We had 11 members attend our monthly meeting, with several apologies. This week the meeting was about Cable Cars. This took the form of looking at a top ten of the longest and highest gondola cable car systems. This ranged from standard up a mountain journey to double decker gondolas with open upper decks for perfect viewing, and the commuter lines of La Paz.
Next, we started on the serious stuff where we were shown how cable cars safely clip on and off the moving cable and how they accelerate to match the speed of the cable.
Then we saw a glossy video by one of the major manufacturers showing how the cable car systems are built.
Having built your cable car system, you need to run it efficiently. We were next treated to a video about a 27-year-old cable car system and were taken right into the heart of the works. The technology may start to look dated but it was very educational.
Finally, we looked at maintenance of cable car systems and we saw men working on the tops of gondolas to check the connections and to monitor all the pulley/guidance wheels on the pylons. You needed a head for heights to do this work.
Cable cars are a safe mode of transport, and I trust these insights made people feel safer for when they travel on board. However, I cannot help people who do not have a head for heights! You just have to look up not down.

Trevor