This short tramway carries riders from street level to the Salesforce Park atop a $2.2 billion transit center.There are two track ropes and two haul ropes.Rides are free and only offered upbound.The entire lift line.The 25 passenger cabin with an attendant.Compact bottom terminal at the base of Salesforce Tower.Lift overview.The cabin loads on one side and unloads on the front.Loading area.Unloading area.Track ropes anchores up top.The top terminal.Side view of the top station.Two bullwheels deflect the haul ropes 180 degrees.View down from the cabin.The cabin after being unloaded.Salesforce bought the naming rights to the transit center and park for 25 years at a cost of $110 million.Side view of the drive station.Another look at the top terminal.The lift line with cabin transiting.Unlike most trams, the haul ropes wind on a spool as the cabin goes up.Carriage on just one track rope.The lower terminal surrounded by glass.Unloading doors.Underside of the cabin with the second tallest building west of the Mississippi in the background.
There are some others between the two:
Puebla, Mexico 2015
Franklin Mountain, Texas 2013
Chihuahua, Mexico 2010
Durango, Mexico 2010
Roosevelt Island, New York 2010
It resembles a funifor, which as far as I can tell is a funitel but with a haul rope on a spool instead of a continuous loop. There are two deflection wheels on the cabin; the haul rope is reeved from the spool at the bottom, through a bullwheel at the top, around the deflection wheels on the cabin, and dead-ended most likely at the top terminal. The plus to a funifor system is mechanical advantage, in that the haul rope reeving system ends up at roughly two to one ratio so that the driving motor can be smaller. In this case it appears that the two advantage bullwheels are at the top and the haul rope is dead-ended on the cabin. I can’t see for certain but that’s how it appears.
That is super interesting. I think Roosevelt island is similarly a funifor (the two cars can run independently).
It strikes me that one massive downside is you don’t get to balance the weight of the uphill-traveling cabin against the weight of the downhill traveling cabin. In other words, the system is doing way more “work” (Force x Distance), since the rising potential energy of one cabin isn’t canceled out by the falling potential energy of the other.
So from that, I’d hazard a guess that funifors are fine for very short lifts (Salesforce) or profiles without too much net elevation change (Roosevelt Island), but would be a terrible choice for something like the Jackson Hole tram.
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This no joke looks more like an elevator then a tram. Anyways is this the first tram built in north America since jackson holes new tram?
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There are some others between the two:
Puebla, Mexico 2015
Franklin Mountain, Texas 2013
Chihuahua, Mexico 2010
Durango, Mexico 2010
Roosevelt Island, New York 2010
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Are you planning to go to go to mexico to get pictures?
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The operation and operational design follows the automated people mover standard, not really ANSI.
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I thought this system was designed to run without an attendant but when I was there, there was always one worker up top and one in the car.
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That was the original design, totally automated.
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Not gonna lie … this thing felt entirely unnecessary lol. There are many banks of elevators getting you up to this boondoggle.
The setup is kinda unique though. There’s only one car and the haul rope doesn’t appear to be continuous (it doesn’t run downhill past the car).
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It resembles a funifor, which as far as I can tell is a funitel but with a haul rope on a spool instead of a continuous loop. There are two deflection wheels on the cabin; the haul rope is reeved from the spool at the bottom, through a bullwheel at the top, around the deflection wheels on the cabin, and dead-ended most likely at the top terminal. The plus to a funifor system is mechanical advantage, in that the haul rope reeving system ends up at roughly two to one ratio so that the driving motor can be smaller. In this case it appears that the two advantage bullwheels are at the top and the haul rope is dead-ended on the cabin. I can’t see for certain but that’s how it appears.
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That is super interesting. I think Roosevelt island is similarly a funifor (the two cars can run independently).
It strikes me that one massive downside is you don’t get to balance the weight of the uphill-traveling cabin against the weight of the downhill traveling cabin. In other words, the system is doing way more “work” (Force x Distance), since the rising potential energy of one cabin isn’t canceled out by the falling potential energy of the other.
So from that, I’d hazard a guess that funifors are fine for very short lifts (Salesforce) or profiles without too much net elevation change (Roosevelt Island), but would be a terrible choice for something like the Jackson Hole tram.
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