Aerial tramway

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Furtschellas aerial tramway (Switzerland)
Scheme of a cable car cabin
Cable car in Zell am See (Austria)

A pendulum railway also pendulum cable car is a cableway , wherein the cabins on one or more support cables back and forth, so commute hanging between the lower and the upper station. The aerial tramway, especially the two-cable aerial tramway, is often viewed as the “classic” aerial cableway.

functionality

The cabin also gondola , cart or fachsprachlich transportation devices called, is a hanger with the drive connected, which with its rollers on the one or more supporting cables runs and from one or more rope s is pulled, so that the vehicles - each on their Side of the lane remaining - commute back and forth between the stations without going through the station with changing direction of travel. The opposite design principle to the aerial tramway is the cable car .

Two-lane and single-lane aerial tramways

The Urdenbahn between Arosa and Lenzerheide , two independent, single-track aerial tramways

Aerial tramways are mostly two-lane . In this construction, two vehicles operate each on its own, of one or more supporting cables existing roadway . Both vehicles are firmly connected to a pulling rope, which is guided over a sheave in the mountain station and moves them back and forth so that one vehicle is pulled uphill while the other drives downhill. The weight of the vehicles, more precisely the downhill force , largely balances out. A force difference can result from different loads and changing gradients in the course of the route. The resulting tensile force and the force to overcome the friction must be provided by the drive motor. In order to be able to tension the pull rope and to compensate for the moving rope loads, the vehicles are connected to the opposite rope via a pulley in the valley station , so that the pull rope and the opposite rope form a closed loop.

There are also single-lane aerial tramways with only one lane and one vehicle. They can be designed with a closed pull rope loop in which the pull rope runs back empty or with ballast, or as a so-called winch track , in which the vehicle is moved by a winch housed in the mountain station . A more recent example of a single-track winch lift is the Lauterbrunnen – Grütschalp aerial cableway , which opened in 2005 . Single-track aerial tramways are also being built as more cost-effective material ropeways to mountain farms, in which the return rope is used as a suspension rope; this saves the carrying rope, but the durability of the carrying pulleys is halved, as "the travel path" also moves in the opposite direction and is therefore doubled.

Examples of a single-track aerial tramway are the upper section of the Nordkettenbahn from the Seegrube to the Hafelekarspitze and various small cable cars in Switzerland (see below). With some two-lane aerial cableways, which only have to overcome slight differences in height, separate pull rope loops and drives are used for each direction (the pull rope runs empty, with larger spans it may be suspended from carrying ropes set up just for you). Such systems can be operated independently of one another; In times of low passenger traffic, the operation can be reduced to one lane, and a gondola can also be used as a recovery vehicle for a gondola that may get stuck in the other lane. Examples of such systems are the Roosevelt Island Tramway since the renovation in 2010, the Vanoise Express or the Urdenbahn . Funifor systems are usually also based on this principle.

Two-lane aerial tramways that connect mountain farms with the valley are also being built as water ballast trams. A water tank located under the vehicle is filled on the mountain (or the second vehicle only carries water), the additional weight of which pulls the loads upwards. In Carinthia's Lesachtal but were also water mills to drive material ropeways or cables to steep slopes uphill plow to be used; see also Luggauer Mühlen .

Group cable car

Instead of the two large cabins, however, groups of smaller vehicles (in practice two to five vehicles), which are attached to the towing or haulage rope directly behind one another, can commute on the respective lanes (example: the Obersalzbergbahn ). This arrangement means that narrower buildings can be built at the mountain and valley stations and cable car supports with shorter cantilever arms can be used. If the cabins are hung close together, they must be connected to one another in order to prevent them from bumping into each other.

Single cable cars

There are also single-cable aerial tramways, which instead of using the pulling and carrying ropes only run by means of a hauling rope that combines the functions of pulling and carrying ropes, for example the Rosh Hanikra cable car .

vehicles

Cabins

The cabins are usually closed metal structures of various sizes with a usually rectangular floor plan. They usually have no or only a few seats, but standing room for more than a hundred passengers. In very high-performance systems, double-decker cabins are used in individual cases, for the first time the one with 180 seats at the Samnaun double-decker railway in Switzerland or the one at the Shinhotaka Ropeway in Japan with 121 seats. The largest cabins at the moment are the two 200-person two-story cabins of the Vanoise Express in France, each weighing 29 t when fully loaded, and the 230-person cabins of the Ha Long Queen cable car in Vietnam since 2016 .

A special form are round cabins in which the cabin floor rotates around itself with the passengers during the journey, such as the 80-person cabins of the Titlis-Rotair-Bahn in Switzerland (until 2014), the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway , the Cabins of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway in California with 80 seats and the cabins of the Funivia Malcesine - Monte Baldo on Lake Garda for 80 people. The weight of a cabin is z. B. on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway empty 10 t and fully loaded over 16 t. Since November 2014, new cabins have been in use on the Titlis-Rotair-Bahn, in which for the first time the complete cabin housing rotates on its own axis and not just the cabin floor.

The most powerful cable car in terms of permissible load per vehicle with up to 40 tons was built for the transport of materials for the expansion of the Linth-Limmern power plant in the canton of Glarus (Switzerland). The two suspension ropes are 90 mm thick.

In the early days of the aerial tramway after the First World War , twelve-sided cabins were also built, for example by Adolf Bleichert & Co. for the Predigtstuhlbahn , the cable car to Montserrat or the Barcelona harbor cable car . There were also open cabins, such as the summer cabin on the Raxseilbahn , which only had one railing and could be protected against rain with a tarpaulin, or closed cabins with open platforms such as the Kohlerer Bahn .

Hangers

The hanger is the steel structure that connects the actual passenger cabin with the drive. As a rule, it is rigidly connected to the top of the cabin and rotatably mounted to the running gear in order to allow the cabin and hanger to swing longitudinally and to enable the operator to travel on changing inclines. It has to be high enough that the cabin does not hit the suspension ropes even at the steepest point if it swings out. In addition, pendulum movements are slower with long pendulums than with short ones. A vibration damper is usually installed between the running gear and the cabin . In the case of railways with supports, an asymmetrical design of the hanger is necessary so that the vehicle can drive over the bearings of the cables on the cantilever arms of the supports laterally with a safe distance. In the case of aerial tramways without supports, the hanger often has a symmetrical shape like an “A”, with the ropes running through the tip of the “A” so that derailment is impossible. In the Lagazuoi cable car , the symmetrical suspension system does not consist of a solid structure, but actually only of steel cables. A ladder is regularly attached to the hanger to enable the cable car personnel to climb from the car roof to the drive.

See also main article: Hangers (cable car) .

Drives

Drive of an aerial tramway, two suspension cables

With the drives , the cabins move on the suspension cables. They contain - depending on the number of suspension ropes - single or multi-lane roller batteries with which the weight of the car is distributed over a longer area of ​​the suspension rope or ropes. The drives of small, light aerial tramways only have two rollers; in the case of large cabins, the drives can be several meters long and contain roller batteries with 24 or more rollers. The pulleys have exchangeable inserts made of elastic material, which ensure a softer and quieter ride and protect both pulleys and suspension ropes from wear. On the drives are the fastenings for the pull ropes, the safety brakes and, above all, the pivot arm bearing made of a large bolt.

Ropes

Suspension ropes

Each vehicle travels on one or more suspension cables, which have the function of supporting and guiding the vehicle and, in the event of a pulling cable break, serving as a point of application for the catch (suspension cable) brake. Suspension ropes are up to 90 mm thick, depending on their length, the weight of the cabins and other factors. For larger and heavier vehicles or loads to be transported, several suspension ropes (at a distance of approx. 80 cm or more) are used. This reduces the load per rope and the weight of the rope to be borne. Driving on several ropes dampens the sideways oscillation of the cabs that occurs in cross winds. Suspension ropes are mostly fully locked ropes with an approximately smooth surface in order to achieve the smoothest possible journey. For some years now, they have even been able to contain electrical or fiber optic cables that are used for communication between the valley and mountain stations. Between the double suspension ropes, V-shaped rope riders are attached at larger distances , which ensure the spacing of the suspension ropes and, with a small pulley , also serve as support and guide for the pulling rope.

In the column-free lifts with only one span , the suspension ropes can often be firmly anchored at both the mountain station and the valley station, as temperature and load-related changes in length of the ropes only cause them to sag a little more or less. However , if the ropes run over cable car supports, the suspension ropes are only firmly anchored at one station, usually at the mountain station. At the opposite station, the suspension ropes are then attached to very large, many tons of concrete weights via pulleys, which hang freely in shafts that must be deep enough that the weights can compensate for any change in length of the ropes. These tension weights ensure a constant basic tension of the ropes, in order to achieve constant tension conditions with the moving load of the rope sections by the vehicles and also when they are passed over the supports.

On the cable car supports, the carrying ropes do not lie on rollers, but in long metal cable guide grooves on the support shoe, which enable the ropes to move back and forth to compensate for the moving loads of the cabins; at the same time, excessive bending of the rope on the support when it is driven over is avoided. The shoes as a whole are shaped as a clothoid in the longitudinal direction in order to ensure that the cabins are passed over as gently as possible.

Suspension rope anchoring on rope bollards, the large, vertical concrete curves in the rear part of the station

Suspension ropes are regularly installed with a reserve of several meters in length, as they are shifted lengthways after a few years in order to avoid that the same places always rest on the shoes of the supports and are worn out there. The suspension ropes are usually fastened in the stations using socket connections (potting cone, clamping sleeve) or plate clamps in the tensioning station; in the station opposite the tensioning station (usually the mountain station), drum anchoring is often chosen, with the rope at least three times around a solid one , in the station building concreted bollards with a diameter of several meters are looped. The residual tension of the free end is generated by a retaining clip. The anchoring bollard is often combined with a rope reel on which the above-mentioned rope reserve is stored untensioned. This anchoring method allows the controlled lowering of the rope during the rotation of the carrying rope as prescribed.

Pull ropes

The vehicles are a to the drives connected anchored rope together, run in the stations over large deflection pulleys. The drive motor is usually housed in the mountain station, so that this deflection pulley also represents the drive pulley. The pulling rope is noticeably thinner than the carrying rope and is visually different due to its mostly clearly visible strands . It is coupled to the carriage as close as possible under the suspension cable in order to prevent the tensile forces from deflecting the hanger or the rollers of the carriage being lifted off the suspension cable in the event of heavy braking. The drives are usually connected to one another on the valley side via a counter rope , lower rope or ballast rope . If the drive is located in the mountain station, it serves to compensate for the moving cable load of the upper pull rope loop and to give the entire pull rope loop a minimum pre-tension. The opposite rope is often a little thinner than the actual pull rope. If, on the other hand, the drive is housed in the valley station, it has the direct function of a pull rope, as the pull acts on the uphill cabin via the pull rope on the mountain side and via the deflection disc in the mountain station. The pulling rope deflection sheaves are usually loaded in the station opposite the drive station (mostly the valley station) by means of tension weights against the route line, thus ensuring an even tension of the pulling and opposing rope. Occasionally, hydraulic rope tensioners are used instead of the tension weights. Similar to drive belts , the empty pulling rope is referred to as a "pulling strand" or "returning strand".

With older aerial tramways, the safety regulations of some countries required that all essential components must be duplicated. That is why (especially in Japan) you can still see aerial tramways with two suspension cables and two pull cables.

In order to largely rule out the risk of the pull rope failing at the socket connections (casting cones) with which it is attached to the running gear, which are difficult to check, a continuous, endlessly spliced pull rope loop has been used on some railways for several years . The vehicles are then clamped to the endless pull rope at their respective positions with two opposing metal plates with an offset wave-shaped profile. These clamps, first introduced in France, are called "chapeau de gendarme" ("gendarme hat"). At least in France, a safety brake can be dispensed with in such designs. In a further development, the clamp is designed as a releasable coupling. With detachable clamping connections, it is possible to fix the cabins in the stations and detach them from the pulling rope and to inspect the entire length of the pulling rope loop, which is now empty, and, for example, to subject it to a magnetic induction test, which is only very limited when the ropes split at the socket connections is possible.

Drive and brakes

Drives

Like all modern aerial cableways, aerial tramways are driven in normal operation by an electric motor (main drive) , which is often housed in the mountain station, but occasionally also in the valley station, and acts on one or more pulleys via a gear. For safety reasons, there is also an auxiliary drive , this is usually an emergency generator for the main drive electric motor or a diesel motor that can be coupled to the gearbox, which can also move the cable car in the event of a power failure. As a third fall-back level, an emergency drive is prescribed that acts directly on the drive pulley (e.g. an oil hydraulic motor with a mains-independent diesel engine as a pump drive) and allows the gondolas to be moved back into the stations even if the main drive or gearbox is defective or broken.

control

Display of the path control of the Pfänderbahn

To control the driving operation, information about the current position of the vehicles on the route is always required in the control station. This information is provided by electronic or mechanical copiers (mostly duplicated and mutually monitoring) . These receive their distance information from a measuring device (distance measurement) attached to a deflection or deflection disk of the pulling or hoisting rope. This distance measurement and its summation enables the exact location of the vehicles on the route to be determined. In the stations, the distance information from the copier is checked and reset to zero. The control executes the travel program based on the route points determined by the copier . The speed reduction in front of the stations and when crossing the supports, as well as stopping in the stations and when the wind speeds are too high, are automatically regulated by the system in normal operation. The control is now mostly partially or fully automatic in the form of a PLC , while manual controls by a machinist and partially automatic analog controls were used in the past. In order to determine the position of the vehicles, it is also common to use plaited marking points on the suspension cable, which are recognized by magnetic-inductive cable testing or other methods.

Brakes

The aerial tramway has several brakes, usually the service brake , which is located on the drive, and the safety brake, which has to act directly on the pulley that drives the pull rope in order to be able to bring the ropeway to a safe standstill in the event of a gear or shaft breakage. In the event that the pull rope should break or a rope coupling on the carriage should fail, the carriage contains safety brakes , which act on the carrying ropes by means of brake calipers attached between the rollers and stop the car immediately to prevent the gondola from tumbling down uncontrollably prevent. These safety brakes are triggered by the slack rope detection or by the cabin attendant. Such a brake can usually only be released (= reopened) directly on the running gear with tools carried in the nacelle.

In special cases these safety brakes can be dispensed with, provided that a risk analysis demonstrates that a failure of the hauling rope is impossible. To do this, a number of technical requirements must be met, such as the prevention of rollover of the pull rope when braking, lightning strike counter for the pull rope, clamp connection (without cable sleeve) for an endlessly spliced ​​pull / counter rope loop, regular offset of the drive on the pull rope, pull and counter rope loops that can be continuously checked with magnetic induction testing u. A.

Speed ​​and capacity

Modern aerial tramways have large cabins that travel at speeds of up to 12.5 m / s (45 km / h) (significantly less at the cable car pillars), but their conveying capacity is limited as there is only one cabin in one direction . Aerial tramways typically have a capacity of between 500 and 2000 people per hour and direction. Naturally, the longer the individual section is, the lower the delivery rate.

Routing and spans

With aerial tramways, especially with two-cable aerial tramways, exposed, difficult terrain in high alpine areas with large cable span lengths can be crossed. Since the permissible distance to the ground is not limited with two-cable aerial tramways, provided a rescue lift is available, this system allows the bridging of valley cuts, gorges and steep rock faces. In rare cases it is possible to run the ropes from the valley station to the mountain station so that they float freely in a span . One example is the upper section of the cable car on the Aiguille du Midi from 2317 m to 3777 m, which overcomes a height difference of 1460 m without any support with a cable span length of approx. 3100 m. Other examples are the Zugspitz glacier railway, the railway to the Pordoijoch , the Lagazuoi cable car , the new Masadabahn , the Mount Roberts Tramway and again the Vanoise Express.

In most cases, however, the ropes have to be guided over cable car supports in order to ensure a sufficient distance between the sagging ropes and the ground.

The alignment must always be straight in the top view, as only slight angular deviations are permitted on the supports.

Inspection and Maintenance

Inspection and maintenance depend on the regulations of the manufacturer and the individual countries, but are similar in the following processes: Daily operation begins with the inspection of the telecommunication system, a visual inspection of the drive parts and the exposure of the tension weights, as well as a test drive during which the machinist the , technical data controlled while an employee, on the revision seat sitting of the drive, the rope, the rope rider and the cable car supports for visible irregularities controlled. The ropes are checked more closely, usually at monthly intervals. Before each season, all components such as cabins, hangers, drives and supports are checked, the rubber pulleys are changed and the ropes are greased. Brake tests are carried out with fully loaded cabins at longer intervals. The suspension ropes are shifted at intervals of several years in order to avoid the wear and tear of the same places on the cable car supports.

Evacuation and recovery

In the event of a malfunction, the cabins can often be driven slowly into the stations with the auxiliary drive or emergency drive ( evacuation of the system). If the cabins are blocked on the route, they can be evacuated in different ways ( salvage ). If the distance to the ground is not too great and there is a difficult terrain there, the passengers can be roped down from the cabin. Otherwise there is the possibility of rescuing them from the cabin by helicopter . If the distance to the ground is large, a rescue train is regularly provided that runs on its own rope next to the cabin, so that the passengers can gradually change to the small rescue gondola and drive down to the valley. Corresponding rescue exercises are part of the regular training program of the cable car staff and the local fire brigade or mountain rescue service.

Small ropeways

In Switzerland in particular, small ropeways form a separate category with special regulations. They are mostly run by local cooperatives or private individuals to facilitate agricultural transport or passenger transport to a high-altitude inn. Unlike the "large" cable cars, they are subject to the supervision of the cantonal authorities. From a technical point of view, all of them are aerial tramways, often in the single-track form. The differently designed cabins correspond very well to the local needs. Often there is a wooden bench in an open construction for two or three people with sufficient space for luggage or other transport goods. Quite often there is a cabin for people on one lane and on the other side an open basket , known in Switzerland as a barelle , for the transport of goods and animals, in which, however, people are also allowed to drive. A suspension of the cabin with two short hangers is also more common to ensure stability. A particularly exposed small cable car has a cabin consisting only of metal grids to reduce wind pressure. As a result of the further development of remote places with roads, however, more and more of these small cable cars are disappearing.

Special forms

An early construction site ropeway for the construction of the lighthouse at Beachy Head on the south coast of England already had all the essential features of an aerial tramway. Cable cars over exhibition parks like the one in Osaka were more common. The Whirlpool Aero Car by Leonardo Torres Quevedo , which opened in 1916, has six suspension ropes and a hanger, which is only used by Torres Quevedo, in order to calm down any safety concerns of the public. The modern Scenic Skyway , which runs largely horizontally, has two hangers to keep the long cabin level when passengers are pacing back and forth in it. For the skyway at Timberline Lodge in Oregon , the body of a bus was hung on four suspension cables. The cable car between Ireland and Dursey Island has a carriage made of a wide metal frame that runs on the two very far apart suspension ropes and gives the cabin, which is attached to four short hangers, the necessary stability to also transport sheep (which have priority over human passengers) . All of the above cable cars are single-track aerial tramways .

The two sections of the aerial tramway in Bezau in the Bregenzerwald for six to eight people were one of the rare examples with small cabins. The Tauernbahn in Haus im Ennstal is also unusual : two cabins operate on two lanes. When a cabin starts in the valley station, another cabin simultaneously moves on the same rope from the middle station to the mountain station. In the middle station you have to change to a cabin on the other lane that has just come from the mountain station. This measure significantly increases the capacity of the railway. At the Sulden am Ortler cable car , the idea was further developed: On each lane there are two cabins for 110 people who meet head to head in the middle station, so that passengers only have to change from one cab to the next. The suspension ropes run continuously from the mountain station to the valley station, the pull ropes of both sections are coupled via interconnected pulleys so that the drives in the top station also move the pull ropes of the lower section.

The two aerial tramways in Madeira do not carry tourists up a mountain, but rather the farmers who live on the high plateau down to their fields on the coast. The Kaufhaus Weipert cable car in Kiel was probably the first passenger single-cable aerial tramway in which the two cabins are attached to a single, revolving cable that combines the functions of the suspension and pulling cables and pulls the cabins back and forth. The Rosh Hanikra cable car in Israel is also such a single- cable cable car , and the Punkevní jeskyně - Macocha cable car in the Czech Republic is a similar single- cable cable car .

Abbreviations

Aerial tramways are often referred to by manufacturers and in the media with the following abbreviations: PB (aerial tramway); ATW (Aerial Tramway); TPH (Telephérique).

Accessibility

From a certain size of the gondolas used, aerial tramways can be designed to be largely barrier-free , with smaller vehicles there may be restrictions in the door width and the space available for wheelchairs or prams. In Switzerland, according to the Equal Opportunities for the Disabled, cable cars with nine or more seats per transport unit (with the exception of ski lifts and chairlifts) must be handicapped accessible.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : aerial tramway  album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For example, § 2 SeilbG 2003 (Austria)
  2. ^ Mühlenweg Maria Luggau , website of the Lesachtal tourism association
  3. ^ Mühlenweg Maria Luggau , at kleindenkmaeler.at
  4. ↑ This is the new gondola on the Titlis , new Luzerner Zeitung online from November 14, 2014 , accessed on February 11, 2015
  5. ↑ Impressive cable car construction - Info No. 138 of the VTK / UCH  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. PDF, accessed November 25, 2011@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.vtk-uct.ch  
  6. ↑ Example on the Fatzer website ( Memento from March 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ patent specification
  8. ↑ So z. B. on the Mount Roberts Tramway
  9. ↑ Technical status, explained in a patent specification
  10. ↑ Safety analysis and risk comparison of two-cable aerial tramways with and without suspension cable brake , report by TÜV Süd and the University of Stuttgart on behalf of the Bay. Ministry of Transport, 2005, PDF, accessed February 11, 2012
  11. ^ Cime Caron in Val Thorens
  12. ^ Tiroler Zugspitzbahn ( Memento from August 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) For example, description
  13. ↑ Evacuation exercise at the Renon cable car ( Memento from May 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ^ Rescue exercise with a rescue gondola ( memento from June 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on the Scenic Skyway , Katoomba
  15. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: OITAF guidelines for rescue from cable cars , 2010@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.bav.admin.ch
  16. ↑ Explanations on small ropeways in Switzerland
  17. ↑ Pictures of open small cable cars in Switzerland on flickr
  18. ↑ Photos of the LSB-Erstfeld-Schwandi, LSB-Erstfeld-Zieriberg and LSB-Hofstetten-Wilerli ( Memento from June 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  19. ↑ The two sections of the Bezau cable car were rebuilt in 2010 (now the Funifor system ).
  20. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Explanations on the ordinance on the technical requirements for the disabled-friendly design of public transport , Federal Office of Transport (PDF, accessed on August 29, 2013)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.bav.admin.ch