1960s Westinghouse Elevator Machine Room Tour

This is an old Westinghouse 2BC elevator system, but unfortunately it's not in very good shape. For one, whenever the one car is not attending to actual floor calls, it just keeps cycling between the top two floors, over and over. That's got to be a huge waste of power. The other car is out of service. Also, the working car goes significantly slower going up than going down. And it runs really roughly. Nonetheless, it's still super cool to see this system up close.

[@Paramount531]

I never get tired of watching that old equipment.

[@SPS8elevatorsoflakecounty]

I could have been up there for hours!!

[@user-dn7yy1bg2n]

Surprising to see this equipment still in duty ! It must be a huge waste of power (when we see all the relays, only this must be a whole consumption of a modern elevator !) 😂 The continuous noise we hear is a Ward Leonard (the generator which produce the DC power). Also incredible to still see a Ward Leonard working today.

[@DanT271]

I also noticed it is quite slower going up but, nice to see the older equipment!

[@SPS8elevatorsoflakecounty]

Agreed

[@statecollegewx4060]

Nice

[@VernonElevator]

This reminds me; I just filmed a bank of 3 Selectomatic Mark IV's that have a controller so glitchy that they need some serious help. The triangle call buttons are original but unfortunately they have a PTL COP... May post a video soon but I wouldn't trust them for anything. Doesn't help that there was only one running car and the building was almost abandoned...

[@sictransitgloriamundi230]

Alleine das Getriebe ist gut gearbeitet. Man hört die eigentliche Maschine fast gar nicht. Erstaunlich. Der Controller scheint für die Ewigkeit gebaut worden zu sein. *Eine tolle Anlage! Danke fürs Teilen.*

[@SPS8elevatorsoflakecounty]

Westinghouse I’d say built great elevator machines. Their controllers I’d have to say can be weird. Westinghouse relay controllers in particular I’ve found have a mind of their own, they do all sorts of weird things like going between the top two floors in the video

[@DandyDon1]

To new to have any vacuum tubes in the control rack. There was a Westinghouse elevator system in a TRW executive building with 5 floors. The system had been there so long that in the mid-1980s the selector motor failed, and was sent out for re-manufacturing. The motor-generator sets were seemingly louder than these here.

[@SPS8elevatorsoflakecounty]

You sure about the first part? I swear I saw some in there but maybe I’m thinking of another MR.

[@DandyDon1]

@@SPS8elevatorsoflakecounty That selector motor on the left looked quite modern too. Where I worked, the technician was there one afternoon, and gave a tour. Not extremely well lit in the machine room, but I could see the glow of what might have been a 5U4G in the lower portion of the rack. I didn't see this on the machine you recorded. Plenty of what appear to be aluminum can capacitors though. By the mid 1960s Westinghouse may have been using selenium rectifiers. They are no fun either with that rotten egg smell when they give up their magic smoke! :)

[@SPS8elevatorsoflakecounty]

@@DandyDon1at 0:42 you can see something tubular shaped directly to the right of the selector. I just assumed it was a vacuum tube coated in carbon from over the years but maybe it’s something else. Also the selector motor on the running car was in fact replaced

[@DandyDon1]

One small plus, the fact that the machine is always active keeps the gear box oil warm! haha. I saw/felt a Armor elevator bouncing as it was going up the floors. The tech was there that day, and told me the brushes of the motor-generator set would wear down to a certain point then stick, causing the commutator of the generator side to arc, pitting it which then required honing it down by hand with wet/dry sand paper.

[@DandyDon1]

@@SPS8elevatorsoflakecounty The rectangular can marked 17 2 SEC. is an oiled filled capacitor. Above it I see the steel can. It doesn't appear to be a vacuum tube. I know of no application to place a rectifier vacuum tube under a metal shield. How could you determine if it's filament is lit?

[@wns808]

Great video seeing the old equipment/controls/motors/etc…. Sucks it runs very slow going up but runs fine going down. Do the building owners plan to modernize these elevators or repair them to get them fully functional with the existing equipment?

[@SPS8elevatorsoflakecounty]

Yup. They are now being modernized

[@Dana_Danarosana]

I'm guessing the dead car is parked at 1 and dispatch isn't locked out. It's all mechanical so, without the lockout, this car won't "know" it isn't needed at 1 until it moves and hits a nul one floor down. Either way, what a find!

[@cong1sena2]

Slower in up ?

[@unixtensor]

Stuck cab button? always happens where I work

[@SPS8elevatorsoflakecounty]

No, the cab button wasn’t stuck. I’m not sure what it was

[@BritishEngineer]

What could the 12/13 loop be troubleshooted with? It’s a good thing it isn’t 1-35 loop or it’ll be really wearing itself out, tbh it’s wearing itself out like that anyway and wasting their power. The thing is, from a logic level, electrical engineer’s must view the system from two angles. Electrically, and then the logic produced by the system itself. Is it a possible fault with one of the components, or a fault with the philosophy of the dynamic logic produced? This same theory can be applied to the human brain and can answer questions about heaven.

[@UQRXD]

Makes one think before getting on an old elevator.

[@SPS8elevatorsoflakecounty]

This system could use some work for sure, but I wouldn’t say it’s unsafe.

[@aybgreg6748]

Does the elevator have an indicator??? Lol

[@SPS8elevatorsoflakecounty]

@@aybgreg6748 yes, it does