Sometimes models can explain things in ways words can’t. With that in mind, take a look at this fantastic Lego model of a 3S Gondola system. Is it perfect? Hardly. But pay careful attention to the acceleration and deceleration wheels. Those replicate pretty accurately the way in which detachable gondola systems are accelerated and decelerated upon exiting and entering a station.
2 Comments
Wow! That’s amazing.
Possible the funniest thing I’ve seen all week!
Very cool. This basically answers my question about how acceleration works on a gondola, and basically confirms my suspicion that acceleration has a lot to do with why top speeds on aerial trams are typically higher than on gondolas. Basically the length of the acceleration zone is proportional to the speed squared, so if you want to double the speed of your gondola you need to build much longer stations with 4 times the acceleration/deceleration wheels, whereas attached systems do not require acceleration/deceleration wheels as all the acceleration is done by the cable itself.