Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: cable car

This was a view of the west side of the Ruzova hora cable car station, taken as we were hiking down Snezka.

This is the cable car station for the summit of Snezka, which is is actually slightly below the summit. Again, this is a new station from 2014. The elevation of 1588 metres is below the station name.

This is the actual approach to the Ruzova hora station. This building dates to the 2012-2013 rebuilding of the cable car system. At this station, it is necessary to switch cable cars, which was also the way the system worked pre-2014.

These were some of the other safety stickers in the cable car, with "stick figures in peril" mixed with more realistic illustrations.

These were some of the safety stickers in the cable car. I found at least some of them comical, as classic examples of stickers to avoid liability. These were some of the less ridiculous ones.

This was one of the shots I took on the cable car, heading up Snezka. This was before Ruzova hora, where it was necessary to switch cars, even though this shot has an optical illusion that makes it look like the building in the foreground is the station. In reality, the Ruzova hora station is a brownish-reddish building much further up the mountain. These cable cars weren't always enclosed "cars" per se. From 1949, when the system was built, until 2012, these vehicles were open chairlifts. Here's some period footage of the old system (pre-2013), including some of the demolition: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUrOsOwZipw The new enclosed cars were added during a renovation in 2012-2013. This means the system, in its current form, was still relatively new when I took these photos. www.snezkalanovka.cz/en/cableway

This was a second shot, showing one of the other cars coming down the mountain. This was still before Ruzova hora.

This was a sign, and picture/map at the foot of Snezka, outside the cable car station at Pec pod Snezkou. It's debatable whether the "map" is really a map, as it's really more of a drawing of Snezka, in perspective, with key locations marked. Neither of the place names on the sign refer to the location of the sign, as "Snezka" refers to the summit, and "Ruzova hora" refers to an intermediate station on the cable car route. The temperatures and wind speeds also refer to those locations.

This was as good an angle as I could get up Snezka from Pec pod Snezkou. The station for the cable cars, and a glimpse of the cables, can be seen in the center-left of this shot.

The Cable Cars of the San Francisco Municipal Railway Powell & Hyde Line run from the corner of Powell and Market Streets to Beach, which is actually a beach on San Francisco Bay rather than on the Pacific Ocean, near Aquatic Park. There, a turntable allows them to change direction, as they aren't uni-directional. The momentum of the moving cable car rolls it onto the turntable, as seen in Picture 1, the cable car is turned by hand, as in Pictures 2 and 3, and then the car is pushed back onto the active track, only for the opposite direction. It can then be reconnected to the cable upon departure.

Cable Cars aren't universally considered trams. That's the purpose that they serve, though, for all practical purposes. The main thing that makes them different from others is that standard trams are powered through overhead cantenary that powers electric traction motors that power each axle, whereas Cable Cars are pulled along by a cable underneath the street. You can check out www.cablecarguy.com for more technical info. In any case, I got my chance to ride and photograph the San Francisco Municipal Railway, the last of the traditional Cable Car systems, in 1993. All of the other surviving systems operate on the less-standard "funicular system," used on steep hills. Unlike a standard cable car system, a funicular is limited by the fact that the cable is connected to both cars (all TWO! :-)) semi-permanently, so while one goes up the hill, the other goes down. This would never work in S.F., though, since it's a full-service system with many cars running on different streets. Therefore, the cables are controlled from a central cable house, pictured here on the right, which is also the San Francisco Cable Car Museum. The cars then can run semi-independently of the cable house's whims, controlling their access to the constantly moving cables under the street through the use of a "grip," that is sort of between a pliers and an automotive clutch. As such, cable car drivers are called "grip men (or perhaps women)."

The Cable Cars of the San Francisco Municipal Railway Powell & Hyde Line run from the corner of Powell and Market Streets to Beach, which is actually a beach on San Francisco Bay rather than on the Pacific Ocean, near Aquatic Park. There, a turntable allows them to change direction, as they aren't uni-directional. The momentum of the moving cable car rolls it onto the turntable, as seen in Picture 1, the cable car is turned by hand, as in Pictures 2 and 3, and then the car is pushed back onto the active track, only for the opposite direction. It can then be reconnected to the cable upon departure.

The Cable Cars of the San Francisco Municipal Railway Powell & Hyde Line run from the corner of Powell and Market Streets to Beach, which is actually a beach on San Francisco Bay rather than on the Pacific Ocean, near Aquatic Park. There, a turntable allows them to change direction, as they aren't uni-directional. The momentum of the moving cable car rolls it onto the turntable, as seen in Picture 1, the cable car is turned by hand, as in Pictures 2 and 3, and then the car is pushed back onto the active track, only for the opposite direction. It can then be reconnected to the cable upon departure.