Disney Skyliner (Gondola Transportation System) Read Post 1 Now Open!

[Weedy]

Like any theme park "dark" ride, there are cameras throughout on the HE. (Which, BTW, is also manufactured and maintained by Doppelmayr. Technically, it's a funicular.)

It's the best analogy, true, but the difference there is the load setup. You do a very long queue and the pre-grouping thing when you ride, so you have a rather long time to decide who will sit where, and you could let someone go ahead of you if you wished to switch to a different cabin. Also, Universal employees ride along out in the corridor.

Incidentally, there was a power failure on the HE on an afternoon in Aug 2017 that required the Orlando Fire Dept. to evacuate it. The A/C failed with the power, and there were guests treated by paramedics for heat-related illness after being stuck in the cabins for a little under an hour. (Those cabins are not vented like the Skyliner, o

What is HE?

 

[sachilles]

hogwarts Express ?

 

[joelkfla]

You are making some assumptions. As the cabins need not be evenly spaced apart on the haul rope.
When they disengage from the haul rope, they go on the track. The timing on the track dictates the dispatch interval on to the haul rope. It should be the same ratio.

The cable is moving at the same speed when it enters the station as when it exits the station. What happens in the station doesn't matter. If the time interval between cabins entering the station is not the same as the time interval of cabins leaving the station, then the space between cabins entering the station will be different than cabins exiting the station, and cabins will be getting progressively closer or further apart each time they pass through the station. Therefor, the speed of the cable and the distance between cabins on the cable determines the dispatch interval.

If you're talking about the amount of time each cabin is available for loading, yes, that is determined by the speed within the station. That's akin to dwell time on a transportation mode that stops to load. But the definition of dispatch interval, as I understand it, is the time between dispatches, or the time from one cabin leaving the station (or load area) until the next cabin leaves.

 

[Lewisc]

Incidentally, there was a power failure on the HE on an afternoon in Aug 2017 that required the Orlando Fire Dept. to evacuate it. The A/C failed with the power, and there were guests treated by paramedics for heat-related illness after being stuck in the cabins for a little under an hour. (Those cabins are not vented like the Skyliner, of course.)

Doesn't make sense. Isn't HE at ground level? Isn't evacuation as simple as opening the doors and escorting guests through the backstage area? I guess it's possible there are a few spots where evacuation isn't as easy.

 

[joelkfla]

Doesn't make sense. Isn't HE at ground level? Isn't evacuation as simple as opening the doors and escorting guests through the backstage area? I guess it's possible there are a few spots where evacuation isn't as easy.

I believe it's on an elevated track backstage.
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Hogwarts_Express_(Universal_Orlando_Resort)https://www.coaster101.com/2014/06/25/hogwarts-express-works/

 

[OSUZorba]

The cable is moving at the same speed when it enters the station as when it exits the station. What happens in the station doesn't matter. If the time interval between cabins entering the station is not the same as the time interval of cabins leaving the station, then the space between cabins entering the station will be different than cabins exiting the station, and cabins will be getting progressively closer or further apart each time they pass through the station. Therefor, the speed of the cable and the distance between cabins on the cable determines the dispatch interval.

If you're talking about the amount of time each cabin is available for loading, yes, that is determined by the speed within the station. That's akin to dwell time on a transportation mode that stops to load. But the definition of dispatch interval, as I understand it, is the time between dispatches, or the time from one cabin leaving the station (or load area) until the next cabin leaves.

In general the track wheels at the station are driven by the haul cable, which I think is what @sachilles is getting at.

So time in the station is a ratio of cable speed and nothing else. Gaps in the station would change based on number of cabins on the line.

 

[only hope]

Doesn't make sense. Isn't HE at ground level? Isn't evacuation as simple as opening the doors and escorting guests through the backstage area? I guess it's possible there are a few spots where evacuation isn't as easy.

Almost the entirety of the track is several stories up. You can see a large section of the track from the tm parking area. You can also see part of if you walk past the side of the arcade by the Mummy towards the fence. I like watching it sloooowly be pulled by.

 

[Spaceguy55]

After some quick research, it seems that the haul rope does not directly turn the wheels in the top area. It's either another pulley and belt higher up on the main bull wheel or more likely a geared down direct drive off the pulley/bull wheel.

 

[Spartan86]

In general the track wheels at the station are driven by the haul cable, which I think is what @sachilles is getting at.

I think the guideway wheels in the stations are driven completely independent of the haul rope by a belt system and electric motors.

 

[OSUZorba]

I think the guideway wheels in the stations are driven completely independent of the haul rope by a belt system and electric motors.

The independent electric motors might be true in some places on the Skyliner, I think it is at Riveria. But most gondola station tracks are powered via the haul cable (of course through a series of mechanical linkages).

Using the haul cable to power the station wheels eliminates a lot of failure modes. Ensures the station and cable are perfectly in sync. And allows only one station to need 3-phase power.

 

[Krandor]

So do we know yet what work they were doing during the shutdown in the morning?

 

[NotUrsula]

Doesn't make sense. Isn't HE at ground level? Isn't evacuation as simple as opening the doors and escorting guests through the backstage area? I guess it's possible there are a few spots where evacuation isn't as easy.

Almost the entirety of the track is several stories up. You can see a large section of the track from the tm parking area. You can also see part of if you walk past the side of the arcade by the Mummy towards the fence. I like watching it sloooowly be pulled by.

Yep, Hogwart's Express (HE) is elevated. Fooled me at first, but then I saw it from that vantage point. (At which point I slapped my forehead and thought, "Duh, of course it has to be; otherwise it would cause all sorts of traffic issues in that fairly small backstage area.")

When was the last time you heard someone express worry about being trapped on it? It almost never comes up, because most people assume from the loading experience and the lack of real outside views that it remains on ground level. The Skyliner doesn't have the advantage of that illusion, so Disney has to deal with guests' fears/dislikes a whole lot more.

 

[seashoreCM]

At a station the rate of gondola arrivals cannot remain greater than the rate of gondola departures for a prolonged time and the rate of gondola arrivals cannot remain less than the rate of gondola departures for a prolonged time.

Even if the transport mechanism for detached gondolas going through a station is powered by the haul rope, this does not guarantee that everything will stay in sync. Slippage can occur.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

They load the cars with strangers, not across from you though.

I've also have shared rows on boat rides with strangers. And every coaster with a single rider line I've had to sit next to someone I don't know. I've been stuck on People Mover and Figment with strangers in the same car. Also ridden buses and monorails shoulder to shoulder, with screaming babies and drunks.

Boat rides and coasters are not omnimover rides like a gondola where you are loading while they are still moving. That was my point. It's hard to load a moving ride with strangers. If they loaded the same rows in peoplemover with strangers that would be one thing, but i don't think they do. It's the jockeying for position with strangers that causes problems.

 

[DisLiss]

So many people mention not wanting to sit with strangers on the Skyliner, and I'm thinking about the opposite instead. I was wondering how I would feel being in a gondola by myself. The random thought went through my mind that if I were to have the misfortune of experiencing a medical emergency in a gondola, I'd prefer there to be someone there who might be able to help or call for help. Maybe they couldn't or wouldn't, but I'd stand a better chance than if no one else was there, that's for sure.

 

[OSUZorba]

At a station the rate of gondola arrivals cannot remain greater than the rate of gondola departures for a prolonged time and the rate of gondola arrivals cannot remain less than the rate of gondola departures for a prolonged time.

Even if the transport mechanism for detached gondolas going through a station is powered by the haul rope, this does not guarantee that everything will stay in sync. Slippage can occur.

There is no "even if" that is how it is done. If you have slippage, you have other problems. Here is a video of the Breckenridge Gondola that shows the station drive wheels and how the power take off is done off the haul rope. Note, this Gondola was designed by Doppelmayr's biggest competitor Leitnor Poma.

If the time stamp doesn't work, start around 6:30.

Here is another good one that you can see the PTO sheaves in, but the narration is in German. I'm pretty sure this one is a Doppelmayr:

 

[seashoreCM]

Slippage is combatted in a passive system by timing the gondola's passage through the station to arrive at the exit a tad before it is to be dispatched. It is halted at the exit by the overhead mechanism and then released "on schedule." A rudimentary system might have an incoming gondola mechanically release the next exiting gondola (via a mechanical linkage). If a gondola is late getting to the exit, the overhead mechanism might be already unlocked and there is no stop. The exiting gondola mechanically re-locks the overhead mechanism behind it. Today, unlocking and relocking would be done by computer, either time based or, again, matching up with incoming gondolas.. The number of cabins in the station can be intentionally varied with the help of a counter that works similar to the coin counter in a jukebox that makes it play exactly the number of songs that were paid for.

A passive system might have no control other than master stop and start buttons, activated manually and by the collision avoidance system. An active system could vary the timing and speed profiles of individual cabins, either automatically or under manual control.

 

[sachilles]

In general the track wheels at the station are driven by the haul cable, which I think is what @sachilles is getting at.

So time in the station is a ratio of cable speed and nothing else. Gaps in the station would change based on number of cabins on the line.

This was the point I was trying to get across. You did it much better than I.

 

[Weedy]

911 calls released from Skyliner incident
https://www.wesh.com/article/911-calls-released-from-night-disney-skyliner-malfunctioned/29507575

 

[TheMaxRebo]

911 calls released from Skyliner incident
https://www.wesh.com/article/911-calls-released-from-night-disney-skyliner-malfunctioned/29507575

definitely a case where some more communication from Disney would have helped so you didn't get dozens of people clogging up 911 lines (obviously if someone is in medical distress in a given cabin that is different) but if Disney just told everyone "there is an issue, we are working on it, responding units have been notified and are on their way, please do not call 9-11 unless there is a medical emergency" that would have helped vs people feeling ignored/not sure what is going on