Old Chair One, Mount Baker
liftmech
23 Nov 2011
Stolen from the Bellingham Herald, this is the original lift up Pan Dome. It doesn't look a whole lot different here than when I worked on it forty-odd years later.
Link to the gallery on the Herald's website : http://www.bellingha...ffiliate.39.jpg
Link to the gallery on the Herald's website : http://www.bellingha...ffiliate.39.jpg
liftmech
23 Nov 2011
Apparently I can't embed the photo in the post, must be copyright issues.
2milehi
30 Nov 2011
Good lord! I hope that is not three phase power (one neutral) strung from tower to tower.

aug
30 Nov 2011
the wires are the com line .... bare copper w/ glass insulators much like the railroads used ....one is phones ? or stop cicuit ? and the other is derail ..
An old Riblet i used to work on still had the old glass insulator studs on it ...
An old Riblet i used to work on still had the old glass insulator studs on it ...
Kelly
30 Nov 2011
Stop, Slow and Fast circuits – no derails until the late 70s. Very easy to do sheave alignment as the controls were at each tower

aug
30 Nov 2011
Kelly, on 30 November 2011 - 02:24 PM, said:
Stop, Slow and Fast circuits – no derails until the late 70s. Very easy to do sheave alignment as the controls were at each tower 

the old riblet had a manual drum control ... so fast and slow would not be needed ..... but on the Baker lift that was most likely diesel powered it may have had a fast and slow control at the return station. On one of the pics there was an abundance of empty 55 gal drums... very tidy operation back in those days.
liftmech
01 Dec 2011
2Milehi- we didn't have even two phases up there (except on one circuit in the shop to run the welder). 100-kW 120VAC only, run by a Cat 3306 tied to a generator. When the daylodge kitchen ran their exhaust fan we had to shut down almost everything in Employee Housing 
We did indeed have a slow and fast at the return, but as I recall we only connected it when we were doing bullwheel inspection. Couldn't run a work chair either as the ironwork that made up the bottom terminal precluded running anything other than a centre-pole carrier through. Didn't even have cable catchers until 1998. Fun times.

We did indeed have a slow and fast at the return, but as I recall we only connected it when we were doing bullwheel inspection. Couldn't run a work chair either as the ironwork that made up the bottom terminal precluded running anything other than a centre-pole carrier through. Didn't even have cable catchers until 1998. Fun times.