A material ropeway, ropeway conveyor (or aerial tramway in the US) is a subtype of

gondola lift A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supp ...

, from which containers for goods rather than passenger cars are suspended.

Description

Material ropeways are typically found around large

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

concerns, and can be of considerable length. The

COMILOG Cableway The COMILOG Cableway was one of the longest cableways in the world, until its closure in 1986. The ropeway conveyor ran for 76 km from Moanda in the Haut-Ogooué Province of south eastern Gabon to Mbinda in the Republic of Congo. In 1954, the Co ...

, which ran from

Moanda Moanda is one of the largest towns in Gabon, lying on the N3 road in Haut Ogooué. It is also one of the most important manganese mining towns in the world, under the auspices of the ''Compagnie Minière de l'Ogooué'' (COMILOG), which began ...

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

Mbinda Mbinda is a town in the Republic of Congo, lying on the border with Gabon. It is a transport hub and lies at the end of a railway line to Brazzaville. Overview The town prospered as the southern end of the 75 km COMILOG Cableway from Mo ...

in the

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

, was over in length. The Norsjö aerial tramway in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

had a length of . Conveyors can be powered by a wide variety of forms of energy, such as electricity, engines, or gravity (particularly in mountainous mining concerns, or where running water is available). Gravity-driven conveyors may qualify as

zip-line A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide is a pulley suspended on a cable, usually made of stainless steel, mounted on a slope. It is designed to enable cargo or a person propelled by gravity to travel from the top to the bott ...

s, as no electricity is used to operate them, instead relying on the weight of carts going down providing propulsion for empty carts going up. Double-rope (bi-cable) ropeways, have a carrying rope that supports the buckets and a separate hauling rope that controls their movement. Single-rope (mono-cable) ropeways use one carrying-hauling rope.

History

The first recorded mechanical ropeway was by

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

Fausto Veranzio Fausto Veranzio ( la, Faustus Verantius; hr, Faust Vrančić; Hungarian and Vernacular Latin: ''Verancsics Faustus'';Andrew L. SimonMade in Hungary: Hungarian contributions to universal culture/ref>Adam Wybe Adam Wybe, also known as Adam Wiebe (born July 12, 1584 in Harlingen, Friesland Harlingen (; fy, Harns ) is a municipality and a city in the northern Netherlands, in the province of Friesland on the coast of Wadden Sea. Harlingen is a town ...

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

in 1644. It was powered by horses and used to move soil over the river to build defences. In

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

, the

Italians , flag = , flag_caption = The national flag of Italy , population = , regions = Italy 55,551,000 , region1 = Brazil , pop1 = 25–33 million , ref1 = , region2 ...

built the

Asmara-Massawa Cableway The Asmara-Massawa Cableway was a cableway (or "ropeway") built in Italian Eritrea before World War II.The Eritrean Ropeway, completed in 1937, ran 71.8 km from the south end of Asmara to the city-port of Massawa. History The cableway was built ...

in 1936, which was long. The

Manizales - Mariquita Cableway The Manizales - Mariquita Cableway was a cableway used for transporting coffee, that connected Mariquita ( Tolima) with the city of Manizales ( Caldas), both in central Colombia. It was one of the most important engineering works carried out in C ...

(1922) in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

was long. Amongst the first material ropeways in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

was the Amarkantak Ropeway in Chaktipani, Korba, Chhatisgarh, which was long with capacity of 150 TPH constructed by Damodar Ropeways & Infra Ltd. (DRIL) (formerly known as (Damodar Enterprises Ltd. (DEL). It was made for Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) in collaboration with Nikex, Hungary. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, aerial ropeways used for conveying mining goods and materials were historically common; however, just one remains in existence and operation, in Claughton,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, constructed in 1924 and used for quarrying

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

to make bricks. It is scheduled to be demolished in 2036, once the last of the shale has been quarried.

List

Closed ropeways

References

External links