Winter Village: Ski Lift and Warming Hut

[twigman]

This is my first entry into a contest, for the Expand the Winter Village contest. I've been working on the idea of a ski lift, and have made this one in minifig scale. I'm especially proud of the chairs, which have working restraining bars. I've added a control booth and a warming hut of similar size to the main buildings in the other two sets to round out the scene.

Overview of scene looking uphill.

Downhill view.

Closeup on top of hill.

Detail of interior of warming hut. There is a cash register, oven, and a table with benches.

Detail of a chair and the interior of the control booth.

[prateek]

Truly amazing! Kudos on making the realistic ski lift, and I love the roof of the chalet

[Fuzzylegobricks]

I love it!

I have always wondered what it would look like to see a simple lego chairlift!

[XimenaPaulina]

Excellent idea of a Ski Lift for the Winter Village! Nice work on the realistic ski lift chairs and lines. Even if it is not made of Lego, I'd say you did a pretty good job approximating the snowy ski mountain/hill using that white cloth. Great work twigman and good luck!

[dr_spock]

Excellent job on the ski lift.

[Cecilie]

Excellent ski lift, it looks just like the real thing! I've been fiddling with the idea of making a minifig-scaled ski lift myself, but one that actually runs (motorized with PF). Yours is giving me some new ideas though . Good luck in the contest.

[lightningtiger]

Now, that's original !

Actually I'll add the word, AWESOME to it as well.....a great piece of designing, I can not remember the last time I saw a Lego ski lift.

Good luck 'twigman' and keep on skiing !

[Mrlegoninja]

Ah, I come back from skiing and I see this! Its really good, although that slope is pretty weird.

Very original and good luck in the contest!

[L@go]

I agree with the other guys here - this is really ultra-realistic, with all the wheels and everything. Looks just like the real thing that we use every year when we go skiing in the snowy Norwegian mountains :) - and you've got good reason to be prowd of those chairs. Great work!

The cabin is neat, too. I'm just wondering what he's selling, using that cash register of his? It could be tickets, but then it's at the wrong end of the slope...

[supersympa]

trully impressive!

well done on the ski lift!

[tin7_creations]

Wow. Amazing. Great idea for making a working ski lift!

[twigman]

Thanks for the comments, everyone! I've finally uploaded some higher-resolution pictures to Brickshelf, and included some of the construction techniques (for the chairs and warming hut roof) and bullwheel/tower test setup I made before creating the final model: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=458290

@ Cecilie - I did try to get it functional (you can see the test in the pictures in the link), but the strain on the bricks from the required tension on the string was too much, and pulled the towers apart (you can see in the test, the bracing between the towers). It might be possible with gluing/screwing the towers, but that would have likely violated the "only LEGO parts, no modifications" rule of the contest :)

@ L@go - the hut I patterned after Horstman Hut in Whistler, Canada; it has a brick oven for cooking food, a cash register on the counter, and a picnic table for the guests.

[KyleJohnson11]

I love your Ski Lift! I love the detail you were able to put into the lift portion where the skiers come off of the lift.

[paul_delahaye]

stupid question, does it actually work? Is it motorised?

Paul