How was the ropeway built?

Cableway, also known as crane, cable car and floating cage (cable car can also be referred to as cableway), is a kind of means of transportation, which usually carries passengers or goods up and down hills on rugged slopes. Cableway uses steel cables suspended in mid-air to support and tow passenger cars or trucks. Except for the station, a steel cable bracket is usually supported at intervals in the middle of the building. Some ropeways use cranes suspended under steel cables; There are also ropeways with or without cranes, and passengers sit in open-air hanging chairs. Cableways with hanging chairs are most common in ski resorts.

According to the methods of support and traction, ropeways can be divided into two types:

Single-wire type: a steel cable is used to support the weight of the crane and pull the crane or hanging chair.

Hong Kong Ocean Park single-line circulating crane double-line: using multiple steel cables. One or two cables used to support the weight of the crane will not move, and the other cables are responsible for pulling the crane.

According to the way of walking, ropeway can be divided into:

Reciprocating: There is only one pair of cranes on the ropeway. When one of them goes up the hill, the other goes down the hill. When the two cars arrived at the station, they walked in opposite directions. This ropeway is called aerial cable car. Reciprocating cranes generally carry a large number of passengers, each of which can reach 100, with strong climbing ability and good wind resistance. The speed of the reciprocating ropeway can reach 8 meters per second.

Circulating type: There will be many cranes on the ropeway, and the cable will be pulled by an annular hoop, which is sleeved on the driving wheels and roundabout wheels at both ends. When the crane or hanging chair reaches the end point from the starting point, it returns to the starting point through the roundabout wheel for circulation. Taipei Maokong Cable Car is a kind of circulating crane. The circulating crane is called a hanging basket elevator.

The intermediate circulating ropeway can be subdivided into:

Fixed cable-holding type: the crane or hanging chair will not let go of the cable during normal operation, so the speed of all cranes on the same cable will be the same. The cranes of some fixed cable-stayed ropeways are evenly distributed on the whole cable, and the cable travels at a fixed speed. This design is the simplest, but the disadvantage is that the speed can't be too fast (usually about one meter per second), otherwise it will be difficult for passengers to get on and off. Some fixed ropeways adopt pulse design, and the cranes are divided into 4, 6 or 8 groups, each group consists of 3 to 4 cars, and the distance between groups is the same. The same group of cranes get on and off passengers at the station at the same time. When a group of cranes are in the station, the wire rope and each group of trolleys decelerate at the same time. After the crane left the station, they accelerated together. This ropeway runs at a high speed (0.4 meters per second inside the station and about 4 meters per second outside the station), which is convenient for passengers to get on and off, but the distance should not be too long and the carrying capacity is limited.

Pick-up machine: also called pick-up machine. Fix the crane on the taut steel cable with spring-controlled pliers. When the crane arrives at the station, the clamp holding the cable will be loosened, and passengers will get on and off after the crane slows down. Before leaving the station, the crane will mechanically accelerate to the same speed as the cable, and the tongs on the crane will clamp the cable again and leave circularly. This kind of ropeway is slow (6 meters per second outside the station), but it has a large carrying capacity.