Disney did an Ooopsie (Gondola Related)

[Highway Star]

They deserve this after completely f'ing up Star Wars episode 8.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/e ... 897283002/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[astro]

Would like some of the better versed folks explain how the cabins were able to bunch up in the station (I read somewhere that "a cabin failed to transition from the station drive wheels up to the haul rope...stalled in that area and the system failed to stop before this condition lead to cabins colliding").

[Highway Star]

Would like some of the better versed folks explain how the cabins were able to bunch up in the station (I read somewhere that "a cabin failed to transition from the station drive wheels up to the haul rope...stalled in that area and the system failed to stop before this condition lead to cabins colliding").

I'm sure snoloco will be around to pull something out of his ass shortly. In the mean time, just be aware that any "detach" or "high-speed" lift has fairly large and complex mechanism that removes the carrier from the haul rope in station by releasing the grip and supporting it, there are many ways it can fail or malfunction. I'm sure Disney has some pretty good mechanics, but they aren't keeping multiple detach lifts running on a mountain, etc etc.

[snoloco]

If a cabin gets stuck at any point in the terminal and the lift fails to stop in time, a pileup like this will happen. The worst case scenario is if enough cabins pile up to extend all the way to the end of the terminal. Then incoming cabins will hit at full line speed which can severely damage the cabins, grips, and terminals.

On winter use lifts, pileups are often ice related because the tires will slip on the grip traction plates and not move the chair/cabin. I'm sure everyone has seen a maintenance crew clearing a chair pileup on a freezing r*in morning. Another common cause is failure of the spacing mechanism. A series of tires can be sped up, slowed down, or stopped by a clutch, and if this doesn't work properly things can get messed up. I'm not sure why this happened on the Disney Skyliner, and I'm not going to speculate further on it. There is an investigation ongoing, and the report from it will have all the information.

[Dr. NO]

If a cabin gets stuck at any point in the terminal and the lift fails to stop in time, a pileup like this will happen. The worst case scenario is if enough cabins pile up to extend all the way to the end of the terminal. Then incoming cabins will hit at full line speed which can severely damage the cabins, grips, and terminals.

On winter use lifts, pileups are often ice related because the tires will slip on the grip traction plates and not move the chair/cabin. I'm sure everyone has seen a maintenance crew clearing a chair pileup on a freezing r*in morning. Another common cause is failure of the spacing mechanism. A series of tires can be sped up, slowed down, or stopped by a clutch, and if this doesn't work properly things can get messed up. I'm not sure why this happened on the Disney Skyliner, and I'm not going to speculate further on it. There is an investigation ongoing, and the report from it will have all the information.

Another cause of pile ups is high winds in the wrong direction. Top of K1 is a good example as the wind will come in straight into the chairs causing stalls and slow downs Same could be true at the base terminals. K1 was an easy fix as the operators have a extra wall they set up to block the wind. Other detachable chairs have their own limits, and this is just Killington.

[DrJeff]

I guess the thing that I am most curious about, and haven't seen anything posted about it online as of yet, is in that picture, was the blue cabin just entering the station and went into the back of the yellow cabin, or was the blue cabin getting ready to leave the station and failed to load properly onto the haul rope and then the yellow cabin(s) bumped into it.

It also appears quite obviously that this incident happened when all of the gondola cabins had been if not fully slowed from haul rope travel speed, at least the vast majority of the way slowed to the off the haul rope, in the terminal loading speed. Since, had a loaded cabin, which likely has a weight over over 3000lbs, collided at haul rope travel speed (apparently about 11 mph in the case of this gondola from what I have read), chances are that you'd see much more damage than is in that picture

[machski]

From what I have read, sounds like one of the drive belts for the deceleration wheel sets failed. Probably operator error beyond that (possibly the alarm was cancelled several times before they realized they had a real problem and not just a pesky sensor acting up). Will have to wait for the full report to know for sure, but that system is extremely comes on the Skyliner. Heck, many terminals have multi loading stations where every 10th or 11th cabin automatically splits off the normal flow and stops completely to allow disabled patrons to load/unload and then automatically gets resequenced in the queue where it split out of. Lots of things that can mess it up.

[GlacierBoy]

More information on the crash and a link to Liftblog which has pictures of the new Doppelmayr Garaventa terminals and towers. Also, the cars do not have air conditioning and rely on passive airflow (air vents/windows) for cooling! Must not have been fun to be stranded

https://ziggyknowsdisney.com/disney-skyliner-accident/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“It all started at the Riviera Resort station when Disney Skyliner vehicle 108 malfunctioned and failed to leave the Riviera station properly toward Epcot. The gondola car rolled back, and was crashed into by the following cabin behind it, which smashed the rear glass window and stopped the system.

https://liftblog.com/walt-disney-world-fl/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Mister Moose]

https://ziggyknowsdisney.com/disney-skyliner-accident/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“It all started at the Riviera Resort station when Disney Skyliner vehicle 108 malfunctioned and failed to leave the Riviera station properly toward Epcot. The gondola car rolled back, and was crashed into by the following cabin behind it, which smashed the rear glass window and stopped the system."

The car rolled back into the station? Sounds like a grip failure, which puts a different light on things than a timing issue.

[DrJeff]

https://ziggyknowsdisney.com/disney-skyliner-accident/

“It all started at the Riviera Resort station when Disney Skyliner vehicle 108 malfunctioned and failed to leave the Riviera station properly toward Epcot. The gondola car rolled back, and was crashed into by the following cabin behind it, which smashed the rear glass window and stopped the system."

The car rolled back into the station? Sounds like a grip failure, which puts a different light on things than a timing issue.

Completely a game changer if it's a grip failure. With roughly 300 cabins on all the segments of that new gondola system, that's not going to be a quick inspection i'm guessing, let alone it would likely bring into question any similar model grip that Dopp has produced.

A grip failure brings back the old school Yan era issues where multiple chairs slid into each other, with if I recall correctly even some fatalities involved at the time

Let alone the people moving effect that will have to the Disney transportation system in the areas that the Gondola was serving, as each line of that Gondola could transport the equivalent of 70 buses of people per hour, which is one of the reasons apparently that Disney chose to install this Gondola system as a means to transport guests between multiple hotels and the Disney Studios and Epcot areas of their property, which has plenty of road congestion in the area as its close to the main entrance of the resort, 2 water parks, and the general public access Disney Springs area of restaurants and retail stores as well as probably close to a dozen or so hotels. Getting more buses off the road and folks to/from the parks through the air is a key part of their addressing of their transportation system needs, and if some rumors are true, something they are considering as a possible replacement option for the iconic monorail system as that is apparently rapidly nearing the end of it's operational lifespan without some MAJOR overhaul that may end up being cost prohibitive (even by Disney standards)

[BoozeTan]

Last season at the top of the Skyeship our gondola crashed into the one in front of us in the station, then the one behind us crashed into ours

[Guy in Shorts]

One of the tires fell off on the lower Rt 4 terminal this past season. Almost hit the liftie when it fell. Skyeship is showing its age.

[ME2VTSkier]

One of the tires fell off on the lower Rt 4 terminal this past season. Almost hit the liftie when it fell. Skyeship is showing its age.

And you didn't get a picture?