Pino Grande Aerial Transporter diorama

[Dunalastair]

Can you call this a diorama? My model of the first of the two generations of the Pino Grande aerial transporter for a US logging railroad.

 

 

The gauge is 9mm to represent 3' gauge, so about 1:100 scale. The bogies are Kato, the axles wire, and the other components 3D printed. At this size, printing the 'cage' as a single piece seemed to be the best approach. In a larger scale, it would probably have been better to assemble individual parts, which might have better represented the spindly original.

 

There is at least one book on the Pino Grande logging line, and I think that the logging cars may be available commercially in a larger scale. The cover of the book shows the original 'cage' which I have modelled, but which does not appear in as many photographs as the later version.

 

https://www.biblio.com/book/pino-grande-logging-railroads-michigan-california/d/1436960659

 

This is the second generation aerial transporter, which uses four cables (plus a haulage line) rather than  two.

 

https://salmonfishingqueen.wordpress.com/tag/pino-grande/

 

There is also a video of the second generation aerial tram cage operating at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S4YqjtQUic&t=1s

 

When I was a lad, I would have enjoyed rigging this up with a powered winch, and running wagons on and off at the terminals. Perhaps thankfully, I do not have the space to do that now. But never say never ...

 

Given the elegance of the solution to crossing a deep valley, it is surprising that there do not seem to have been more like this. Are there any other examples which were photographed, either in the US or elsewhere? Transporter bridges are similar, and just a little more common, albeit without very many rail examples.

 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2023 by Dunalastair

[Dunalastair]

This is one of the rare images (I have only found two) of the first generation 'cage', from before the cableway suffered a fire. Not https so will probably not embed.

 

http://www.trainweb.org/foothill/images/postcard2.jpg

 

from http://www.trainweb.org/foothill/micalmp.html