The coal chute chair was KB’s first chairlift, and it was a center pole style Stadeli double; a rarity in the US as only a few more exist that I know of. It had a drive/tension unit in a building at the bottom terminal, and a simple return station up top with bull wheel unloading which was definitely ahead of its time. I wonder if the bull wheel unloading is original, or the top terminal it was modified later on? The center pole chairs had spring loaded safety bars that looped to wrap around the center pole when in the up position. I got the pleasure of riding it a few times since the first time I ever skied at KB (when I was just 15!) was the last season before it was removed. For a few years after, the trail map said “future site of new lift” and then apparently this never happened and that was just removed entirely. As of the last time I was at KB a few years ago, the top terminal structure minus the bull wheel, as well as the bottom terminal building and the first tower (hold down at the load) are still standing.
one more interesting thing to note is the World chair, a similar Stadeli but with bail double chairs and tube towers, has the exact same style of safety bar minus the spring load, instead of the usual one with footrests. Not sure why it has those, but I can say for sure they did not come from Coal Chute because World still had those safety bars back when CC was still standing.
And yes, there is a short video of Coal Chute. I took it the second time I rode it because I was fascinated by the odd design of chair:
The coal chute chair was KB’s first chairlift, and it was a center pole style Stadeli double; a rarity in the US as only a few more exist that I know of. It had a drive/tension unit in a building at the bottom terminal, and a simple return station up top with bull wheel unloading which was definitely ahead of its time. I wonder if the bull wheel unloading is original, or the top terminal it was modified later on? The center pole chairs had spring loaded safety bars that looped to wrap around the center pole when in the up position. I got the pleasure of riding it a few times since the first time I ever skied at KB (when I was just 15!) was the last season before it was removed. For a few years after, the trail map said “future site of new lift” and then apparently this never happened and that was just removed entirely. As of the last time I was at KB a few years ago, the top terminal structure minus the bull wheel, as well as the bottom terminal building and the first tower (hold down at the load) are still standing.
one more interesting thing to note is the World chair, a similar Stadeli but with bail double chairs and tube towers, has the exact same style of safety bar minus the spring load, instead of the usual one with footrests. Not sure why it has those, but I can say for sure they did not come from Coal Chute because World still had those safety bars back when CC was still standing.
And yes, there is a short video of Coal Chute. I took it the second time I rode it because I was fascinated by the odd design of chair:
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