Distinctive or unusual Cable Cars

[The Pelican]

Various cable cars have distinctive qualities. This cable car in china (Mount Huashan) runs through a tunnel. https://www.poma.net/en/work/mount-huashan-gondola-lift/

This swiss cable car is double decker- Japan also has a double decker cable car.

https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-gb/experiences/silvretta-arena-double-decker-cable-car/

Some cable cars stop at an intermediate station, uncouple the car, remove the car from one wire loop, transfer it to another wire loop, and then couple it onto the new cable. Pec Pod Snezkou in Czechia has one like this.

Does anyone know of a cable car which actually branches- that is, an intermediate station sends cabins from a single trunk route onto two different branches?

 

[DIW]

Some cable cars stop at an intermediate station, uncouple the car, remove the car from one wire loop, transfer it to another wire loop, and then couple it onto the new cable. Pec Pod Snezkou in Czechia has one like this.

Several older-style chairlifts in Switzerland used to do this. Grindelwald to First was in four sections, with three intermediate shunting stations. It has been replaced by a gondelbahn which features two shunting stations plus a slow-down-and-stop-by-prior-request mini-station which also happens to be on a corner.

The Beatenberg to Niederhorn chairlift was in two sections with one intermediate shunting station. This has been replaced by a cabin line where the cabins run in groups of three. I seem to remember that there is an intermediate non-shunting station on this cableway too. This replacement system was built from a new bottom station, in order to meet with a funicular operating to Beatenberg from the shore of Lake Thun (Thunersee) at St. Beatushoelen.

 

[Siebrand]

Does anyone know of a cable car which actually branches- that is, an intermediate station sends cabins from a single trunk route onto two different branches?

FlemXpress near Flims in Switzerland will do this. The main part goes from Flims via Foppa and Startgels to Segnes. There some cars will go to Cassons, and some will go to Nagens Sura. It works a bit as an elevator: you choose your destination at the start, and the car will go there directly without stops at intermediate stations.

 

[The Pelican]

FlemXpress near Flims in Switzerland will do this. The main part goes from Flims via Foppa and Startgels to Segnes. There some cars will go to Cassons, and some will go to Nagens Sura. It works a bit as an elevator: you choose your destination at the start, and the car will go there directly without stops at intermediate stations.

That looks really good, the destination selection reminds me of the Heathrow T5 Ultra PRT! It will be good fun seeing how the branching point works.

 

[Santa Claus]

Distinctive or unusual … the Stanserhorn Cable Car is double-deck; or rather one-and-a-half-deck, as the upper deck is a Cabrio deck. If you can think about some harebrained way to build a cable car or mountain railway, then ask yourself “Who invented it?” — the Swiss.

 

[The Pelican]

Yes, the open air double decker one is a good one.

What would a funicular cable car hybrid look like? On one hand, it might look like Zaha Hadid's Hungerburgbahn in Innsbruck, with an open framed body holding a number of free-hanging, top-supported cabins, but with that open framed body supported on a fairly conventional funicular track, except for it's ability to reverse direction of altitude change completely as it crosses the bridge. (The Stoosbahn in Switzerland is a bottom supported version of this). On the other hand, it might look like the Dresden Schwbebahn, a railway which is pulled by a cable like a funicular, but which hangs from an arm like a cable car. (The better known Wuppertal Schwbebahn is powered by motors like a normal train).

Can we expect a two section mountain railway containing a lower part consisting of top supported funicular cabins, followed by an intermediate station, above which those cabins connect to hang from a cable, cable car style?

 

[Shimbleshanks]

Dursey island cable car in Ireland. Ireland's only cable car, I think, and also interesting in that it is primarily for local transport, not tourists. Apparently it used to convey sheep, though I believe they've stopped doing that now.

https://www.discoverireland.ie/cork/dursey-island-cable-car-

 

[The Pelican]

Rustic, old fashioned, or simple cable cars form their own interesting category- Gubbio in Italy, and at least one town on Lake Como, have a stand up, open air Italian gondola, somewhat resembling an enclosed metal turnstile, in which the "cabin" (more of a metal frame) consists of a stationary inner frame and a rotating outer frame, which is opened at both ends to let you and and out, and which otherwise stops you from falling off. Niagra Falls has a 1916 cable car of a Spanish design. In Britain, the Great Orme Tramway is an unusual street running funicular.

 

[gazthomas]

I've been through a couple of cable cars that go through buildings, in Singapore and Darjeeling

 

[The Pelican]

An impressively lengthy cable car route, crossing Mynamar, Thailand and Malaysia!

(I like the Sentosa one in Singapore, I hadn't heard of the Darjeeling one!)

 

[bahnause]

You can find some of the more interesting cable cars on the Swiss Family Fun website:

10 Crazy Cable Cars in Switzerland

 

[The Pelican]

Those Swiss ones all look great. My favourite cable car in the world is in Switzerland, Madrisabahn in Klosters- a very attractive example of a gondola type cable car which goes from an interesting valley to a scenic alpine pasture.

 

[Ken X]

We visit to see the present Mrs X's old friends and outlaws.

The cable car we liked best ran from Kandersteg up to the Oeschinensee. It was an open, twin seat style which has long since been modernised. It regularly used to stop, leaving you swinging gently in the breeze hoping it would start again.

Bit chilly in winter, it passed over the gardens of some houses and at least one of the locals would drop his skis in his garden to save carrying them home. It's closed in cars now so much more refined.

 

[gazthomas]

An impressively lengthy cable car route, crossing Mynamar, Thailand and Malaysia!

(I like the Sentosa one in Singapore, I hadn't heard of the Darjeeling one!)

I'm still happy with my grammar though!

 

[nwales58]

If we include funiculars, Genoa has one that turns into a lift (elevator).

Sweden had a 100km long mineral ropeway, Linbanan, 10km of which was operated with gondolas in summer for tourism. I think a return journey took over 3 hours, probably the longest anywhere ever. I regret not going before it closed.

For distinctive appearance, keep looking at whatever Garaventa produces each year for a customer, usually Swiss, who want something unique e.g. Stoos and the Stanserhorn Cabrio (well worth the ride).

Doppelmayr(Garaventa) proposed building an everyday transport line between somewhere near their plant in the Dornbirn-Bregenz conurbation and a P+R in a valley behind, but a road tunnel was built instead I think.

La Paz has an urban transport network, built by Poma, which has about 10 coloured lines with multiple stops, mentioned on another thread recently.

VW’s plant near Bratislava has a car transporter cable car between production and the test track.

 

[Russel]

Dursey island cable car in Ireland. Ireland's only cable car, I think, and also interesting in that it is primarily for local transport, not tourists. Apparently it used to convey sheep, though I believe they've stopped doing that now.

https://www.discoverireland.ie/cork/dursey-island-cable-car-

Was going to nominate this one, who knew you could turn a garden shed into a cable car!

Steve Marsh did a YouTube video on it last year!