OHSU Tram approaching (or is it leaving?) the upper terminal. |
OHSU Aerial Tram Upper Terminal |
The actually mechanics are a little more complex. It has has two cable cars, each with their own pair of support cables. They share a single drive cable. When one is going up, the other is going down. The up and down portions of the drive cable are separated by about 30 feet. Inside the terminal both sections of the drive cable go over large wheels and disappear into the floor. Where do they go from there? The simplest solution would be for the incoming cable to down through the floor, around a very large wheel and then up through the floor again before making a 90 degree turn over the regular large wheel and heading back down. But where is that very large wheel? It's not open to the public, why would they want to see it? It's just nasty old machinery after all.
I spent an hour walking around, looking at stuff, and I couldn't quite sort it out in my mind just how all this stuff fit together. The crazy angles and elevations don't make it any easier. But now that I see this picture I think it's fairly obvious that the very large wheel is there and it is inside the yellow-green box.
The top end terminal is essentially an idler pulley, all the drive machinery is at the bottom end. Since the bottom station is at ground level, and the drive cable there disappears into the floor as well, I surmise that the drive motors are in a concrete pit, especially excavated for this project.
I don't know what the red box is for. I think the architects just wanted it there.
The street in this picture is a moderately steep hill. We are looking downhill. You will notice that to the left of the yellow-green box there is a concrete column. It contains a stairway and an elevator. There is also a walkway stuck on the side of it that connects to this road. Walking up this hill in the bike lane, we came upon this, and since the tram is a powerful attraction, we summoned the elevator, and lo and behold, it came. I wonder if anyone else ever uses that entrance?
A different view of the mysterious red and yellow-green boxes, taken from the walkway mentioned above. |
Cable stuff at the upper terminal. |
The tram was designed by Angelil/Graham/Pfenninger/Scholl and built by Doppelmayr CTEC. Williams & Dame negotiated the deal.
Update February 2020 replaced missing images.
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