The unique gondola at Royal Gorge operates more like a tram with two groups of cabins reversing but never travelling around the bullwheels.Leitner-Poma operator house at the drive station.The loading area in front of the Alpha drive.Drive station.Control pedestal and the lift line with only two towers.Sigma Diamond cabins.Travelling across the gorge.Two sets of cabins pass half way each trip.Loading area at the return/top station.Heavily loaded tower 2.LPA detachable grips on a fixed-grip system.Return station overview.Note the tensioning here.Permanently connected pulse of cabins.View across the gorge.Cabins arriving at the top station.Another view of the return terminal.Tower 1 and the drive station.Cabin doors are operated electronically rather than physically like most gondolas.Side view of the drive loading zone.Alpha motor room.Cabins reach more than 1,200 feet above ground.Three cabins in a group.There are six cabins total for an hourly capacity of 300.The view is awesome!Another look at cabins on line.With only two towers, there is significant sag.View across the gorge to the top terminal.Looking down on the lift line from Point Sublime.All six cabins.One more of the gorge.And the namesake bridge.Drive station overview.
This pulse gondola replaced an old 35 passenger tram in 2013 after the Royal Gorge wildfire. The end stations of the tram, along with the tram cars themselves were completely destroyed, and considering the original tram opened in 1969, it was cheaper to rebuild completely. Interestingly, some of the early concept pictures provided by Royal Gorge Park show single gondolas, so I can’t help but wonder if the park was considering a different configuration before deciding on the 3 pulse setup.
Not quite. There is a pulse grip available for gondola cabins, but they are special order and have long lead times for production. LPOA engineering decided on the detachable grip because they are a standard production item and work well in the pulse application.
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Honestly, this is the weirdest pulse gondola i’ve ever seen.
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This pulse gondola replaced an old 35 passenger tram in 2013 after the Royal Gorge wildfire. The end stations of the tram, along with the tram cars themselves were completely destroyed, and considering the original tram opened in 1969, it was cheaper to rebuild completely. Interestingly, some of the early concept pictures provided by Royal Gorge Park show single gondolas, so I can’t help but wonder if the park was considering a different configuration before deciding on the 3 pulse setup.
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It’s very unusual for the cabins to have detachable grips on a fixed-grip system. They never detach!
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Most modern pulse gondolas have detachable grips because they’re the only ones the manufacturer makes that are compatible with the gondola cabins.
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Not quite. There is a pulse grip available for gondola cabins, but they are special order and have long lead times for production. LPOA engineering decided on the detachable grip because they are a standard production item and work well in the pulse application.
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Isn’t this a jig back, not a pulse gondy?
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This is one of those rare lifts that doesn’t have any depression sheaves.
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