What you didn't know about ropeways 

Ok, can we all just take a second to praise the manager and his guys for taking time out of their busy day to explain all this for us? I have been sitting in ski lifts my whole life wondering how this is done. Very much appreciated! And also, the video and presentation is flawless! I love this! Greetings from Norway!

Yannik is the man! So nice to give an Enthusiast such an Insight. Big thumbs up for this excellent Video! And Greetings from Germany

I don't know why, but RU-vid decided to recommend this to me today. And I am mighty impressed.

as a kid i was always mesmerized by these contraptions and ive been looking for a video like this for years. this was all i ever asked for. thank you.

This video has less than a thousand views, this is crazy! This video is great, I've learnt so much from it, and the editing is perfect! Hope you the best

Yannik obviously is a very nice man to let you take the footage for this excellent documentary, without knowing how totally professional this would turn out. But what he got is an advertising of the best possible kind in return! For us tekkies, for people who are afraid of this kind of technology and for all who might have thought: „Looks nice there, maybe I go there next winter“. One good deed deserves another. Thank you both for this very enjoyable education!

Dude! Before looking I was like surely you must have like 100k subscribers or something only to notice the real number. Really a very interesting and well-made video! Hoping to see more from you!

Very Cool! A million thanks to the Operations Manager for allowing you to get the behind-the-scenes view. He likely took quite a risk allowing someone in this area as the potential to become injured could be very high with any carelessness... really glad you were able to get these views... so cool!

Don't know how I got here but I stayed the whole 23 minutes totally immersed in this mechanical delight.

I am super impressed with what you’ve done here. You’re enthusiasm even infected the gondola operator. Well done. As for slowing down the entire ropeway so you could get a better view, I am astounded he didn’t just say “Haven’t you ever heard of adjusting your playback speed?”, haha. Great video, great spirit, great fun.

As a diesel/industrial mechanic in the US, I recognize a lot of that equipment and control systems, and I am loving the way they designed it! Details like the overriding double ratchet chain to sync the cars is brilliant, and then in the shop they have polished wooden hand rails. It's the perfect German mix. I am amazed and jealous at the access they gave you, Yannick is a lot like me in enjoying showing my baby off lol I approve of all the layers of safety, and the obvious care they put into maintenance and repair, everything painted and lubed perfectly. It is an extremely fiddly complex mechanism, which I love to watch, but would want to design differently myself lol, but they didn't have modern computer controls back then, so that's the state of the art. And I am impressed with your video taking, editing and narrating skills, there were very few things that I saw that I was wishing to see close up, or have explained, that you didn't satisfy, and THAT'S rare! I hope you get to go back and see the car loading.

Yes, incredible that the operations manager has the passion to explain and literally show this amazing system to us all! And well done Kalsan for asking to see it! You never know what the answer will be! My mom always said, "You can always ask, the worst they can say is 'no'."!

Holy shit, This kind of videos are what youtube was made for! this need to have millions of views. That was really fascinating, you are awesome and kudos to the gondola team that helped you.

Thanks to you, Yannik and the crew! I've once asked the driver of a HUGE ropeway (one with two "busses" - one going up, one going down in Italy) if behind-the-scenes tours can be booked. he said there was no such a thing. Later, when I came back to drive down, he took my aside and showed me everything. The amount of backup-system to backup-system rescue-system to final-resort-system is insane! I don't want to openly say their name, so they won't get in trouble or get spammed. But if you ping me, I might tell :)

This is now officially the 2nd time I've watched this video in it's entirety. I'm not just saying that for how I appreciate and also share that engineering-like inquisitive mind of being fascinated by such technologies and contraptions, but to also comment so that I could help you out with thee equation that shall not be named.

Huge thanks to Yannick and crew and you for this AMAZING video from Montana, USA.

yannik has to be one of the most incredible guys in all of Europe. Thank you to you and Yannik for such an eye-opening and entertaining tour!

That’s an impressive bit of machinery. In 2006 When I was on vacation in Switzerland I observed the clamping mechanism as a passenger waiting to board to gondola. I wondered how it worked, and I find the speed matching / slowdown mechanism quite interresting. Never thought there would be so many transmission stages in the mechanism (you normally can’t really see it). The amount of engineering involved, it’s like a swiss clock in how precise everything runs.

God i love your channel. Criminally underrated. learned a lot from this video and your others.

The Ops Manager was super accommodating and that's as rare as the design of the Gondola he was in charge of. As a former lift operations manager who worked with lift maintenance in the off-season, I can attest to the complexity of rope ways. The 'clamps' that attach the gondola to the wire rope are 'grips'. The basic design of that lift is that of a 'Detachable-Grip' where the grip opens in the terminal and 'detaches' from the wire rope to allow for the gondola or chair to slow down in the terminal for a safe and comfortable loading. Then as the gondola exits the terminal, the grip is accelerated by the tires above to match the rope speed and the grip closes. The design allows for much higher up-hill (or downhill) capacity. We always disassembled a third of the grips from each lift each summer to inspect and rebuild with new parts when out of tolerance. The grips and chairs would also go thru NDT or Non-Destructive Testing which used dye and a special light and contracted out. Line work in the summer also meant days spent hanging from the rope in a work basket to inspect, grease and clean every sheave on each tower sheave train. Replacing sheaves involved jacking the wire rope off the sheave and replacing it with one that we had previously rebuilt with new bearings and rubber liner if necessary. Try to get someone to let you ride in the work basket for sheave train maintenance sometime. That would make for video with a new point of view - outside the safety of the gondola or chair. (They'll probably let you wear a harness!)

Hello from Michigan, USA! This is an amazing video, very well done! You did a great job of conveying (no pun intended) Yannicks description. What a fantastic opportunity you had to film this. Thank you for doing so!

Tom Scott’s weekly newsletter brought me here. And I wasn’t disappointed. A pretty impressive piece of machinery. Oh, and “Königswelle” translates to “upright shaft”.

Brilliant, everything taken for granted! Guys behind the scenes working hard for everyone else having fun! They should let this video run in the waiting room for the passenger to see! Looking forward to the garage operation!

I like how technical this goes into the mechanics. I never thought it was this complex to safely hang some chairs on a cable.

Love the details. The belt tensioners for all the wheels are a particularly clever design. They have a screw for fine adjustment, and over-center linkage so they're easy to click on and off, and rest on the next shaft with a fork on the end so they can fully retract to allow belt/wheel replacement

This was an absolutely excellent video and the staff there was amazing in accommodating your ability to film all the workings of the lifts. Having worked several years at a ski resort and befriending several of the lift maintenance and operation personnel I got to learn and see much of this myself. Your documentation and explaining how the system works is excellent! Your enthusiasm for how it all works is infectious, I too was super excited while watching this! The engineering of aerial ropeway systems is absolutely incredible!

As a kid (and even still now), I love those rope ways where I could see everything. I actually appreciated longer wait times, because it meant I could observe longer how the doors opened and closed, how gondolas were detached and reattached to the rope and how they moved them around. One day, I was even able to watch the ropeway technicians retract all the gondolas after the ropeway closed for the day. Unfortunately, most of the more modern ropeways use a more closed design, hiding the beautiful technology from public view.

This was one of the most enjoyable behind-the-scenes engineering videos I have ever watched -- Thank you!

This was really cool. It was kind of the management to share what they do with you so you can share with us. Thanks to all involved for giving their time.

So awesome to see a close up of the Von Roll grip in action! I could never figure out how they worked before this...

I love riding gondolas for summer sightseeing, and can now better appreciate how it all happens. Thanks!

Wow! Always wondered how these worked. It looks incredible! I wish we could do this in the US, but someone would probably do something stupid and sue, so no awesome tours for us :(

Excellent video, thank you! I recently tried to understand how the spacing between gondolas was so well kept, and this answered the question! Cheers from Canada....

Wow, you did quite a credible job with your excellent video. Thank you for illustrating the rope on way. I've ridden them many times , but never gave too much thought to exactly how they worked. Like many people, we just get on and get off off when we get where we want to go.

Just like you I am amazed by the simple complexity of rope ways. I live in Florida US and have never been on a huge rope way like these. The only rope way I have experienced is brand new at Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom in Orlando Florida but it is still so impressive how they work. Thanks for the video.

All the moving parts - it’s like a mechanical clockwork piece of music on a giant scale! Thanks for this great video!

This was very insightful! I've never rode in a gondola, and this looks crazy. Nice video!

This is probably the most interesting thing I’ve seen in months. Thank you for making this

Thank you for sharing this video! I learned so much and am just fascinated on the engineering, maintenance and sheer scale of a project like this.

Wow the algorithm did it's job again and brought me here. And you did an amazing job with amazing staff to film and explain something probably most of us didn't know find interesting! Cheers 😁👌

This was the most interesting video I’ve watched for months. It was very clear, I have learned a lot of things, I hope you get the chance to see and film for us when the cabin enters the garage!

Absolutely fantastic! Thank you Yannick buddy for letting this be filmed! Awesome tech.

As a Swiss descendant I love seeing these sites in Switzerland. I’m going to have to leave the US and go home. My great grandfather came to the US in 1850. As an electrical engineer I thoroughly enjoyed this tour

Wow! You did a great job explaining how the ropeway clamps work! I always wonder how the clamps are attached/removed to the rope, and this is the first time seeing it in action and very closely filmed. I am grateful for this video, but also what great workers helping you with slowing down the rope speed so that you can capture what you were trying to film. This makes me want to work/operate/maintain at a ropeway somewhere.

What a terrific video! Love the bright colour coding of the different parts of the machinery. Especially the long yellow rods, gear boxes and universal joints standing out against the blue. And loved all the little failsafes built into the system. Seriously need to go to the alps one day!

Great video, and a big thanks to the crew for letting you video it all.

This was really good, very detailed and very well put together. Imagine the immense torque from the output shaft of the first gear box.

My inner ten year old kid is certainly satisfied. Thank you (and the manager at the station) for showing us how this works.

Very uplifting ( out of darkness) explanation, thank you Sir. Photographs of hair moving details were beyond speech. Very complicated mechanism n with passenger safety checks etc. Lotsa thank you.

Wow, I've been obsessed with gondola ropeways my entire life, so this RU-vid is a HUGE TREAT! Thank you so much!!

This is an amazing tour. Thanks for making it!

i love the way the single motor is driving everything and the mechanical connection between stations ! i finally understand how they work

Wow, this is amazing! I've always been amused and intrigued by ropeways since I rode my first one at an amusement park in the 80s. The mechanics of the stations always peeked my interests. I've never seen a video this in-depth including the garage. I hope you get back to see them add the other 50 gondolas on. Seeing the transfer rails work would be cool!

Hands down one of the best videos I've seen. Stationed in Germany in the late 80's to early 90's I would ride the lifts just to ride them and watch the machinery. Absolutely fascinating. Nice!!

Thank you for doing this - most interesting. My first experience on a ropeway was in Crans Montana (CH) in about 1987 (just before the downhill championships) and I was always fsacinated by the engineering of the cable cars etc. Great video and an obvious interest in the mechanics, nicely presented! Kudos to the other guys there who were so helpful letting you film and showing you around.

AMAZING.!!!! … 🤯🤯…. STOPED EVERYTHING just so you can film it.!!! .!! .. just……AMAZING.!!!

A really good job on this video, you even made sure to answer some of the questions that most documentary or others would have glossed over. Such as the repair shop, how do they get the gondalas in and out! You keep doing this with your videos and you are boldly blazing a trail that very few have travelled and setting new standards.

Great “what not to do for safety, featuring arc flash, fall protection, machine guarding, LOTO”, the guy is lucky he didn’t get killed

For the mechanical mind this video is like fine dining. The guys that run this machine are obviously very proud of it in giving you ultimate access to share it with the world. They keep it looking & running like it's new & hopefully that will prevent it from being lost to history.

Love the enthusiasm and excitement of Yannik, and even I could understand his descriptions of how parts of that ropeway worked. What an excellent video and narrative, most enjoyable and new sub…👏🏼👏🏼🇬🇧🇷🇴👍🏻

What an awesome video! It deserves so many more views! Also so nice to see such an enthusiast-friendly operator, and your camera work was spot on!

What a fantastic video. Thank-you for going out of your way and asking, and 10/10 for the manager for showing you around!

Удивительно! Никогда не думал, что это так красиво устроено. Спасибо большое за возможность посмотреть на это чудо инженерной мысли!

Awesome video. Thanks Yannik for the tour, it showed a lot of amazing mechanical and electrical contraptions. The maintenance is taken seriously too. When weather is warmer I am definitively going to do there do some mountain biking.

This is the channel I never knew I needed in my life! These are mighty pieces of engineering, even before taking into account that they were built on the very difficult terrain (and the videos are fantastic on their own: the story, the filming, the editing). Would you consider covering other ropeways (well, if there is something special about them), for example Grindelwald-First (it's quite long and it also turns 90 degrees at some point), Murren-Birg-Schilthorn, Attinghausen-Brusti? The last one is quite interesting. It's fully operated from the middle station, people boarding at the bottom need to ring up control room and this ropeway seems to be fully private, it's not even part of the SwissPass. It also seems to be used predominantly by inhabitants of Brusti to go to work and schools in Altdorf, so operates only mornings and evenings.

Super cool! Always wondered how these things worked! Fascinating. Thanks Yannick!

Wow! This was amazing! Great job filming and thanks to the manager for being so hospitable and helpful. Mountains don't exist where I live and have always been curious about these and how they work. You covered all my questions and then some. Absolutely great video and thank you for making it. This must be shared! By the way, hello from Iowa, USA.

That's awesome! Great that they let you film all that and were so accommodating. Great video on how this intricate system works.

Fantastic description, and probably the only one of it's kind. I have been fascinated by cables cars since my first ride in one back in 1966. You have unlocked many secrets I had pondered for decades, thank you! As a child I rode the Teleferico de Caracas Venezuela that had 5 stations and went from Mariperez (station 1 ) Caracas to Avila peak (station 2) then over the mountain to the coast via station 3 , El Liron, and onto station 4 at Loma Caballo, then to the final station 5 near the coast at Macuto. The fantastic route connected Caracas to the coast over the mountains and linked it to the seaport of La Guira and Aeropuerto International Simon Bolivar. At Avila Peak, station 2, there was a 600 meter aerial tramway with 8 passenger bubble shaped cars that carried tourist over to the world famous Humboldt Hotel. It used a traction cable and suspension cable. There was a pool, tennis court, and even an ice skating rink at the base of the hotel, world class dining, casino, and 70 rooms with a spectacular 360 degree view of Caracas and the sea coast. To this day it is the pride of the residents of Caracas and and can clearly be seen by the cities 4 million residents as it sits atop the Waraira Repano nature preserve. as of 2016, the Hotel has been restored with all of it's original amenities and is a hugely popular destination for Caraquenos. The main Teleferico system used a dual traction cable, and a single large suspension cable. The cars( cabins) held 26 passengers. The cars that circulated between Station 1 and 2, were red, while the cars used between station 2,3, 4, and 5 were yellow, or green and blue. In normal operation, you would change cars at every station, but it was possible for a car to be run from station 1 to station 5 by use of a secondary track between the suspension cables that linked each station. They used a counter weight system to maintain tension of the traction cables. Stations 3 and 4 were required due to the geography which did not allow a straight run from Macuto to the top of Avila peak, so at these two stations, the tramway made about a 30 degree turn. The system had two motors; one for station 1 and 2, and a second motor for stations 3,4 and 5. As in your video about the gondola, a similar method was used to detach the traction cables from the car so it could be decelerated and unloaded. It could also be transferred to the next section of the mid stations by means of a movable rail that could link the sections together. There was also a rail to divert the cars into t a maintenance and storage area at stations 3 and 4. At the time of its inception (1955)the Caracas Teleferico was the most sophisticated and longest Aerial tramway system in the world until the Merida tramway was completed. Both of these tramways were built by Heckel of Germany and were part of the Venezuelan dictator Perez Jimenez's grand scheme to make Venezuela the most modern country in all of South America. He had millions of dollars coming in daily from the prolific Lago Maracaibo oil field and therefore spared no expense on these two ground breaking "Telefericos". The system however lacked the modern acceleration wheels so there was significant wear of the traction cables on the coastal side which caused several fatal disasters resulting in the closure of stations 3,4 and 5 by 1958. The Avila to Macuto section was used sporadically but closed to the public, and a new cable was ordered from Heckel, but when it was delivered it turned out to be 10 meters too short! This resulted in the permanent closure of the Avila to Macuto sections, leaving only the Mariperez to Avila section servicing the Hotel Humboldt. Like most of these Aerial Tramways, it had a useful life of about 30 years and ceased operations in the mid 1980s. Eventually station 1 and 2 were restored partially, with new cables and pulleys, and overhauled cars. It was re-named the Teleferico Del Avila in the 1990s but the system was inoperative again by the early2000s. Today, the original Tramway only retains the first two stations. All the towers,machinery, and cars have been replaced with a gondola system. It has been renamed the Maraira Repano Teleferico. In Galipan, on the coastal side of Mt. Avila, a new station is being built along side the Loma Caballo station, bypassing the El Liron station, and terminates at Macuto. Construction began on the coastal sections in 2015, but was halted several times, once due to Covid, but has resumed at a slow pace due to Venezuela's economy being devastated by runaway inflation under Maduro's failing leadership. Despite these setbacks, Caraquenos eagerly await the restoration of the coastal (Litoral) sections from Mt. Avila to the resort town of Macuto , the port of La Guira, and the airport at Maiquetia.

I too would like to thank the operators and *you* for this awesome video. I was never able to understand how they (let go of and ) slowed down the gondolas for loading and unloading. These and many other questions were answered due to the extreme cooperation of the operators and your daring filming work. At 611 you show the specs of the motor which I can totally appreciate since it is almost twice the size of the largest motor at my work (350 hp). 985 Amps at 420 volts is quite a bit for one motor. The crusher plant where I work has 28 motors running at once including 2 250hp on the cone crusher and one 350hp motor on the jaw crusher. This gives me a strong appreciation for the engineering involved in using one (1) motor to run this entire machine (not including the blower motor and I'm sure a few other small motors). Thanks again.

I never knew I needed to know about Gondola Ropeways! Thank Yannick and his crew for me! This was amazing!

Great video! Your enthusiasm is infectious and enjoyable! The editing and narration is very professional and made the video very easy to watch and understand. Thank you for making this!

Excellent video, love seeing these intricate but immense mechanisms still working after so many years. Thanks for sharing.

Very good video. The hotel where we stay for summer vacation has a chari lift running next to the pool. It was great to sit there and watch the loading station and the mechanics of the setup for as long as you want without feeling like you're intruding.

Absolutely incredible. Thank you for sharing, and a huge thank you to Yannik and his team.

As a lift operator on a detachable lift part of your job is to crawl up there every morning to check the tire pressure on the clutch wheels.

You make me want to get back to skiing just to go around (especially Europe) to see these machines.

Really fascinating! Thankyou very much, who doesn't love some beautiful mechanical engineering!

Wonderful content! So awesome of them to allow you to observe all of that 👍

Manager is absolutely right when he says he should know how to do every job. You don't see this attitude a lot anymore, leading to management requiring staff to work at a physically impossible pace, and then wonder why everybody leaves the job after a few months. This looks like a great place to work, very friendly culture.

I _adore_ all these mechanical solutions to the various problems and potential problems such a unique and complex system invariably produces!! Like the cable derail safety which is a physical loop of metal designed to break off if the cable drops onto it, causing a physical disconnect of the entire electrical system!! Genius!! I dunno why, but I prefer physical, mechanical solutions like that over reliance on digital/analogue detectors and electrical sensors. Shame these gorgeous symphonies of mechanical perfection and harmony are a dying breed.

The fantastic video is only surpassed by the fantastic engineering of the cable drive system. All driven by 1 motor thru many gearboxes , shafts and cross joints. Like to see in person someday. Thank you.

I thoroughly enjoyed this video! The staff and crew of the ropeway were incredibly friendly and accommodating, if it is possible one day, please convey the appreciation of your viewers. Thanks for posting this amazing video, well done!

OMG! What a fantastic video. I have been facinated with gondolas since I was a young boy over 50 years ago. We had the small skyride gondolas at Six Flags Over Texas, The State Fair of Texas and I rode the skyway at Disneyland as a very young boy and came home and built my own small version of one using my plastic erector set, string and a small record player. After a horrible accident at the State Fair of Texas, all of the Skyride type gondolas were removed from all of the amusement parks and fairs in the USA. I have never been to mountainous countries like the Swiss Alps but have been able to ride a modern type gondola at the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana USA the year I graduated highschool. There was gondola ride that went over the Missiissippi River, the longest river in the USA. from the World's Fair grounds to Algiers. Louisiana across the river from New Orleans. The Missisissippi Aerial River Transport (MART) only had two very tall towers, one on each bank of the river and the gondola cars went up and over the tallest Container Ships and Cruise Ships at the time. MART was meant to become a permanent part of New Orleans public transportation but the world's fair did not produce enough visitors to pay for the cost of the gondola system at it was repositioned by the manufacturers. In the 21st century modern gondolas were added back to The State Fair of Texas by CWA Construction Switzerland in 2002. I was very excited to hear Walt Disney World was getting a similar system The Disney Skyliner, to function a public mass transportation between 3 of the larger resorts and 2 of the amusement parks at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida USA. I followed it closely in press releases and finally was able to see it being tested in September 2019 but wasn't able to ride it until September 2021 due to COVID 19. Your video was such a detailed video of how they work. I have always wanted to see how the clamp locks on at one station and releases at the next station while the cable continuously moves. Great job.

Loved it! So nice to see transport infrastructure so well maintained and funded. Excellent video. Subscribed 😊

This is so great they didn't freak out and were excited to share! In the USA we would be arrested for filming or standing and staring at this absolute marvel.

Thank You and the people that helped you make this video.

Toller Bericht. Danke, auch an den Betreiber für die Filmerlaubnis und Erklärungen. 👍🏾😎

Wasn't supposed to watch the whole video. But here I am... Very interesting machinery!

What a great video. Thanks so much for taking the time to film it and make close up shots. Whenever I'm in a skilift I'm always looking at the mechanics. This gave me a much better view. Also cool that all parts are so mechanical 👏

Amazing and detailed deconstruction of the Gondelbahn ropeway. Great work from Kalsan15, Yannick and crew.

Great video! Excellent opportunity to document how everything works!

Absolutely amazing. Genius engineering and incredibly efficient. It is a shame these are rare machines. I've only ever ridden on them at amusement parks and never knew how they worked. It turns out to be both very simple and very complex at the same time. I am in awe of the engineers who found clever ways to do it all.

Man this video is great!!! What an interesting and complex mechanism. Very well explained as well :D I am kind of surprised this video does not have more views, because it deserves them!!

Excellent Excellent Excellent ! ! Thank you so much. I have always wanted to understand how these systems work as far as decoupling and reattaching. How the weight of the gondola balances on the wire us also amazing to me at least. Again Bravo Bravo Bravo 👏 👏 👏.

This was amazing!! thank you and thank you to the staff of the Gondelbahn!

Thank you so much for this video! I'm 19 year old, and since I was a child I've been mesmerized by my local ropeway in Aprica, Italy that until last year it had a very similar ropeway that was substituted just recently. Every time I used I watched every moving component at the very detail, until, I figured out everything that was mentioned in this video by myself honestly, because I just admire this peace of engineering. Your video is really a gem because it's the only one that gives you such a close look for those like us that love ropeways like this. Only one thing that I'd love to see is the tensioning part of the station. I mean the weight linked to the non-engined main wheel that keep the tension of the rope correctly. You can see at 22:09 the difference between the main wheel of the lower station of the higher section (non engined wheel) that has pulley linked to the tension weight that is below the station floor, and the main wheel of the higher station of the lower section (on the left). Usually tension stations are dowhill and engined stations are uphill in order to keep the best tension of the climbing side of the rope that usually has more weight (climbing passengers), but sometime this rule is not applyed in order to keep lower maintenance costs by having the engined stations downhill. Anyway, I'd love to see the room with the tension weight below the station. ... Thank you again and I suggest you to have a look at the old ropeway in my local ski town that I was telling you before, since you may be interested: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8GPM0Av3-bw.htmlsi=87cNhnZeM-fTvI86

Thanks for this awesome deep dive! Quite nice of them to show you everything in such detail as well.

ENCROYABLE!!!! TRULY INCREDIBLE!!! BRAVO!!! What an insane video, thanks to you for filming and to awesome Yannick and all his super smart, beautiful engineers for showing us all this epicness in exquisite deliciously excruciating detail!!

11:03 The tread on the slowdown/speedup wheels are perfectly aligned with the tread on the wheel grip on the top of the hookup. For such a massive machine that is quite impressive to me.