The following pictures and information is from Michael Martin
The first 30 pictures show the Topnotch double- Boyne Falls, MI - Heron Double -
Topnotch is the most as-originally-built Heron lift I know of that is still in production use. It is in the original beginner's area
of Boyne Mountain - it only runs during heavy weekends and holidays. It is the only "truly" Heron lift left at Boyne Mountain -
the Doppelmayr 6-place replaced the other two holdouts - Express and North Boyne. The only apparent modification is the re-
fabrication of the chair hanger segment between the grip bushing and the chair frame. As is obvious from the pictures, the
adjustable speed drive terminal is at the bottom, the carriage-mounted tension terminal is at the top. It sounds like it still has a
wound-rotor AC motor in it; there's none of the whine you would associate with modern DC drives. It has the helical-cut bullgear-
set *typical of all the Heron's I've ever seen - relatively quiet in operation despite the course pitch of the gearing. Like I said, I
love the engineering elegance of Heron lifts; this is probably my favorite lift anywhere; the Borvig Double at Searchmont
probably being my second. *the double "North Boyne" had a single-stage ConeDrive Worm-gear reducer on it - the 900-rpm
motor had a humongous circumference - I wish I had pictures of that one....

Pics 31-36 show the Meadows Quad. World's first 4-seater: Heron design, but assembly components imply Riblet fabrication
Now has adjustable-speed DC drive, but as designed, had a 125HP Westinghouse wound-rotor AC motor driving a Western
(or foote-jones; I don't exactly remember) right-angle speed reducer. The reducer output was coupled to a vertical drive shaft
that projected through the machinery building roof, to a helical-cut pinion gear, which drove the final-stage bullgear. Come to
think of it, the lift de-roped a couple times one season (my sister was on it one of the times) - that may be when they re-worked
it with the riblet chairs, grips and rope-clamping over/under sheave assemblies. The tower sheaves used to have a large gap in
them as if the chairs were attached by the bulky clamp-grips that Heron lifts typically had. The de-ropements were minor incidents;
the lift has huge cable-catcher built into it.