Group lane
A group lift is a gondola lift in which several groups of two to six cabins ( "gondolas" ) are clamped tightly to a hoisting rope or a pull rope. Mostly it is technically in the group orbits around ropeways and among the group aerial tramways to two or Dreiseil- aerial tramways . However, there are also mixed forms, such as B. two-rope group orbits. The individual gondolas of a group lift usually offer space for 6 to 15 passengers.
Group circulating lifts are one of the rare designs in which the circulating cable car principle, fixed cable clamps and closed transport equipment are used at the same time. Despite the circulating operation, they have similarities with the operation of an aerial tramway, since the transport is not continuous, but intermittent ( "pulsed" ), while group shuttles take up the principle of aerial tramways.
A disadvantage of the group railways is that the supports over the entire length must be designed for the higher load case of the passing of the cabin group concentrated on a short cable section, while this load is distributed over the entire route in a railroad with conventionally distributed vehicles.
Group orbit
With this type of railway, the gondolas are clamped to the conveyor or pulling rope in groups using a suspension with a non-detachable rope clamp so that the distances between the groups on the circumferential rope loop are exactly the same. The train runs in circulation mode, ie the group of wagons passes the station without changing the direction of travel and travels in the opposite direction on the opposite lane. For passengers in a group of gondolas to get on and off at the two stations, the entire train stops when the opposite vehicle groups are on the platform in the arch of the station (intermittent circulation). Since the passenger changes in group circulating systems, in contrast to fixed-clamp circulating systems with vehicles evenly distributed via pulling or hoisting cable loops, only take place at defined times in the stations, it is otherwise possible to travel at relatively high speeds compared to other fixed-clamped circulating ropeway systems; the travel speed is up to 7 m / s. On the other hand, the total conveying capacity, depending on the length of the route, is low compared to other types of gondola due to the regular stops to change passengers. In the heyday of group orbital lifts, the 1980s and 1990s, the manageable technology (dispensing with detachable clamping devices, simple station structure without hanging rails, conveyor devices, switches, auxiliary drives, parking rails or gondola garages) was seen as an advantage.
There are versions with two or four groups of vehicles, with four groups there is an intermediate stop of two groups in the middle of the free route or in a middle station if the other two groups stop in the stations. Group orbits have so far been built with gondolas for up to 17 people.
For winter sports operations, the group orbital lifts proved to be unsustainable due to the limited transport capacity and the cumbersome intermediate stops in the four-group operation. In the meantime, the concept of group gondolas has been replaced by detachable gondola lifts, so that today only a few group gondolas are being built.
Group cable car
In terms of functionality and operational sequence, this principle is similar to a regular aerial tramway with a single cabin per lane, except that several vehicles are available in the group on the group aerial tramway . As a rule, the cabins of the vehicle groups are attached to drives that run with their rollers on one or two carrying ropes and are pulled by a firmly clamped pull rope, so that the vehicles - remaining on their respective lane sides - between the stations without passing through stations and alternating in the direction of travel and commute back. However, single-cable group commuter trains were also used, for example the Adelboden Oey - Adelboden Dorf railway .
Up until now, group shuttles have been built with gondolas for up to 29 people.
The use of four vehicle groups on a train or conveyor cable loop is possible with the group shuttle train if an intermediate station is provided halfway along the route, but at which the passengers have to change to the vehicle group on the other side of the lane. Due to the system, one group on each side of these railways only commutes back and forth on the lower or upper half of their lane side (between valley station and middle station or mountain station and middle station), so a driving game initially only consists of half a journey. The complete journey is created for the passenger by changing at the middle station to the waiting group on the other side of the lane and another driving game over the second half of the route, during which the train travels in the opposite direction back to the starting position.
Examples of group courses
- Vallée Blanche small gondola lift (Télécabine Panoramic Mont-Blanc) in the Mont-Blanc group
- Grenoble cable car to the Bastille (Téléphérique de Grenoble Bastille)
- Niederhorn
Web links
- Lecture materials "Cable car construction". (PDF; 6.5 MB) Institute for Infrastructure, Intelligent Transport Systems Division of the University of Innsbruck, 2012, p. 143 ff. , Archived from the original on December 24, 2013 ; accessed on November 28, 2015 .
- Database of group lift systems at lift-world.info. Retrieved August 20, 2013 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b database of group lift systems at lift-world.info. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on August 27, 2013 ; Retrieved August 20, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ The group gondolas in the cable car dictionary at bergbahnen.org
- ↑ Description of the single-cable group cable car Adelboden Oey - Adelboden Dorf at seilbahninventar.ch
