Top station with a vault drive.This pulse lift has four groups of three cabins each.Sigma Diamond cabins.Two groups pass halfway.Unloading area at Snowmass Village next to the Village Express.Riding up to the Mall.Drive station loading.Each group is a different color.Tower 2.Blue Sigmas.Lift overview.Tower 1.Note the detachable grips even though the lift is fixed.Drive bullwheel and shaft.
I think it has more to do with availability; detachable gondola grips are a lot more common than beefed up fixed grips for gondola cabins, so it often is cheaper to just use detachable grips rather than custom made fixed grips.
Pulse lifts all have a guide rail at the terminals just like detachables, so in many cases they just use detachable grips since they are readily available unlike the pulse grips that need to be special ordered. Anakeesta has those, while Royal Gorge has LPA detachable grips.
There is a unique installation in the Colorado Superchair at Breckenridge. The 1986 Poma HSQ (same name) that it replaced was a vault drive, and the new 6 pack was installed over the top of it. So it is overhead drive, but still has the structure below it. Not sure what it is used for now.
I wouldn’t call that a unique one, since the American Flyer has the same setup as the Colorado SuperChair (the main difference being that American Flyer’s a bubble lift with a DirectDrive).
I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that is the drive from the Wood Run triple. It was removed the same summer that the Sky Cab was installed, and it was a Riblet with a top vault drive.
Pretty sure this was a completely new install. Wood Run had the partial wooden walls on a concrete slab, this one has the concrete roof as well. The terminal does look similar to a Riblet F-frame but isn’t one. It could have been modified, I guess- SkiCo did move around, reuse, and repurpose a bunch of equipment in those years.
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Why does this lift have detachable grips if this is a pulse?
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Probably easier to get the cabins off the line for maintance
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I think it has more to do with availability; detachable gondola grips are a lot more common than beefed up fixed grips for gondola cabins, so it often is cheaper to just use detachable grips rather than custom made fixed grips.
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Most pulse lifts do, though I am unsure why.
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Pulse lifts all have a guide rail at the terminals just like detachables, so in many cases they just use detachable grips since they are readily available unlike the pulse grips that need to be special ordered. Anakeesta has those, while Royal Gorge has LPA detachable grips.
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Don’t some pulse lifts have detachable grips, but without the wheel on the detachable portion?
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No support rollers on these grips. We keep the compression roller because our spring compressor uses it. Lateral roller is aesthetic
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There are no guide rails at either terminal on this lift
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The top looks like a riblet vault drive terminal and I believe that vault drive is reused
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Makes sense. LPOA doesn’t seem to be the type to make vault drives.
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There is a unique installation in the Colorado Superchair at Breckenridge. The 1986 Poma HSQ (same name) that it replaced was a vault drive, and the new 6 pack was installed over the top of it. So it is overhead drive, but still has the structure below it. Not sure what it is used for now.
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I wouldn’t call that a unique one, since the American Flyer has the same setup as the Colorado SuperChair (the main difference being that American Flyer’s a bubble lift with a DirectDrive).
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I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that is the drive from the Wood Run triple. It was removed the same summer that the Sky Cab was installed, and it was a Riblet with a top vault drive.
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Pretty sure this was a completely new install. Wood Run had the partial wooden walls on a concrete slab, this one has the concrete roof as well. The terminal does look similar to a Riblet F-frame but isn’t one. It could have been modified, I guess- SkiCo did move around, reuse, and repurpose a bunch of equipment in those years.
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