City ropeways

• City ropeways

Georgian mining town of Chiatura, surrounded by cliffs, is located 220 km from Tbilisi railway. Chiatura areas related to the central part of the city passenger air cable cars, built in Soviet times.

In the early 20-ies of the XX century, after the Soviet Union joined the Georgia itself, the Soviet authorities have expressed their intention to remove manganese from the fields located on the territory of the Georgian SSR. So there Chiatura - New City, formed in 1921 on the site of manganese deposit.

In 1950, work began to build cable cars that still connect every corner of the city.

Photographer and traveler Amos Chapple, with whom we have already visited Turkmenistan and Iran, recently visited Chiatura town and was just fascinated by the local cable cars and the locals.

Welcome to the incredibly atmospheric city ropeways.

A local resident rides home on the cable car. Trailers remained ever since the Soviet era.

And it looks very atmospheric today. As if the action takes place in the film.

"Airports" also remained since that time. Here, passengers waiting in the trailer.

The work of the cable car run alert operators. They wait until the wagons on both stations will gather on 3-4 passenger, ring the bell - and the journey begins.

At the entrance to the station, you can see the mosaic with the image of Lenin and Stalin, made of stone.

The trailer of one of the cable car lines slip over the river Kvirila. She is heavily contaminated and is almost black when manganese processing plants are working at full capacity.

Twisted pulley. Local cable car are arranged so that one rope are only 2 trailer: when one goes down, it helps the other to pull up.

to the left - cable car cabins with windows looking out of the passengers on the right - a piece of rope waste. Incidentally, such a cable meter weighs 12 kg.

Interestingly, the cabins do not have brakes, and if something happens, the trailer will roll down on a rope. That is what happened in Tbilisi on June 1, 1990: there was the heaviest in the USSR and the CIS disaster of this type of transport with 20 dead and 15 wounded.

On the left - the 1950s, right - today's day. Little has changed.

The trailer cable car departs from the central station.

At the station: a picture with the miners of Chiatura from the Soviet era.

Passengers waiting cab at the central station.

Love to detail left - phone inside the trailer. Formally, this cableway owned mining company, but it can be used by anyone.

The workers at the mine for the extraction of manganese. After the collapse of the Soviet Union mines were abandoned, and work resumed only in the last few years.

Newer trailers left - 1960, on the right - this time. In 2008, 12 passengers were hanging in the cockpit over the precipice, but the braking system worked (these cabins have one). Equipment to rescue people from height in Chiatura was not, I had to wait for experts from Tbilisi. So, within 12 hours, passengers were hanging over the city.

The operator controls the movement of the cab.

A view of the cable car from the side. At the bottom of the building can be seen plants built in Soviet times.

Yet another "terminal" and the passenger waiting trailer.

As in the movie. The cable car to the east of the city of Chiatura, Georgia. Ahead visible processing plant manganese, located adjacent to the shaft that operates 24 hours a day.

A passenger in thought. Or praying to ride without incident. Cableway on this site is continuously operated since its first launch in 1954. If there is funding, the colorful carriages replace modern.