Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

Hello all.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Billy and I am a student in Mechanical Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. I am also a student worker at the Information Center for Ropeway Studies.

One of my projects this year is to go through some of our old print photo collections, most of which are from Charles Dwyer, and give them titles and captions so they are searchable and can be uploaded to an online database for people to view. I am stumped on identifying a couple photos, and I thought people on here might be able to help. There are two separate lifts, an early 80's Poma triple and a Poma (I think?) double chair. I do not have any information on location or year taken. Based on installation records, I think the triple chair might be at the now defunct Ski Rio in New Mexico but I am not completely sure of this. I have no clue where the double chair is located. Any clues on where these lifts might be?

I'll take a stab at the double chair. Return terminal looks to be Miner Denver to me. The vertical supports for the bullwheel carriage seem to be more robust than others I have seen, but that could mean this is one of the larger installations they built. Four Points or Burgess Creek at Steamboat? Blue Chair at Terry Peak, SD?
Were there any other photos associated with these 2?
Dino

Double does appear to be a Miner Denver, the triple looks like the C-TEC predecessor? Thikol? What lift company did Jan L start with?

The triple is definitely an early ‘80s Poma. Looks identical to L Lift (Lumberjack) at Copper Mountain. As for the Ski Rio location, all of the photos I have seen of B Lift have the operator house on the uphill side of the portal leg and the lift line has a trail incorporated into it on lookers right. Since Chuck probably took these photos during initial load tests, those 2 differences could have been done later.
$0.02
Dino

I agree with Dino’s suggestion of manufacturers, the double counterweight struts are seen on many MD’s.

Thank you everybody for the help, that helps narrow things down much more and makes the image descriptions much better than what I previously had.

I don't think I ever would have gotten Miner-Denver (I've never been on a Miner-Denver lift!)

Billy- I sent you a PM- Above
Dino

Lift Dinosaur, on 06 November 2020 - 10:19 AM, said:

The Double looks like it is the Miner Denver that was located Ski Santa fe it was a fairly large lift, it was replaced with a Poma Quad in the mid 80s

The Poma Triple could be at Sipapu.
This post has been edited by vons: 26 November 2020 - 11:45 AM

vons, on 26 November 2020 - 11:41 AM, said:

The triple is from Ski Rio, Coloradoskihistory.com has a similar pictures to confirm.

vons said:

Vons- I looked at those pictures and that’s where I saw the operator house uphill of the portal and the ‘lift line’ isn’t just a line cut but a trail. No?
This post has been edited by Lift Dinosaur: 26 November 2020 - 03:38 PM

The picture given is an early shot most likely from its original load test. The run to the right that joins to the lift line trail was added sometime later, there is a run to the to the upper left that shows up in both pictures and there is a bit of side hill right uphill of the terminal that is in the same spot in both shots. You are correct the lift shack must have been relocated at some point I have run into some shacks on projects lately that have been anchored to only timber sleepers so moving things may not have been out of the question.
This post has been edited by vons: 06 December 2020 - 08:42 AM

I think the triple was a Poma model "Bravo"? (Dino?) If it is from Ski Rio, it is now at Berkshire East in Massachusetts. The other lift from Ski Rio is at Mohawk in Connecticut. I wired both lifts in their new locations in 2009-10. Actually my cover photo is of tower 8 at Berkshire East.
This post has been edited by barnstormer: 14 December 2020 - 11:42 AM

barnstormer, on 14 December 2020 - 11:41 AM, said:

I don't know what the Model Name was for those lifts. I know the one in the photo was "Bravo Lift" at Ski Rio. Maybe liftmech can dig out the drawings and see.
Dino

barnstormer, on 14 December 2020 - 11:41 AM, said:

I think the triple was a Poma model "Bravo"? (Dino?) If it is from Ski Rio, it is now at Berkshire East in Massachusetts. The other lift from Ski Rio is at Mohawk in Connecticut. I wired both lifts in their new locations in 2009-10. Actually my cover photo is of tower 8 at Berkshire East.

I did some searching and found that the Poma model designation for those terminals was DELTA Terminal, even though it proceeded the ALPHA.
Dino

Dino beat me to it, I just found the same information.

Hello all, thanks for all of the help. I'm working on getting all of these photos described, then they can be digitized and able to view online. I've got another unknown set of pictures from the Chuck Dwyer collections that I need some help with.

I attached 4 pictures to this post of some sort of early detachable tire banks and grips. They are in a section of photos that includes pictures of the original Quicksilver at Breckenridge, so I am assuming they are related. There is no given description, just these pictures of the tire banks and grips. My first guess would be that this is some sort of test rig for the detachable technology, but that could also be wrong. Anybody have any information about these?

Backbowlsbilly, on 14 April 2021 - 01:04 PM, said:

Going out on a bit of a limb, but I think that is the old test lift at Doppelmayr's plant in Wolfurt. The power line in the back ground is still there, just bigger. The test installation is now at Hohbruck. The grip force switch is obvious and that looks like an early version of the grip that preceded the DS.