30 replies to this topic

[Nor'eastSkier]

Skier123, on 09 March 2010 - 02:24 PM, said:

Bear also has Poma sheaves. Devils Fiddle has mostly Yan sheaves, although there are some Poma sheaves, sometimes on the same train as the Yans, which I found quite odd.

Superstar also has two Poma towerheads, except they are at the bottom.

A cool thing about Superstar is that it kept the original built-in Yan breakover tower that was attached to the top terminal.

I was just at Killington the other day and took a picture of what you're talking about in terms of the sheave trains on Devil's Fiddle:
 devil\'s fiddle.jpg (44.07K)
Number of downloads: 193

Looking from left to right, sheave 1 is Poma, sheaves 2-4 are Yan, and sheaves 5-6 are Poma.

Also, a picture of the breakover section of the top terminal of Superstar, from chairlift.org:
 k45.jpg (65.58K)
Number of downloads: 183


The classic Yan terminal design was kept.

[Tin Woodsman]

okemopoma, on 31 January 2011 - 01:12 PM, said:

Man I used to love the old YAN Triple Northeast Passage chair. The best place to park your car in Killington as long as you could find your way back at the end of the day. I think it was like 10 miles back to the main base.
The 17 min ride was grueling. And if your dropped your glove on the way up it was history.
That was some old school VT skiing. Slow lifts and empty trails. They just dont make them like that anymore.
So sad to drive by the old base lodge and see the Killington Snowmobile Tours sign there.
Another piece of history bites the dust.

Some of the condo people at Sunrise Village don't even know it was ever there.

Too bad, it was awesome.

It was awesome but unsustainable once ASC gave up their plans to expand southward into Parker's Gore in favor of more land at the main base area and the ability to interconnect with Pico. NEP was to be the connection between the rest of Killington and the Parker's Gore expansion on Mt. Mendon and its surroundings. That was killed due to Black Bear habitat in the area, so NEP lost its primary reason for being. It did have good terrain from the mid-station, and lunch at the Outback was always a treat, but it was low elevation (1000' up to 2500' or so) and faces SE - not a good combination for snow retention. Considering the lack of traffic it received, its closure was not surprising, though certainly regrettable.

[DonaldMReif]

Marc Shepherd, on 22 March 2010 - 10:27 AM, said:

Killington is a chairlift archaeologist's dream, with abundant evidence of abandoned and truncated chairlifts.

Well said!

[LiftTech]

Nor'eastSkier, on 07 February 2011 - 01:48 PM, said:

I was just at Killington the other day and took a picture of what you're talking about in terms of the sheave trains on Devil's Fiddle:
devil\'s fiddle.jpg

Looking from left to right, sheave 1 is Poma, sheaves 2-4 are Yan, and sheaves 5-6 are Poma.

Also, a picture of the breakover section of the top terminal of Superstar, from chairlift.org:
k45.jpg


The classic Yan terminal design was kept.

Looks like and makes more sense to be an S2b, what makes you think it’s Poma sheaves?

[liftmech]

It would be difficult to fit any other manufacturer's sheaves on the assembly, I'd think.

[Allan]

liftmech, on 10 February 2011 - 09:57 AM, said:

It would be difficult to fit any other manufacturer's sheaves on the assembly, I'd think.

I was gonna say that!
That's why they invented big hammers!

[Outback]

okemopoma, on 31 January 2011 - 01:12 PM, said:

Man I used to love the old YAN Triple Northeast Passage chair. The best place to park your car in Killington as long as you could find your way back at the end of the day. I think it was like 10 miles back to the main base.
The 17 min ride was grueling. And if your dropped your glove on the way up it was history.
That was some old school VT skiing. Slow lifts and empty trails. They just dont make them like that anymore.
So sad to drive by the old base lodge and see the Killington Snowmobile Tours sign there.
Another piece of history bites the dust.

Some of the condo people at Sunrise Village don't even know it was ever there.

Too bad, it was awesome.

I remember the NE Passage well. Was on the YAN welding crew with Kruger, Pokey, Nored and others welding up many, many, many towers in the parking lot one summer. (26-27 years ago)

[Nor'eastSkier]

LiftTech, on 10 February 2011 - 07:30 AM, said:

Looks like and makes more sense to be an S2b, what makes you think it's Poma sheaves?

I'm probably going to sound really stupid here, but what is an S2b? Are they just newer replacement sheaves from Yan? I guess that would make more sense.

This post has been edited by Nor'eastSkier: 10 February 2011 - 12:01 PM

[LiftTech]

Nor'eastSkier, on 10 February 2011 - 12:00 PM, said:

I'm probably going to sound really stupid here, but what is an S2b? Are they just newer replacement sheaves from Yan? I guess that would make more sense.

S2b was the replacement for the S2 (Yan, black hub cap style) all aluminum, two half’s bolted together. I can't tell from the picture if there are bolts but the Poma 450r or w has to small of a hub bore to fit I would think.

[skisox34]

As an ex killington lifty I can say that the lifts are indeed unique. When ASC was in charge they did everything as cheaply as possible hence all the mixed lifts. One thing that no one has mentioned is the old top yan drive terminal that is still in place from the old needles eye chair. In relation to the canyon chair it has a yan drive and return terminal with poma chairs and towers and the real kicked... a doppelmayr gearbox. The best lift though is the south ridge triple with the in line 2 bullwheel turn. I used to love skiing by there and hearing all the screams as people went around those.

I have to give credit to the lift mechanic staff at killington. Most of them have 15+ years experience and do outstanding work to keep those lifts going safely and under the budget slashing ASC days that was not always an easy job!

In relation to the Devils Fiddle I remember one year it ran for 3 hours the entire season. They actually logged more maintenance hours than operational hours. Even when it was running most people skied by to the base of bear and almost no one used the space walk trail to access it from wildfire and outer limits.

In relation to the Sunrise Village triple my first year I worked there was the first year they shortened it and one day I was scheduled for the bottom of the K1 and my boss called and asked if i wanted to drive a lift that i hadn't worked before instead. I said sure as I was always wanting new experiences. the snowmobile picked me up headed towards bear and kept going. I ran that lift all day and no joke less than 40 people rode it all day. It was the most boring day of my life! I rode downhill for lunch and the lift team leader told me to make sure I sat in the middle of the chair and didn't bounce it as there is one compression sheave train on the downhill side that didn't have much tension and could derail easily. Needless to say there is a support/ compression assembly on the uphill side.

Ohh I could go on for years about the place... so many good memories!

[Marc Shepherd]

skisox34, on 20 February 2011 - 08:35 AM, said:

In relation to the Devils Fiddle I remember one year it ran for 3 hours the entire season. They actually logged more maintenance hours than operational hours.

I'm sure that's the reason why it was removed. To run a lift for even 1 day, a ton of routine maintenance is required to certify that it is still in safe operating condition. Below a certain level of usage, it's cheaper to remove it than to keep it around.