How do cable cars work

These are crew-activated by foot pedals on both ends of the California cars, and on the front end of the Powell cars. Track brakes are simply pieces of wood located between the wheel sets on the cars. There are four for each car, two feet long each, made of soft Monterey Fir. When the gripman pulls back on the track-brake lever next to the cable grip lever , the blocks press against the tracks to help stop the car.

The emergency brake is just that. This forces an inch steel wedge into the steel slot between the tracks, stopping the car immediately.

The force is so great that sometimes it takes a cutting torch to get the wedge out of the slot. When single-end Powell Street cable cars reach the ends of the line they are turned around on giant turntables.

These are completely mechanical, relying on ball bearings and rollers to move. The turntable areas are engineered so that gripmen can simply release the brake and coast onto the turntables. They have already released the cable at this point. Once on the turntable, they set the brakes on the car, then climb off, and together with the conductor, reverse the car by either grabbing a stanchion on each end and walking the car around, or using the pipework mounted on all turntables in the past couple of decades to turn the table without touching the cable car itself.

Until the s, passengers were allowed to help the crews turn the cable cars, but this is no longer permitted. Also until that time, passengers could jump onto the cable car as soon as the gripman began coasting toward the turntable, getting a free spin on the turntable as well as guaranteeing the seat of their choice for the upcoming ride.

This too is now forbidden for safety reasons, with boarding is strictly controlled by a queue. The California Street cars were built with grips and brakes at each end precisely so turntables would not be necessary.

The gripman operates the car through a switch at the end of the line. Support can either by provided by rails or cables. In all but the rarest of examples, support from above is provided by cable and support from below is provided by rails.

Propulsion is provided by an off-board engine that moves a cable. Vehicles are equipped with a grip used to attach and detach the vehicle to the cable. There are two major types of grips and cable technology can be subdivided into two categories based on those types: detachable and fixed.

Lighter-weight systems, such as the MDG, typically have smaller, cylindrical towers while heftier systems, such as the 3S, have larger, lattice-style towers. In general, larger tower sizes are correlated to longer tower span distances and larger system capacities.

They are then subsequently recoupled and accelerated to the travel speed. With gondola sizes from four to 35 people, the transport capacity may be up to 5, passengers per hour.

The Funitel system represents a special form of circulating track cableway; in this case, the gondolas are moved by a winding cable laid in a double loop. Thus, two parallel cable strands run through it in each direction, allowing extremely high wind stability. Under aerial cableways, a distinction is also drawn between single-cable and multiple-cable systems. Because of the lower tension in the winding cable, single-cable systems have greatersag,whichiswhytheyrequire more supports and tend more to follow the course of the terrain.

As the name indicates, they have only one cable, which holds and moves the gondola. With multiple-cable systems, the gondola rolls over a supporting cable that is fixed into place, and it is moved by a circulating traction cable. Two, three and four-cable systems therefore have a more tightly tensioned supporting cable, which allows greater span lengths and thus a smaller number of supports.

Taxonomie der Seilbahnbauweise Grafik: Kremer. Thomas Surrer. Modesof operation. Eine besondere Form der Umlaufseilbahn stellt das Funitel-System dar. Foto: Doppelmayr. Cable system. Funktionsweise von Pendelseilbahnen Grafik: Kremer nach Monheim et al.