Bottom terminal building with motor room below.View up the line from the base.Top dock and terminal building.Yellow tram car with the White Mountains in the background.Yellow tram car passes tower 2.Top terminal building.Top platform with car 2 docked.Car 2 leaving the summit.Tower 1.Top terminal track rope bollards.Lift overview.Cabins along the steepest part of the line.Loading dock at the base.“Ketchup” leaving the bottom station.Towers 1 and 2.
From a skier’s perspective, if they are talking about replacement, a gondola would be a better choice to move more skiers. As it is, they only run the Tram Friday through Monday (at least pre-Covid) – and they close it by mid-March, even though the skiing goes unitl mid-April. Presumably due to the cost of running it. But from a tourism perspective the Tram has a special attraction and separates it from the two mountains nearby that already have sightseeing gondola rides (Loon and Bretton Woods). I don’t imagine that a newer Tram would be significantly less costly to operate, that they might keep it open in the winter more often?
I wrote this somewhere else also, but I’d love to see a gondola replacement. For the cost of a new tram, they may be able to do something flashy like a 3S…who knows until they get some quotes. I think the scenery & location are what sets Cannon apart from Loon/BW personally, not really the tram vs. gondola.
A gondola on this path with full-time operation would be a real game-changer for the skier experience…I’m drooling thinking of midweek, top-to-bottom laps.
The tram gets you to the top in eight minutes, at the usual 4 m/s, although it can make it up to 10, it is run slower due to cost. A gondy isn’t much faster, especially compared to the 4m 49s (I got that from the history book on Cannon) that it can manage.
I know that was the proposal – but has there been any confirmation of plans since the meeting? I haven’t seen anything. I know that they were planning to use ARPA money (Covid relief) – and after this was proposed, there have have been other ski projects trying to use ARPA money that ended up being questioned in the press and by pols…. NH is a republican state – so I could see it running into opposition there.
The original tram terminal buildings are the wood structures directly adjacent to the new terminal buildings in the photos. So when you are waiting in line, at the bottom, you are standing in the building where the old tram cars would come in.
All of the Tram I tower footings remain, and for every removed tower, one of the four footings still has a piece of vintage tower sticking out of it. Tower 1 was slightly downhill from the present tower. Sadly, when it was removed, the old motor room was demolished, leaving the section of the building with the docks as a waiting area with some new steel bracing. The original Mountain Station still has the machinery still in place, according to the Tram operators. See it here, new:
Since there is no immediate replacement, I do wonder if they will keep this lift semi-operational for servicing the mountain top restaurant, otherwise they’ll need to get everything up (and back) via snowcat.
Lift Blog 
You spelled “Top” wrong on the top dock picture.
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Thanks.
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From a skier’s perspective, if they are talking about replacement, a gondola would be a better choice to move more skiers. As it is, they only run the Tram Friday through Monday (at least pre-Covid) – and they close it by mid-March, even though the skiing goes unitl mid-April. Presumably due to the cost of running it. But from a tourism perspective the Tram has a special attraction and separates it from the two mountains nearby that already have sightseeing gondola rides (Loon and Bretton Woods). I don’t imagine that a newer Tram would be significantly less costly to operate, that they might keep it open in the winter more often?
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Cannon also states that the project would close the Tram for three operating seasons – ‘Summer/winter/summer’
Click to access CMAC-meeting-minutes-July-16,-2021-DRAFT.pdf
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There is also suggestion that replacing with a gondola, is an option that is on the table as well: https://www.conwaydailysun.com/berlin_sun/news/local/aerial-tramway-could-be-replaced-by-gondolas/article_aeea7372-ea3a-11eb-beb6-17903f01a970.html#tncms-source=login
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I wrote this somewhere else also, but I’d love to see a gondola replacement. For the cost of a new tram, they may be able to do something flashy like a 3S…who knows until they get some quotes. I think the scenery & location are what sets Cannon apart from Loon/BW personally, not really the tram vs. gondola.
A gondola on this path with full-time operation would be a real game-changer for the skier experience…I’m drooling thinking of midweek, top-to-bottom laps.
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The tram gets you to the top in eight minutes, at the usual 4 m/s, although it can make it up to 10, it is run slower due to cost. A gondy isn’t much faster, especially compared to the 4m 49s (I got that from the history book on Cannon) that it can manage.
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Keep the tram. It is part of what makes Cannon unique and the “Living Legend’ Bedbug NH
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Keeping the Tram would continue the 84 year Cannon tradition of “wonderful inefficiency,” something that the late SKI Magazine wrote.
I believe that the conclusion that the State came to was to fully replace the Tram II with a Doppelmayr-Garaventa machine.
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I know that was the proposal – but has there been any confirmation of plans since the meeting? I haven’t seen anything. I know that they were planning to use ARPA money (Covid relief) – and after this was proposed, there have have been other ski projects trying to use ARPA money that ended up being questioned in the press and by pols…. NH is a republican state – so I could see it running into opposition there.
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The original tram terminal buildings are the wood structures directly adjacent to the new terminal buildings in the photos. So when you are waiting in line, at the bottom, you are standing in the building where the old tram cars would come in.
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All of the Tram I tower footings remain, and for every removed tower, one of the four footings still has a piece of vintage tower sticking out of it. Tower 1 was slightly downhill from the present tower. Sadly, when it was removed, the old motor room was demolished, leaving the section of the building with the docks as a waiting area with some new steel bracing. The original Mountain Station still has the machinery still in place, according to the Tram operators. See it here, new:
More footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gsPIK9Ca_s
Similar Bliechert lifts remain operational in Spain, Germany, and Norway:
https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/liste-6-44-bleichert.html
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My apologies, I misspelled “Bleichert”
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This season, it is running Friday-Sunday.
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To preserve it for longer (reduce wear and tear), not enough staff, save money, or for some other reason?
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Cannon just released the closing date for the tram, which will be October 26th of this year.
End of an era…..
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Since there is no immediate replacement, I do wonder if they will keep this lift semi-operational for servicing the mountain top restaurant, otherwise they’ll need to get everything up (and back) via snowcat.
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They will. I wonder if they will let me tag along….
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Who’s coming tomorrow?
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