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Stalin's Rope Roads
- JonSkeptic 13y agoThis is really cool and incredibly dangerous: >The cabins run without a braking system; if the haulage cable snaps, the cabins will roll straight back down the track cable. This happened to a tramway in Georgia's capital Tbilisi in 1990, killing twenty people. All in all, a good article that shows a really neat place. A city of tons of tramways, built for an incredible worker efficiency. The pictures are well done and almost make it feel like you're visiting. It was one article that didn't leave me hanging.
- dllthomas 13y agoIs that better or worse than cars on a windy mountain road?
- cynwoody 13y agoBrings to mind the time a US Marine Corps aircraft sliced a ski-lift cable† with its wing at an Italian ski resort, killing 20 people. The airplane was damaged but managed to land safely at Aviano Air Base. †http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalese_cable_car_disaster_(1998) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalese_cable_car_disaster_(19...
- tacticus 13y agoWith the pilots getting away with it.
- sneak 13y agoIs this a metaphor for the current state of web development?
- golergka 13y agoI didn't notice any rails in there.
- ochekurishvili 13y agoYes, there is a company operated rail link specially developed for manganese transportation to the nearest plant. Note: I'm from Georgia.
- Pxtl 13y agoIt was a pun, referring to Ruby On Rails.
- w-m 13y agoIf currently produced code would keep on running for 59 years without major incidents (just a new coat of paint every decade or so), that would be amazing.
- mcphage 13y agoWell, one major incident, that killed 20 people. But still! A step up!
- chiph 13y agoFrogDesign proposed cable gondolas to solve Austin's mass transit problem[1]. With the hills and lakes/rivers in the area, it's a plausible solution (cheaper than a subway, anyway). The only hitch I see is how to air-condition the cars -- I wouldn't want to be in an enclosed glass box on one of our 110F days without it. [1] http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/11/forget-subways-austin-needs-mass-transit-gondolas/4035/ http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/11/forget-subw...
- zrail 13y agoIf I remember right the cable tram in Portland Oregon is air conditioned. I think they just run power through the cable.
- look_lookatme 13y agoThere's a really nice discussion in the comments of that post. http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/11/forget-subways-austin-needs-mass-transit-gondolas/4035/#comment-724399594 http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/11/forget-subw...
- ochekurishvili 13y agoWe do have air conditioned cabins in the capital - Tbilisi :) http://mail.civil.ge/eng/category.php?id=87&size=wide&gallery=86 http://mail.civil.ge/eng/category.php?id=87&size=wide&galler...
- pavel_lishin 13y agoInteresting that they compare the cost of roadways to the cost of light rail/subway, but don't mention what the potential cost-per-mile of a gondola system would be.
- thex86 13y agoI love the "In Focus" by The Atlantic. There are always mesmerizing and capture the beauty of the subject being talked about. And also, wow - keyboard navigation! Yes!
- subsystem 13y agoThe Big Picture by the Boston Globe is similar. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/ http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/
- privong 13y agoSide comment: I hadn't noticed that one could use j/k to navigate the photos; whoever put the photo page design together was presumably a vi user?
- dllthomas 13y agoOr played too much rogue/hack once upon a time?
- ImprovedSilence 13y agoor used something like google reader or another RSS reader that used j/k to navigate items.
- dllthomas 13y agoYes, obviously. But Google got it from somewhere too. It clearly started with the ADM3A keyboard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KB_Terminal_ADM3A.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KB_Terminal_ADM3A.svg) and spread through use of HJKL in vi, and in a number of games from shortly thereafter (rogue, as mentioned, but also robots) which is actually where I first encountered it, playing games on my parents' unix systems long before I learned vi. It's just fun to note the various plausible memetic vectors.
- akgerber 13y agoThis is reminiscent of the inclines (aka funiculars) in Pittsburgh, another old industrial city set in a similar landscape: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duquesne_Incline http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duquesne_Incline http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monongahela_Incline http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monongahela_Incline They are far better maintained, and operated as part of the city's public transit system.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago“In 2008 the hauling rope of this tramway snapped with 12 passengers inside. Ramaz Khipshidze, the director of the Aerial Tramway Network says the automatic braking system worked "thanks to God."” Well, it certainly wasn’t thanks to regular maintenance. Honestly, why is everything from the Soviet era just left to rot?
- steve19 13y agoEven just a fresh coat of paint would prevent those tram cabins from rusting. Even the mining company, who I assume has cash, does not bother.
- dimkar 13y agoSoviet Union had lots of drawbacks, no doubt, but they did a lot of good stuff like rope roads, railroad, undergrounds etc. It's cheaper to maintain the heritage than build something from scratch, why is it neglected?
- alandarev 13y agoThe present government has to blame the past in order to maintain its authority. Independent if how the USSR did, they have to be shown as 'evil' (I am not saying USSR was puffy and fluffy)
- Luc 13y agoIf you like this kind of stuff, check out Low-tech Magazine. Here's their article on aerial ropeways: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/01/aerial-ropeways-automatic-cargo-transport.html http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/01/aerial-ropeways-autom... Their series on the mechanical transmission of power is great: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2013/01/mechanical-transmission-of-power-stangenkunst.html http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2013/01/mechanical-transmissi...
- Lucy_karpova 13y agoWhen reading the title: Stalin's ropes I was expecting something more cruel and dangerous like an article on prisons or tortures or something. What a relief to find out that it's about city transport, though it Is dangerous now as they haven't maintaned it well and the breaks should add the security to those ropes. I doubt if I dared to use them unless wishing for the adrenaline rush.
- rotten 13y agoLow-tech Magazine did a good article on these sorts of transportation systems a couple of years ago: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/01/aerial-ropeways-automatic-cargo-transport.html http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/01/aerial-ropeways-autom...
- notdrunkatall 13y agoThat last picture is fantastic!