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Jun 29, 2010
1934 Chicago World's Fair

1934 Chicago World’s Fair

Post by admin

For your amusement (at around 2:25) . . . In Technicolor!

And for the record: When I talk about Cable Propelled Transit, this is not what I mean.

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7 Comments

  • Dave Brough says:

    Picture this: a CPT with LT1M headway, towers 2,000′ apart, 4,000 passengers per hour, detachable double decker ‘rocket car’ cabins, capable of even carrying trucks. CPT of the future? Try the same 1934 Chicago World’s Fair. It carried 4.5 million passengers in just one year.
    My, we’ve come such a long way, haven’t we?
    (And for the record, when I talk about Cable Propelled Transit, this IS what I mean!)
    Two articles:
    http://books.google.com/books?id=J-IDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA666&lpg=PA666&dq=aerial+ferry+bridge&source=bl&ots=_rtvMpIEAU&sig=RZaOwGSk0V43Jus9MHypIiZt9N4&hl=en&ei=STYqTL3EB4T78Aar_fXUCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CEEQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=aerial%20ferry%20bridge&f=false

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Ride

  • LX says:

    i can see where you are heading towards. the flexibility of a CPT. using it in more than one way (not just passenger transportation). i like that idea. i was told by a person who was involved in a project for manhattan infrastructure how ‘unbelievable’ the support of food/goods and else are. the stuff common people won’t see. so maybe we should consider a few cabins as wares-containers on the line (irony with a good piece of seriousness).
    but those articles with drawn images at that time should be handled with care. those cabins weren’t detachable and more ‘double-decked’ than doubledeckers. it’s basically an aerial tram with more than one cabin on one side – interesting though described as a toy in the article in the google-link.
    interesting point is, how far they went at that time. visionary and impressive. somehow it seems that today we got boring… or wiser… (leaving this sentence open for everybody to decide).

    finishing with a brilliant quote of a youtube-user named LukeWarm05 about the NY world’s fair 1939 presenting the vision of “futurama” in the year 1960.

    “Boy! I can’t wait for 1960!”

    source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU7dT2HId-c&feature=related

    • Steven Dale says:

      How do you think that works, Alex? How can an Aerial Tram have multiple cars on the same line. Unless they’re each being pulled by a separate haul rope. Can you find any info on that? The separate haul rope issue is important.

    • Steven Dale says:

      Also, it actually does look like it was a detachable system. If you look at the google book link that David Brough included.

  • LX says:

    ah, which page? any photos, no illustrations?

  • LX says:

    “The sky cars (…) are suspended from an overhead carriage which rides the aerial trackway.”
    so reading further: “a moving traction cable propels the cars across the span, a gripper connecting the carriage of the car with the traction line. this gripper is disenganged as the car approaches a tower, and it travels into the loading terminal under its own power, provided by two motors mounted on the trucks and controlled by the pilot.”

    so the system is basically working with 2 sliders going around in circles. and the cabins just attach (grab) those sliders. it is like a locomotive connecting a wagon in the station. those “wagons” are the whole time on “tracks”, same for the engine, but it is just grabbing one “wagon” and taking it away.

    yes, it makes sense. but i know for sure why the technology is right now in cpt-systems as it is: because everything is mechanical and you won’t need to pay any attention nor employ a pilot.

    which brings me to your last question. how can an aerial tram have multiple cars on the same line? you have to make sure to use one system. may it be 2s, funitel or 3s or railway tracks. wheels or a system running on it have to remain the same. in our case the hanger, but you can put different functions under those hangers. as those hangers detach in the station maybe the cabin can do the same from the hanger.

    or use an empty cabin with no windows for entering a car in the station, like the funitel system of skoda/volkswagen in bratislava.

    follow your dreams… 😉

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