T-Bar 2 services the north side of the mountain.Bottom station.Looking up the lift line.Tower 1.Upper part of the line.Unique tower design.Top terminal.Unloading area.Concrete counterweight.A big station for a small lift.Lift overview.
I am not entirely sure how much of this is from Cannon. Here’s a list of evidence for that theory and evidence to the contrary:
Evidence for:
1. The counterweight has an unusual pulley mounted on it. Constam’s cast pulleys are spoked, while this one is solid. The original counterweight is much wider like the one on VMRA’s Constam (https://liftblog.com/t-bar-veterans-memorial-nh/), up in the woods above the old top footing from the New Peabody Double (1972-1999) (https://liftnerd.wordpress.com/new-peabody-hong-kong-gremlin-chair/). It still has the pieces of channel iron embedded in it, although they have been cut off. Maybe it was easier to use a new pulley rather than design something complicated to fit it?
2. The return appears to be wide enough to fit the counterweight in the woods at Cannon.
3. It has ’50’s style metal sheaves
4. The return matches the one at VMRA, which was built the same year.
5. The towers are height-adjustable like the ones at Cannon.
Evidence against:
1. The towers at Cannon resembled those at VMRA, while the towers here at Titcomb are tubular. It appears as if they were scratchbuilt to somewhat resemble the originals at Cannon, possibly with some original parts.
2. The drive is more similar to the one at Sommet Gabriel (https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tke2-c-constam-4662.html), which has a later-model Constam with springboxes on the carriers instead of spring-loaded poles.
3. There are sheaves with rubber liners on each terminal. On the T-bar at VMRA, there are no rubber-lined sheaves.
4. Some of the metal sheaves appear to be different sizes than VMRA’s T-bar.
5. Additionally, the rockers are different. There are even some combo assemblies, and their sideframes appear homemade. Maybe these were added afterwards?
The Titcomb Mountain / Farmington Ski Club records indicate the lift came from Cannon. Beyond that, things are uncertain, but per NewEnglandSkiHistory, the most likely candidate would be Lower T-Bar. Likely, but not confirmed.
I have no evidence of this, but it’s possible that this lift also uses parts from other removed Constam T-Bars (Sugarloaf isn’t too far away and likely removed their #2 Constam T-Bar the same year this was installed). As you mentioned, some of the parts could have been custom-fabricated, possibly in-house. I would guess the drive was originally the same model as on VMRA’s T-Bar but was modified to its current state.
Out of curiosity, where did you hear/see that this lift had the same style of towers as those of VMRA’s lift when at Cannon?
The book on Cannon’s history (Cannon Mountain: Trails, Tales, and Skiing Legends, available from the new England Ski Museum Gift Shop) has a photograph of the liftline in the Timeline chapter near the end.
There could be some evidence of the parts-from-other-lifts theory: the Constam rubber-lined sheaves, like the ones on Sommet Gabriel’s 1952 Constam (https://liftblog.com/c-sommet-gabriel-qc/) don’t seem to match the rest of the lift.
Because this was a relocated lift, the counterweight would have been re-cast to fit the new tension requirements. It’s highly unlikely that the lift would have the exact same counterweight requirements in its new location, as well as the fact that moving a large chunk of concrete isn’t cheap or easy.
pbropetech, I was thinking that maybe it would have been cheaper to replace the pulley than to use the original (and it definetely isn’t the original) Thank you for your insight!
some of the components of this lift look pretty similar to the T-Bar over a veterans memorial, namely the sheave setup and the terminals.
Titcomb:
Veterans memorial:
Titcomb:
Veterans memorial:
The Some of the towers on this lift even look like tubular iterations of the towers at veterans memorial, of course this one looks to be in much better condition.
Lift Blog 
This is a Constam T-bar which was originally constructed at Cannon in 1953. I believe it is the oldest operating lift in Maine.
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I am not entirely sure how much of this is from Cannon. Here’s a list of evidence for that theory and evidence to the contrary:
Evidence for:
1. The counterweight has an unusual pulley mounted on it. Constam’s cast pulleys are spoked, while this one is solid. The original counterweight is much wider like the one on VMRA’s Constam (https://liftblog.com/t-bar-veterans-memorial-nh/), up in the woods above the old top footing from the New Peabody Double (1972-1999) (https://liftnerd.wordpress.com/new-peabody-hong-kong-gremlin-chair/). It still has the pieces of channel iron embedded in it, although they have been cut off. Maybe it was easier to use a new pulley rather than design something complicated to fit it?
Evidence against:
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Oops! Didn’t mean to post that so soon.
Evidence for:
2. The return appears to be wide enough to fit the counterweight in the woods at Cannon.
3. It has ’50’s style metal sheaves
4. The return matches the one at VMRA, which was built the same year.
5. The towers are height-adjustable like the ones at Cannon.
Evidence against:
1. The towers at Cannon resembled those at VMRA, while the towers here at Titcomb are tubular. It appears as if they were scratchbuilt to somewhat resemble the originals at Cannon, possibly with some original parts.
2. The drive is more similar to the one at Sommet Gabriel (https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tke2-c-constam-4662.html), which has a later-model Constam with springboxes on the carriers instead of spring-loaded poles.
3. There are sheaves with rubber liners on each terminal. On the T-bar at VMRA, there are no rubber-lined sheaves.
4. Some of the metal sheaves appear to be different sizes than VMRA’s T-bar.
5. Additionally, the rockers are different. There are even some combo assemblies, and their sideframes appear homemade. Maybe these were added afterwards?
So much evidence for and against!
WHERE DID IT COME FROM, ANYWAYS!?
Thanks for reading my external monologue.
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The Titcomb Mountain / Farmington Ski Club records indicate the lift came from Cannon. Beyond that, things are uncertain, but per NewEnglandSkiHistory, the most likely candidate would be Lower T-Bar. Likely, but not confirmed.
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I have no evidence of this, but it’s possible that this lift also uses parts from other removed Constam T-Bars (Sugarloaf isn’t too far away and likely removed their #2 Constam T-Bar the same year this was installed). As you mentioned, some of the parts could have been custom-fabricated, possibly in-house. I would guess the drive was originally the same model as on VMRA’s T-Bar but was modified to its current state.
Out of curiosity, where did you hear/see that this lift had the same style of towers as those of VMRA’s lift when at Cannon?
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The book on Cannon’s history (Cannon Mountain: Trails, Tales, and Skiing Legends, available from the new England Ski Museum Gift Shop) has a photograph of the liftline in the Timeline chapter near the end.
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There could be some evidence of the parts-from-other-lifts theory: the Constam rubber-lined sheaves, like the ones on Sommet Gabriel’s 1952 Constam (https://liftblog.com/c-sommet-gabriel-qc/) don’t seem to match the rest of the lift.
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Because this was a relocated lift, the counterweight would have been re-cast to fit the new tension requirements. It’s highly unlikely that the lift would have the exact same counterweight requirements in its new location, as well as the fact that moving a large chunk of concrete isn’t cheap or easy.
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Maybe they took the cinder blocks in the picture of the counterweight. The cinder blocks must have been in the as-built drawings. Ha Ha.
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The ones supposedly buried in the back of the cabinet that someone *swears* exists but no-one can actually find? Definitely ;)
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pbropetech, I was thinking that maybe it would have been cheaper to replace the pulley than to use the original (and it definetely isn’t the original) Thank you for your insight!
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These old more or less solid steel Constams last forever.
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some of the components of this lift look pretty similar to the T-Bar over a veterans memorial, namely the sheave setup and the terminals.
Titcomb:
Veterans memorial:
Titcomb:
Veterans memorial:
The Some of the towers on this lift even look like tubular iterations of the towers at veterans memorial, of course this one looks to be in much better condition.
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