Barcelona port cable car
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The Barcelona Port Cable Car (Teleférico del puerto Barcelona) is a cable car in Barcelona , Spain , which runs from the Miramar station, 57 m above the ground on the slope of Montjuïc , over the 107 m high Torre Jaume I to the 86 m high Torre Sant Sebastià and thereby the Port Vell , the old port of Barcelona, the World Trade Center and the ferry ships in the port. In the Torre Sant Sebastià , an elevator goes down to the seaside district of La Barceloneta .
The Torre Jaume I , standing almost exactly halfway, was the highest cable car pillar in the world and remained so until 1966, when the Kaprun III glacier lift was built. The middle station and a viewing platform are located at the top of this steel lattice tower. An elevator goes down to the pier. The terminus and a restaurant are located in the Torre Sant Sebastià . The two cabins that move back and forth stop at the Torre Jaume I for a few minutes so that tourists can enjoy the view of Barcelona.
history
The harbor cable car was to become an attraction at the 1929 World's Fair . For this purpose, the company Air Rail San Sebastian-Miramar, SA was founded, which was granted the royal concession to build and operate the cable car. The engineer Juan Rodríguez Roda took over the management of the project. The towers were designed by the architect Carles Boigas and built by the local steel company Material para Ferrocarriles y Construcciones SA . The then world-famous company Adolf Bleichert & Co. received the order for the planning and construction of the actual cable car after they had built a sensational cable car with the Austrian Zugspitzbahn and shortly before completed the cable car on Montserrat . Your project manager was Friedrich Gründel. However, the size of the project was underestimated, so that the cable car could only be opened on September 12, 1931.
Originally, two cabins each went back and forth between the terminus and the Torre Jaume I , which is why you had to change there. However, the cabins were moved by only one pulling rope that extended over the entire route. The cabins were the same as those on Montserrat and each held 20 people. Halfway up the mezzanine was a restaurant, while the restaurant in the Torre Sant Sebastià did not yet exist.
Hopes for the cable car's economic success were dashed by the Great Depression and the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The Torre Jaume I was ideally suited as an observation post that was reinforced by a machine gun. During the fighting, the tower was shot at, a rope broke and a cabin fell into the sea. A second cabin parked in the tower was destroyed by the gunfire. At the end of the civil war, only two cabins of the cable car remained in the Miramar station and the steel frame of the two towers. A cabin was brought to the also damaged Montserrat cable car , which was put back into operation in 1940. The rusting towers were an ugly sight for years. On top of that, in 1957 a military helicopter got caught in the still taut auxiliary rope and crashed into the harbor.
It was discussed whether the two towers should be completely demolished. Friedrich Gründel, who had designed the cable car around 30 years earlier, campaigned for its preservation and founded the Teleféricos de Barcelona, SA , with which he received the concession for the reconstruction and operation of the cable car in 1958. In 1960 the Torre Sant Sebastià was reopened with a new restaurant at the top, followed two years later by the Torre Jaume I with a converted middle station that allows the cabins to travel the entire route. Then new ropes were pulled and the cabin that had been loaned to Montserrat was brought back. In 1963 the cable car could be put back into operation, this time with only two cabins and a speed reduced to 3 m / s (10.8 km / h). After Friedrich Gründel's death, Teleféricos de Barcelona, SA was taken over by the owner of the Swiss Hotel , and later by the owner of the amusement park on Montjuïc . The economic success was low, the condition of the cable car deteriorated so much that the authorities decided in 1995 to close the facility. In 1996, however, the city administration began with the renovation of the port and the construction of the World Trade Center and in this context also with the renovation of the cable car. In 2000 new ropes were pulled and the railway started up again.
Names
Jaume I (1208–1276) was Count of Barcelona and King of Aragon . San Sebastián is the Spanish name of a city on the Bay of Biscay , where Leonardo Torres Quevedo opened his first cable car, the transbordador funicular , in 1907 . The port cable car is also called transbordador aeri .
Technical specifications
The port cable car , built by Adolf Bleichert & Co. and opened in 1931, is an aerial tramway based on the Bleichert-Zuegg system with a suspension cable (45 mm) and a pull cable (23 mm) as well as an auxiliary cable (17 mm) for emergencies.
Mountain station and drive
The drive and the driver's cab of the cable car are located in the Miramar mountain station . The main parts of the drive consist largely of components from 1931. The drive is designed as a double drive, there are two identical drive units that can be operated independently of the driver's cab. As a rule, the renovated drive is in use. There is also an emergency drive (diesel), which can provide the necessary electrical energy for the train to run empty.
Access to the Miramar station is from a path at the level of its roof via a staircase leading downwards.
Track and ropes
The horizontal route is 1303 m, the two sections are 652 and 651 m long. The travel speed is 3 m / s. At higher wind speeds, the operation is stopped for safety reasons. In an emergency, people can be rescued from the cabin with the help of rescue vehicles (mountain station) and the route cleared.
Fully locked wire ropes are used as suspension ropes . The pull rope , the counter rope and the auxiliary ropes are designed as open lang's lay ropes. The pull and counter ropes were only replaced a few years ago.
Cabins
The two 12-sided cabins (model pavilion ) hold 20 people plus the cabin attendant. An empty cabin weighs 1350 kg. The original cabins are still in use, but have been renovated several times. Each cabin travels the entire route (with a stop in the middle station).
Valley station
The most important structural and load-bearing parts of the valley station and the cable car system are hot-riveted (not welded or screwed ). The opposite rope wraps around the pulley at around 180 ° in the valley station. The tension weights for the suspension ropes, the counter rope and the auxiliary ropes are located in the valley station , in the Torre Sant Sebastià . The design essentially corresponds to that of 1931.
See also
Web links
- Teleférico del Puerto : Company website ( memento of September 23, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )
- Laurent Berne, Téléphérique du Port (French, in remontées mécaniques )
- Emporis: Torre Jaume I
- Emporis: Torre Sant Sebastia
- Port Vell website (Catalan, Spanish, English)