sheaves. I told them I was a rigger and industrial ropeway engineer and would like to photograph their lifts. They thanked me for checking in with them and said have at it. By the time I was photographing the Sleepy Hollow lift and noticed the south wall of the motor room was glass and would allow a full view inside from the terminal catwalk, the maintenance crew had departed for the day. So, grey area, but no specific permission to climb the stairs to look through the motor room windows. Point taken about random people climbing around on terminals.

Cheers,
-Ryan

[Outback]

I told them I was a rigger and industrial ropeway engineer

????????

Isn't that lying?

[rniemi]

Outback, on 24 July 2009 - 08:03 PM, said:

I told them I was a rigger and industrial ropeway engineer

????????

Isn't that lying?

Hi Craig,

Negative. I engineer, manufacture and install special purpose ropeways, track systems and control systems for industrial material handling, cable-borne camera track systems, and special effects applications (flying and positioning scenic elements and human loads over arenas and indoor venues, many of which are essentially 2 or 3 rope tram systems with up to a half mile span). Some PLC and controls work has been performed for more traditional ropeways. Occasionally, I've been contracted to manufacture or CNC machine custom replacement components for traditional ropeways as well (including custom sheaves and cast polyurethane components). Incidentally, I'm just over the hill from you, in Klamath Falls. I've done some small-scale temporary systems over in the Rogue Valley from time to time. :-)

Largest (and strangest) project was fabrication and installation of a 10m x 6m swimming pool (with transparent bottom) flying over an audience in Athens, Greece. Definitely not a traditional passenger ropeway application, but there's a significant amount of cross-over on the rigging and mechanical engineering involved. The sheer amount of chaos and mayhem on-site (mostly due to truly amazing lack of worker safety and rigging safety practices there) quickly cured me of any desire to do installations outside of the US! Some consulting and engineering was also performed on the tram systems suspended over the Beijing Olympic arena which probably qualifies more as multiple 2-axis cableways (with floating blocks for vertical movement) than ropeways, but close.. I didn't know at the time (2005'ish) what the project was for though.

-Ryan

This post has been edited by rniemi: 24 July 2009 - 11:28 PM

[rniemi]

I have removed any photos that were not taken while standing at ground level on USFS land.

Cheers,
-Ryan

[Outback]

Sorry Ryan for the assumption.
Not knowing what the halfpipe machines were and the internal drum brake on the Cat planetary exposed you to open target practice.
Got any work?
Share if you got it!
Nothing turning this year.
Craig

[SkiBachelor]

rniemi, on 23 July 2009 - 06:47 AM, said:

Additional Willamette Pass pics - Eagle Peak Accelerator (CTEC/Garaventa/Dopp HSS/gondola):


Track switch joint to parking rail:



Cheers,
-Ryan

This thing was being a pain in the ass this weekend. It kept opening while in operation and the gondola cabins were getting stuck.

[rniemi]

Outback, on 25 July 2009 - 08:17 AM, said:

Sorry Ryan for the assumption.
Not knowing what the halfpipe machines were and the internal drum brake on the Cat planetary exposed you to open target practice.
Got any work?
Share if you got it!
Nothing turning this year.
Craig

Hi Craig,

Relatively slow this year here too. The Athens project was this spring. Almost had a rigid (non-cableway) 2-axis track project in Medford this spring but it fell through. Just finished surveying and planning a 3500x800 T-bar profile for a potential private ski area near Klamath Falls. If the project happens, we'll be fabricating the line machinery, towers and terminals, but as you know, few such projects ever go anywhere! Alternate version considered as an FGD, although the idea of a pulse FGD with much higher line speed was also entertained.

A few miscellaneous other projects are ongoing that aren't directly ropeway/cableway related, mostly computer controlled high-speed winches for vertical positioning. The slowness has allowed some extra time for other passtimes though. I'm geared up for HD video production now. A few years back when I became aware of Outback while watching the Eagle Peak Accelerator installation, I kicked around the idea of seeing if you'd consider allowing one or two cameramen to follow you on an installation sometime for a possible ropeway documentary, but never got around to getting in touch with you. Hehe.. :-)

Cheers,
-Ryan

This post has been edited by rniemi: 10 August 2009 - 04:20 AM

[Snoqualmie guy]

Yeah don't climb on lifts without permission, these "kind" folks here told and told and told me about that. about a year or two ago.