Mystery Lift Installation-Likely Eclipse Double at Tenney

NELSAP

We just got some great photos of some lift installations thanks to Paul Lemeiux, from the collection of Fred Richardson. There's one lift here that I can't identify.

It shows a unique lift set up. The lift, in red, isn't complete but looks like it is being installed mid season. The first tower has "poma" stamped on it. It looks like a Heron-Poma? It crosses paths with a T-bar going from left to right which makes for an odd juxtaposition, but looks like the new lift will replace the T-bar, since the towers are so low. The lift line does not look long. The lift looks like it could be in Canada or the NE US based on the trees. Possible some part of the Midwest.

Does anybody have any definitive guesses?

Jeremy

snowphoenix

Cool photos! I think the lift might be the old Heron Double from Tenney Mountain. It ran on the same alignment as the current Eclipse Triple but ended lower down. It replaced a T-bar whose alignment crossed under it as the 1st picture shows, and NESH says that the installation started in 1970 and "dragged into 1971" which explains why it would still be unfinished during the winter.

For reference, the 1964 map showing the old T-bar: https://newenglandskihistory.com/maps/viewmap.php?id=93

And the 1982 map showing the Heron Double: https://skimap.org/data/1077/2200/1455041401.jpeg

NELSAP

I'm wondering here if this is the Eclipse double at Tenney, with the original Tebru T-bar visible? That would put this picture dated to 1969 or 1970.

NELSAP

Snowphoenix, we were typing at the same time...glad you agree! I think that's it for sure now. Glad to finally see a good view of the lift line for this lift.

liftnerd

Here are some then-and-now photos I took on the last day of the season in mid-March 2023 after Jeremy showed me one of the pictures above a few weeks earlier.

Looking up the line

Looks like that big evergreen to the looker’s right of the lift line is still there.

Side view of the drive terminal

And an extra picture, looking up the old T-bar line

Whatever became of that old T-bar? There are no bits of the current Platterpull that could have come from it (except for maybe the sheaves on the top terminal; not sure about those). Everything is from the 80s or newer.

For that matter, whatever became of the double either?? I haven’t found any traces of her after she left 10E. Only a single footing. Maybe she still runs somewhere else?

justkeepmovingne

liftnerd New England Ski History states it was sold. It does not state whether it was to another ski area or to a manufacturer, and in either case it doesn’t state where it was installed at all.

One possible solution I came up with could be that it went to Alpine Mountain/Timber Hill in Henryville, PA. That lift was installed for the 1987-1988 season, which is the only double in the broader Northeast I could come up with that would have been installed within a year or so of its removal at [possibly] Tenney. It is still standing today. I wasn’t able to dig up anything that said whether it was a new or used install, and there are very few pictures of the lift out there upon a quick search.

While most sources claim they’re unaware of the lift’s manufacturer, Avery Zucco’s youtube video on this area claims its a Borvig. I do wonder whether Borvig, when completing the partial install of the Eclipse Triple, took whatever remaining pieces of the Eclipse Double Tenney had (possibly as partial payment considering the lawsuits over money during Poma’s partial install?) and re-used towers and chairs. That would also explain why the terminals (in Avery’s video) appear to be different than the Eclipse Double’s terminals.

I don’t really have an eye for matching lift pieces to manufacturers, so someone else might be able to take a look at his video and tell me whether or not the lift actually appears to be miss-matched Poma and Borvig parts.

Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/672iax868enEBHUt5
Link [double shown around 6:37 in]:

Also kind of interesting: Alpine Mountain had very strange centerpole quads that were essentially just two double chairs with a pole between them. Never seen that before!