The Flaine WINDING DRUM incline lift in France (one cable!)

Yes, I'm aware that one cable is enough to pull this incline lift up and down, but it's just a bit daunting looking at that one cable attached to a drum and then thinking about it pulling the cab full of people up that steep incline without a counterweight!
If you've come here looking for details about FLAINE as a holiday destination, then here is some info for you: (From our holiday in Dec 2018)...
INTERESTED IN FLAINE FOR A SKIING DESTINATION?
READ HERE:
We attended 5x dry-slope lessons before arriving, else you'd spend your whole holiday learning! It had been 30 years since I last went on a ski slope!
We chose Flaine due to the number of Green slopes available and the quick and easy access to the slopes.
In fact, from our apartment it was only a 5 minute walk!
The whole town is a car-free zone, unless you have a permit.
Flaine contains everything you need all in one village. It's not the most modern looking place with lots of concrete apartment blocks (see: • Skiing resort of FLAIN... ) but this town dates back to the 1960s where it was converted to a skiing resort. Personally, I like brutalist concrete structures!
THE AREA:
There are two parts to Flaine, top and bottom. Top part contains mostly apartments and has a small shopping centre with bakery, and Spar shop. There is a incline lift that takes you down to the lower part of the town and I think there is also a bowling alley up here as well.
There are two lifts (featured on my channel and this video) that take you from upper to lower parts.
The lower part has a larger shopping centre, but we are not talking BIG here! Towards the lower skiing area is a much larger Spar type shop.
SKI HIRE:
These are everywhere, we received a 20% discount voucher from our accomodation reception, from the ski-hire shop next door.
SKI AREAS:
For free, you can start at the upper ski area, go up a ski-travelator, then the nursery slope back down. Or you can continue and ski for free all the way from the upper part to the lower part. To get back up, more ski-travelators and then basket lifts bring you (and your skis) to the upper part. This is all for free.
Apart from a trip to the top of the mountain in the Gondola, we were actually content with what Flaine had to offer without buying a lift pass. This is probably because we are beginners, but others may like to use ALL the runs available. Unfortunately we cannot advise here, as we didn't use them!
GETTING HERE:
Fly to Geneva, then it's about 1.5 hours using one of many transportation companies.
To start with, we were wondering (and getting slightly worried) if there was 'any' snow, until you go up and up the winding roads to Flaine, which I believe is the last town on the road.

[@ZLDSmogless]

I've been on one of these types of incline lifts! Except it had another car as a counterweight

[@Lighting_Desk]

Holy mother of satin that drop! Followed close by that gradient! Dat motor room doh.

[@gradyj3827]

I'm sure that cable is probably rated twice if not three times needed , But ONE?.... No backup?..... No counterweight? No Thanks.....

[@dykodesigns]

G Cochr I’m sure the cable has plenty of redundancy in the tensile strenght. These sort of ropes can have a tensile strenght of about 1500 N/mm2. That’s 150 kg on a single square millimeter. These sort of cables are also used in post tensioned concrete structures.

[@LBSiUK]

I've been on both of these. It's scary but I'm pretty sure it's safe.

[@mrclucker1969]

That must be one beefy hoist motor to run without a counterweight. The one cable looks sort-of scary, but chair lifts only have one.

[@thewildeeper]

Beautiful scenery!

[@MichalM]

35th!! Another really interesting system! Thanks for sharing!

[@LBSiUK]

I've been on both of these. And filmed.

[@yuiopYT]

Love ur videos

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Thanks Yolo gamer

[@idl3k_elev]

Reminds me of the three inclined lifts in my hometown that I've filmed several years ago. Those lifts also have only one cable, but they're all very small unlike this one. Two out of three lifts in there are winding drum MRLs.

[@MrAustin241080]

And a complicated suspension in order to keep the car at the same angle on the sudden direction change as it does not tilt sharply down

[@simontay4851]

if you like this then you should visit the centre for alternative technology near machynleth in wales. The incline lift from the car park to the main part is water/gravity powered and you can see the drum/machinery up very close. I think you would enjoy it a lot. It you go by train then bus from machynleth station you get a discount on the entry price.

[@dykodesigns]

Does this lift with it’s winding drum have an overspeed governer and a safety catch like a normal lift? Just in case the rope would snap (eventhough it is probably highly redundant in it’s tensile strenght).

[@mrmattandmrchay]

There is bound to be some kind of brake under the lift cab. Not sure about overspeed governor, unless it was attached to the lift itself?

[@peterlomas984]

Drum drive systems tend not to have overspeed governors, but a safety gear of sorts would most certainly be fitted.

[@liftboy92]

For a swabian like me the manufacurers name "Fatzer" is real bad forshadowing. In swabia we could say: "Des Seil ist gefatzt." which basically means "the cable snapped." I hope the thing has good safety. On the other handside what I wonder about is the missing counterweight. Could it be, that there is a shaft or a drilled hole where a counterweight lies in?

[@limtzybg7765]

Wow I never knew that

[@DanielGliebe]

How does the cabin stay level when the incline changes angle near the top? Do you notice any deviance in angle as it corrects or is it basically perfectly level all the time?

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Interesting question... you don't notice anything. It does indeed adjust with the rams underneath perfectly as it goes over the edge.

[@fredashay]

I do hope it has some sort of emergency brake in the event that the cable breaks.

[@Colaholiker]

When it went down and entered the steep section i felt the urge to raise my hands like on a rollercoaster. But at the same time I felt like I had to grab and hold on to my desk. i don't know why I don't mind entering a lift in a vertical shaft, even in a skyscraper, where there's nothing between the underside of the cabin floor and the floor of the shaft apart from hundred+ meters of air, but when it comes to those inclined lifts I almost wet my pants... Weird.

[@misterwint]

I can't imagine the tension that one rope is under. I guess there's multiple safety devices under the cab, should the rope decide to twang.

[@peterlomas984]

Surprisingly little actually, that rope looks at least 32mm dia, it would take a lot more than a lightweight liftcar and full load to put any real strain on that system.

[@user2C47]

161st! I am not subscribed to this channel. Is there a reason the motor for this elevator sounds like a hydraulic pump?

[@LBSiUK]

That insane noise (it is that load in person, I went to this resort) is most likely the huge fans trying to cool the motor. The rest of the noise is the motor itself. Also the clunk at 2:05 is the brakes.

[@duonghoangminh7634]

More like a train have chairs that's funicular

[@passacaglia28]

Yikes!