‘When Is The Roller Coaster Coming?’—

Lakeview Terrace Cottage Has Newtown’s First Tram

By Dottie Evans

North Haven resident Alan Gordon owns a 24- by 40-foot vacation cottage in Sandy Hook overlooking picturesque Lake Zoar that he and his family can’t wait to remodel, redecorate, and start using for weekend getaways.

The property at Lakeview Terrace off Jeremiah Road in the Cedarhurst section of town features a steep hillside that drops 24 degrees and 130 feet down to the lakeshore below. Bald eagles have been spotted perching in the ancient hemlocks high overhead, and the rugged hillside is covered with ferns and handsome rock outcroppings.

Vehicular access is by a narrow dirt road that leads through the woods to a one-acre clearing on top of the overlook –– but that’s not where the house is.

Alan Gordon’s cottage, built in 1920, sits at the bottom of the steep hill –– exactly 113 stone steps or the equivalent of ten stories down. When the Gordons bought the place two years ago, Alan’s wife Carol had her doubts.

“I said if you can figure out a way to get to it, we’ll enjoy using it. Otherwise forget it and we can live without it,” Mrs Gordon said.

Alan Gordon is full-time director of credit for Dual-Lite Inc, owned by Hubble Inc, in Orange. The Gordon family includes three children, Rebecca, 13, David, 9, and Alex, 6. David, who was 2004 poster child for the Epilepsy Foundation, has a genetic syndrome known as 4P-minus and suffers from physical and cognitive disabilities.

“Not only were we carrying groceries down and trash up all those 113 steps, I was carrying David on my back both ways. He only weighs 40 pounds, but I was gasping for breath,” Mr Gordon said.

“And if you get to the top and you’ve left the car keys in the house at the bottom, forget it!” he added.

 

Seeking A Solution

Finding a solution to the dilemma of access was “like going on a scavenger hunt,” Mr Gordon recalls. At first, he tried negotiating the daunting descent in a six-wheeler all terrain vehicle (ATV).

“My wife and kids wouldn’t get into it. She said I was crazy and maybe she was right. Turning around at the bottom was not a lot of fun,” he said of the ATV experiment.

Then he decided the answer had to be some sort of rail system.

“I began calling all the amusement park roller coaster companies I could find, even a winch company. But they wouldn’t touch it for liability reasons. I talked to a manufacturer of narrow gauge railroad tracks and the engineer said there are tram companies that might do it. I called companies in Oregon, Washington, Italy, and Switzerland.”

It was the last call to Marine Innovations in Frazee, Minn., that did it.

“They told me how the application would work and it looked beautiful. They were building tracks at boat shows for launching watercraft into the Great Lakes. I figured, what’s good for boats is good for people.

“Of course, Minnesota is pretty flat, so I asked what about Connecticut where we have a lot of hills. They said they had done similar installations out of state –– in Essex, N.J., where a guy needed a 70-foot installation to get to his house because he was dismantling it, and in Skinneatles, N.Y., along the Finger Lakes, where they had put a tram off a 55-degree cliff.

“Marine Innovations is the oldest lift manufacturer in the country. After company president Mike Botzet saw the site in November of 2002, they told me it would be a nice straight shot,” Mr Gordon said.

He went ahead and got the town building permit for an elevator not connected to a building that was handicapped accessible, and consulted about property lines before going forward. In August 2003, the Marine Innovations delivered 220 feet of scaffolding in sections and installed it on the Lake Zoar hillside using a pole pounder, driving the poles 15 feet into the ground.

In June 2004, the cabin, gears, and cables, along with control box, were delivered and installed by Lawrence Frank Holt of ELCON LLC Elevators of Sandy Hook. As soon as a licensed electrician completes the wiring, Alan Gordon’s hill tram will be good to go.

No Switch Backs And A Smooth Start

“As soon as my son David saw the tracks he got very excited, and asked when is the roller coaster was coming,” Mr Gordon said, adding that since the cabin was installed in June, the children have enjoyed climbing in and out of it.

“It will be a very smooth ride –– not like an elevator –– because it’s a frequency motor. It gets up to speed before it engages, and you feel like you’re standing still,” he said.

The dual tracks are galvanized, stainless steel, and will withstand snow and ice. There is a 7,000-pound braking system and safety cable, and the load is set to lift 750 pounds. The rate of travel is 70 feet a minute.

“Going down, there’s no weight limit because whatever you take down you’ve got to unload, so that’s not an issue,” Mr Gordon said.

“The best thing is, when the bushes and foliage grows back, you won’t even see the track. And we didn’t have to take down any trees or use up more land for switchbacks,” he noted.

The sturdy tram cabin is painted dark green and blends nicely into the forest environment.

“Once we’ve got this thing running, we’ll be wondering why it took us so long to do it. Then my wife can start decorating and we’ll spend time here as a family,” said Mr Gordon.

He also has plans in his spare time to act as a local distributor for the Minnesota-based company and said he will be glad to take interested parties for a demonstration ride on his 220-foot rail system.

Anyone interested in learning more may info@marineinnovations.com.