
Stalin's Rope Roads - v4us
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/08/stalins-rope-roads/100577/
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JonSkeptic
This 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.

~~~
cynwoody
Brings 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_(19...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalese_cable_car_disaster_\(1998\))

~~~
tacticus
With the pilots getting away with it.

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chiph
FrogDesign 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-
subw...](http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/11/forget-subways-
austin-needs-mass-transit-gondolas/4035/)

~~~
ochekurishvili
We do have air conditioned cabins in the capital - Tbilisi :)
[http://mail.civil.ge/eng/category.php?id=87&size=wide&galler...](http://mail.civil.ge/eng/category.php?id=87&size=wide&gallery=86)

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akgerber
This 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.

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Luc
If 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-autom...](http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/01/aerial-ropeways-
automatic-cargo-transport.html)

Their series on the mechanical transmission of power is great:
[http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2013/01/mechanical-
transmissi...](http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2013/01/mechanical-transmission-
of-power-stangenkunst.html)

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Samuel_Michon
_“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
Even 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
Soviet 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
The 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)

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privong
Side 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
Or played too much rogue/hack once upon a time?

~~~
ImprovedSilence
or used something like google reader or another RSS reader that used j/k to
navigate items.

~~~
dllthomas
Yes, 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.

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Lucy_karpova
When 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.

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thex86
I 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
The Big Picture by the Boston Globe is similar.

[http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/](http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/)

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rotten
Low-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-autom...](http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/01/aerial-ropeways-
automatic-cargo-transport.html)

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sneak
Is this a metaphor for the current state of web development?

~~~
w-m
If 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
Well, one major incident, that killed 20 people. But still! A step up!

~~~
ovi256
That was on a tramway of a different type, in another city. The type in
Chiatura does have automatic brakes.

~~~
claudius
But even then – 20 deaths over 60 years is basically nothing (compared to,
say, car accidents).

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notdrunkatall
That last picture is fantastic!

