I took a gondola ride with my daughter last weekend and noticed that the supporting, or lifting, arm of the gondola was “J” shaped. Here is a picture. Here is a similar one from a different mountain.
Why is the arm “J” shaped? This shape doesn’t seem necessary for clearance around any obstacles. Is it more stable in the wind? Stronger?
It’s shaped that way to clear the pulley as the cable rides over the top of it.
I beleive Padeye is right.
Think about it. The pulley systems on the towers the gondola passes through have pulleys both on top and beneath the contact point on the gondola. Seeing as the contact point is always at the top of the tower on top of the car, then if that went straight up, the pulleys beneath would just smash into it.
ALso it allows a great deal of sway without hitting anything. I have been on many where because of wind was swaying about I would guess 20-30 degrees (also due to start/stop/start had it swing along the cable direction what seemed like 45 degrees - the opperator just hit the ressonence frequency of the entire cable causing all cars to swing, the cable to “buunce” and the drive system to almost come to a halt then lurch forward repeatedally.
