Polydweller
Well-Known Member
And I’m sure you know but for others benefit, it’s a funicular designed, installed and maintained by Doppelmayr. They know about cables and retensioning.
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News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -
- Thread starter danlb_2000
- Start date
Lift Blog
Well-Known Member
Usually just one bullwheel is on a movable carriage. This compensates for stretch but also temperature and load changes. Once the bullwheel nears the end of the carriage, the rope must be shortened. It isn't cut but rather unwound and re-spliced. The good thing is the Skyliner terminals are very long and the ropes are relatively short so splicing shouldn't be needed too often.
I’m sure this topic has been beat to death, but I’m not looking through all these posts.
Anyone know what time these will start running in the morning? I’ll need to get from CBR station to Epcot for an 8am res.....so probably hopping on at 7:20-7:30 or so at CBR.... will they be running then???
Thanks
Anyone know what time these will start running in the morning? I’ll need to get from CBR station to Epcot for an 8am res.....so probably hopping on at 7:20-7:30 or so at CBR.... will they be running then???
Thanks
Minthorne
Well-Known Member
A definite maybe.
My non-insider intuition tells me to expect a running schedule similar to other modes of Disney transportation - 1 to 2 hours before park open and 1 to 2 hours after park close. Guests will need to plan accordingly, as always.
GlacierGlacier
Well-Known Member
It even stretches (edit: expands/contracts, word choice) during normal operation thanks to temperature/humidity/load - not much, but enough to possibly interrupt show.
To counteract this, the show is split into three parts - pulling out of station, main-show, and pulling into station. Black "tunnel" segments between the station parts and the main show are automatically lengthened/shortened by miniscule amounts to match the train's estimated travel time.
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Lift Blog
Well-Known Member
Seems more likely this is related to train speed than cable stretch.
GlacierGlacier
Well-Known Member
It's not neccesarily the stretching of the cable, more so the expansion due to hearing/cooling. This was how it was explained to me by some members of the team that worked on it.
Rich Brownn
Well-Known Member
The trains don't match up evenly because of the curve, hence why there are gates in Kings Cross (the trains stop in different places). However, while they are monitored every morning (they mark where the gates should roll to for each train) they don't change during the day. If there was that much difference during the day the trains wouldn't line up right. (And having ridden as a conductor more times that I care to imagine, I have never noticed any difference in ride time at all).
GlacierGlacier
Well-Known Member
It's a miniscule difference - the difference between visually pulling in while physically stopped by a second or vice versa, which could cause discomfort or, at the very least, a disconnect in the effect.
I'm not estimating or making up rumors - this is actually what they do. Now, more specific information, like, when they check, where they check, or even the specific parts of the mechanism that are to blame, are not something I know.
I was told the show pads the black space slightly - it's why the black sections between the tunnel and the show exist - to help account for changes in cable length from expansion/compression due to temperature changes. That is all.
GlacierGlacier
Well-Known Member
No. Most certainly not.
flynnibus
Premium Member
The hogwarts express is a very different beast.
Hogwarts is a pull cable only - it's not a suspension AND pull cable like the skyliner is. Both would have normal tensioner systems to deal with normal thermal expansion and long term expansion due to wear. I would hope the hogwarts cable would be stiff enough to not have meaningful expansion due to load variances... but that would be another reason for tension systems. Skyliner since its a suspension and haul robe.. I would expect more variation needed for loading than hogwarts.
At hogwarts the show timing adjustments would be needed because the trains may arrive slightly behind or ahead if the speed of the motors don't change but the cable did. The motor needs to travel slightly further to move the trains if the cable were expanded... and without a speed different... greater cable length = slightly slower speed.
Hogwarts is a pull cable only - it's not a suspension AND pull cable like the skyliner is. Both would have normal tensioner systems to deal with normal thermal expansion and long term expansion due to wear. I would hope the hogwarts cable would be stiff enough to not have meaningful expansion due to load variances... but that would be another reason for tension systems. Skyliner since its a suspension and haul robe.. I would expect more variation needed for loading than hogwarts.
At hogwarts the show timing adjustments would be needed because the trains may arrive slightly behind or ahead if the speed of the motors don't change but the cable did. The motor needs to travel slightly further to move the trains if the cable were expanded... and without a speed different... greater cable length = slightly slower speed.
twilight mitsuk
Well-Known Member
similar to the Mandalay bay tram in Vegas
Lift Blog
Well-Known Member
Doppelmayr has built a total of four automated train systems in the US. Hogwarts Express, Mandalay Bay, MGM CityCenter and Oakland Airport BART. They make gondolas look dirt cheap. They were going to build a third system in Las Vegas but were outbid by the Boring Company.
Actually, they are different systems.
Hogwart's is a true funicular, with 2 trains driven by a single looped cable. The trains must always move simultaneously in opposing directions.
The Mandalay Bay Tram consists of 2 shuttles on separate parallel tracks, driven by separate cables. Each of the two is completely independent of the other.
nickys
Premium Member
Hmm, dirt cheap enough to be considered between AK and AKL perhaps? Our insiders have hinted at a transport system new to WDW, maybe this is a possibility?
Edit: I misread the post! It’s the gondolas that are cheap.
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Also, not quite in the U.S., at Toronto's Pearson Airport.
If I am reading his post right, he is saying that the gondola systems are comparatively dirt cheap, not the train systems.
KBLovedDisney
Well-Known Member
All I picture while riding a gondola on a hot Florida day are these two watching from above:
That is all.
That is all.
nickys
Premium Member
