News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
I'm sure Disney will maintain these pretty well. Usually ski resorts do most of their maintenance during the summer. Since these will be in operation year round, it will have to go down for 'rehab' at some point just like any other attraction.

Modern lifts are very safe and have plenty of sensors and fail safes, very similar to what a roller coaster has. The system knows the exact position of all cabins, the spacing between the cabins etc. and will stop if anything out of the norm occurs. At which point to operators have to contact maintenance to inspect and clear any faults before it can resume operation.

Doppelmayr-Connect-Innovative-Control-System.jpg

(Our gondola wasn't nearly this fancy, pretty jealous of that dude. Would have been happy with a chair.)

At times though maintenance can be reactionary, because sometimes things just break. The gondola I operated once had a bunch of cabins out of commission for a while for various reasons (windows missing, broken door cables, etc.) and they were out of parts to fix them, so the capacity went down for a bit. We didn't have that much space to store cabins when in operation, so we had a stream of like 5 busted cabins with cones inside we would have to wait for before we could continue loading guests.

Since this is going to be in constant operation it would make sense for Disney to have some spare cabins and a larger maintenance bay for swapping out broken cabins.
Isnt that the control system? would you have your control operators standing all the day? o_O
 

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
I was talking about how close the Disney gondolas are to the water apparently in the artwork and not just the fact it is over water. I know about London and others like it.

What difference does that make? It's Dopplemeyer, the model they are employing is a first for North America, that's worth bragging about. However, it's hardly a challenging terrain. These systems are made to traverse mountains, a swamp is easy.

Here's three more that I've personally been on. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples:

4155615089_cb47502e48_z.jpg


1200px-Cologne_Cable_Car.jpg


Pois_Trasbord_01g.jpg


Plus a bonus North American example, which I've only ever looked at - full disclosure.

whirlpool-aero-car-header.jpg
 

SLUSHIE

Well-Known Member
Isnt that the control system? would you have your control operators standing all the day? o_O

I guess that's something they make, but most are not that fancy and much more like this.
gallery_452_1_44879.jpg

That screen is a touch screen, and you can view all kinds on information about the lift. This is inside what is usually called the "shack" and in normal operation, nobody is needed to be in the shack. If anything goes wrong with the system it will stop itself and nobody really needs to be in there monitoring anything. Older lifts were all analogue and looked more like this...
IYYFoLF.jpeg

That is the "board" for what looks like a return station, the drive station would have like 3 of these panels. Basically every one of those green LEDs is a sensor that could case the lift to stop. Usually the operators are helping people load. Outside the shack there are other control panels, that look more like this...

29932897350_5d84341c7a_b.jpg

This is just a basic set of controls to start and stop a lift. Not all lifts are the same but basically this is how it goes. There are two stops, normal and emergency. After a normal stop you have to push reset. If there is an emergency stop, or the lift stops itself, it to has to be cleared in the shack. After resetting you want to use the ring, which just rings a bell or siren thing at all stations, the other station would signal back to indicate they are ready, and then you would press start, and then turn up the speed. Some lifts also have other fancy buttons, like you can mark a chair, and a siren will go off for the operator at the other station when that chair arrives. If you don't have the chair marking thing, you would have to tell the other operator the chair number. On our gondola, we didn't have the chair marker, and the cabins were all in random order so it was often pretty annoying.

Our shifts were 10 hours, and 30 min lunch. As a ski gondola, we helped people load their skis in the the racks on the outside of the gondola. Skis are pretty sharp, so you would wear leather gloves and hope they would last a few weeks before you had to use your own money to buy another pair. After a while I started to cover my gloves with tape I found in the maintenance shed, which helped them last a bit longer. We also were not to be seen sitting down ever. There was a small window ledge we could lean on but that's as close to sitting as you were allowed to get.
 

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
I guess that's something they make, but most are not that fancy and much more like this.
gallery_452_1_44879.jpg

That screen is a touch screen, and you can view all kinds on information about the lift. This is inside what is usually called the "shack" and in normal operation, nobody is needed to be in the shack. If anything goes wrong with the system it will stop itself and nobody really needs to be in there monitoring anything. Older lifts were all analogue and looked more like this...
IYYFoLF.jpeg

That is the "board" for what looks like a return station, the drive station would have like 3 of these panels. Basically every one of those green LEDs is a sensor that could case the lift to stop. Usually the operators are helping people load. Outside the shack there are other control panels, that look more like this...

29932897350_5d84341c7a_b.jpg

This is just a basic set of controls to start and stop a lift. Not all lifts are the same but basically this is how it goes. There are two stops, normal and emergency. After a normal stop you have to push reset. If there is an emergency stop, or the lift stops itself, it to has to be cleared in the shack. After resetting you want to use the ring, which just rings a bell or siren thing at all stations, the other station would signal back to indicate they are ready, and then you would press start, and then turn up the speed. Some lifts also have other fancy buttons, like you can mark a chair, and a siren will go off for the operator at the other station when that chair arrives. If you don't have the chair marking thing, you would have to tell the other operator the chair number. On our gondola, we didn't have the chair marker, and the cabins were all in random order so it was often pretty annoying.

Our shifts were 10 hours, and 30 min lunch. As a ski gondola, we helped people load their skis in the the racks on the outside of the gondola. Skis are pretty sharp, so you would wear leather gloves and hope they would last a few weeks before you had to use your own money to buy another pair. After a while I started to cover my gloves with tape I found in the maintenance shed, which helped them last a bit longer. We also were not to be seen sitting down ever. There was a small window ledge we could lean on but that's as close to sitting as you were allowed to get.

Hands on experience information is always welcomed.
Thanks
 

the.dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Depending on how the CBR station is setup they could do all the screenings there since you will have to disembark if you are coming from AOA/Pop before continuing on to a park.
Hoping they would maintain consistency with the MK/Epcot monorail transfer, where guests don’t have to be screened again. AoA and Pop are so large that a central skyline screening station, with the addition of CBR guests, would be large and unwieldy. But I’m skeptical Disney would let anyone on the Skyliner without having been screened beforehand.
 
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smile

Well-Known Member
What difference does that make? It's Dopplemeyer, the model they are employing is a first for North America, that's worth bragging about. However, it's hardly a challenging terrain. These systems are made to traverse mountains, a swamp is easy.

Here's three more that I've personally been on. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples:

4155615089_cb47502e48_z.jpg


1200px-Cologne_Cable_Car.jpg


Pois_Trasbord_01g.jpg


Plus a bonus North American example, which I've only ever looked at - full disclosure.

whirlpool-aero-car-header.jpg

appreciate the references guys, but as you can clearly see from your own pictures...
those lines are too high above the water to be truly innovative.

traversing difficult terrain (or lack thereof) is old hat (ie. not very 'innovative') - a fact made all the more obvious with those pictures.
besides, it's quite clear those are built for reasons other than transport. hello? were you even paying attention?? - looks like they're in nature parks to me.

true innovation is pursuing the cheap route while spending as much for a system traversing flat swamp as similar systems breaching mountains or entire bays - that's original
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
appreciate the references guys, but as you can clearly see from your own pictures...
those lines are too high above the water to be truly innovative.

traversing difficult terrain (or lack thereof) is old hat (ie. not very 'innovative') - a fact made all the more obvious with those pictures.
besides, it's quite clear those are built for reasons other than transport. hello? were you even paying attention?? - looks like they're in nature parks to me.

true innovation is pursuing the cheap route while spending as much for a system traversing flat swamp as similar systems breaching mountains or entire bays - that's original
Don’t forget that there is more gravity when you are lower. That’s more engineering work they have to do.
 

jt04

Well-Known Member
appreciate the references guys, but as you can clearly see from your own pictures...
those lines are too high above the water to be truly innovative.

traversing difficult terrain (or lack thereof) is old hat (ie. not very 'innovative') - a fact made all the more obvious with those pictures.
besides, it's quite clear those are built for reasons other than transport. hello? were you even paying attention?? - looks like they're in nature parks to me.

true innovation is pursuing the cheap route while spending as much for a system traversing flat swamp as similar systems breaching mountains or entire bays - that's original

Thank you. A gondola with the Disney difference. Walt would likely approve.
 

RandomPrincess

Keep Moving Forward
There was talk for a few years of having a gondola across the Potomac River connecting DC and Arlington, VA. they even did a feasibility study. It's stalled though.
 

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