The Red Lady Express was formerly known as Keystone Express and replaced a Riblet double.The bottom terminal is a standard Poma model but with wood cladding.Riding up the line at tower 4.View back down at T10.Upper section of the lift line.Arriving at the drive station.Top motor room and unloading area.Terminal underskin.Towers 1 and 2.Loading area.Another view of the line.Looking down about half way between the two terminals.View up the line in the base area.
There used to be a Riblet double on this line, from 1968 until it was replaced with a Poma triple in 1982. That Poma triple lasted until 1997 when the current high speed quad was built. At that point, the triple was used to replace the East River double on the north face, and operated there for just eight years before that high speed quad replaced it.
The rename from Keystone Express to Red Lady Express happened in 2004, the same year that Crested Butte put the wood skin on all of their high speed quads. You can clearly see the original blue paint under the wood skin here: [img]https://skiliftblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/img_1794.jpg[/img]
Haven’t seen any photos of the lift when it was Keystone lift. But I imagine that the Alpha structure was part of the relocation to East River, and that as built, it had a standalone Delta motor room like we see on Painter Boy and Gold Link (when the lift was relocated, the towers received new lifting frames).
This lift’s uphill capacity is 1,800 pph, the lowest of the four high speed quads. The sister Silver Queen Express has a full-fledged 2,400 pph, as does the East River Express. While the Paradise Express is a 2,000 pph lift.
For the lift to have 2,400 capacity, it both would need to run at 1,000 fpm and it would need to have additional chairs added. I’m thinking roughly 30 chairs or so.
Seeing as the name change coincided with Crested Butte’s high speed quads getting wood skins on their terminals, it might’ve been a copyright thing. But I also wonder if they wanted it to be that the base area high speed quads had thematically similar names.
What the SHOULD do is add more chairs to upgrade capacity. The lines usually wouldn’t be considered bad, but they move slowly, making getting on this lift painful at peak periods.
Lift Blog 
There used to be a Riblet double on this line, from 1968 until it was replaced with a Poma triple in 1982. That Poma triple lasted until 1997 when the current high speed quad was built. At that point, the triple was used to replace the East River double on the north face, and operated there for just eight years before that high speed quad replaced it.
The rename from Keystone Express to Red Lady Express happened in 2004, the same year that Crested Butte put the wood skin on all of their high speed quads. You can clearly see the original blue paint under the wood skin here: [img]https://skiliftblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/img_1794.jpg[/img]
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Are there any pics of the old east river triple?
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There are a few here: https://www.coloradoskihistory.com/areapictures/crestedbutte.html
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I noticed that the old east river lifts drive appears to have an alpha structure but a delta motor room:
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Haven’t seen any photos of the lift when it was Keystone lift. But I imagine that the Alpha structure was part of the relocation to East River, and that as built, it had a standalone Delta motor room like we see on Painter Boy and Gold Link (when the lift was relocated, the towers received new lifting frames).
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This lift’s uphill capacity is 1,800 pph, the lowest of the four high speed quads. The sister Silver Queen Express has a full-fledged 2,400 pph, as does the East River Express. While the Paradise Express is a 2,000 pph lift.
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I think the actual capacity is even lower since it does not run at 1100 feet per minute.
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I bet that slower speed has to do with the lift being the one that reaches the beginner trails.
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I think Crested Butte’s master plan has included adding more chairs to Red Lady in the future.
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For the lift to have 2,400 capacity, it both would need to run at 1,000 fpm and it would need to have additional chairs added. I’m thinking roughly 30 chairs or so.
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The lift when it was Keystone Express:
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Why did they change the name?
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Seeing as the name change coincided with Crested Butte’s high speed quads getting wood skins on their terminals, it might’ve been a copyright thing. But I also wonder if they wanted it to be that the base area high speed quads had thematically similar names.
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This lifts lines can get excruciatingly long in the morning, but I guess they won’t upgrade this lift any time soon.
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What the SHOULD do is add more chairs to upgrade capacity. The lines usually wouldn’t be considered bad, but they move slowly, making getting on this lift painful at peak periods.
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