It's worth the drive - an incredibly unique feat of engineering!
Here's some video I shot from a visit there in summer 2015:
You can look through windows into the machine room. Perhaps my favourite feat about this is the symphony of kinematic coordination performed by the four servo-driven winches that pay in and out the haul ropes at different rates as they pass over the midpoint (you can see this happening at 5:30; I wish I'd shot some footage of half of the winches decelerating and reversing in perfect harmony at this point). Absolutely breathtaking. I literally gasped.
I really want to go see the giant one in Belgium (Ronquiers?) someday. Or that ridiculous one in Russia that has a 90 degree turn halfway through.
Here's some video I shot from a visit there in summer 2015:
You can look through windows into the machine room. Perhaps my favourite feat about this is the symphony of kinematic coordination performed by the four servo-driven winches that pay in and out the haul ropes at different rates as they pass over the midpoint (you can see this happening at 5:30; I wish I'd shot some footage of half of the winches decelerating and reversing in perfect harmony at this point). Absolutely breathtaking. I literally gasped.
I really want to go see the giant one in Belgium (Ronquiers?) someday. Or that ridiculous one in Russia that has a 90 degree turn halfway through.