Amazing Westinghouse Selectomatic elevators @ the Historic Metro Tower Lubbock TX (handycam) 

GREAT ELEVATORS!

Westinghouse elevators are awesome!

I also noticed that on the 16th floor, the bell was lower pitched and it dingged 2 times. I would love to ride an old elevator like that, they are truly amazing.

Really cool how them relay controlled elevators worked and still work. Went up to 20 to look for up or down calls

My high school biology teacher was born exactly one week before the tornado, about 1350 miles away.

this is the coolest westinghouse elevator ive seen yet!

Man so much nostalgia from this channel. Thank you man for making my childhood awesome

400 miles for an elevator? You must LOVE Them. I do

@dieselducy Those show the floors where the call buttons have been pressed, the Up on the left and the Down on the right. That's why there is no 20 on the left column nor 1 on the right. Selectomatics were pre-computer; they have a very sophisticated system based entirely on electric switches and relays. The U, D and Pass buttons in the cab were for use by human operators, which still existed in the '50s.

This building satisfies one of my biggest OCD compulsions with skyscrapers in major cities: IT COUNTS THE 13TH FLOOR!

these elevators are just beautiful and fast indeed :D

As commented, Macys in San Francisco had these (since modernized). The best ones were in Kaiser Center in Oakland, which had the white opaque buttons which lit up when pressed. They had a single elevator which stopped on all floors, but during the day had a set of buttons covered by a screw on cover (they had 2 different sets of elevators for lower and upper floors). BTW: The open hole down below the buttons was for a manual control handle to mimic full manual control.

Hey Diesel Ducy, If you look at the Westinghouse Selectomatic panel, those numbers on the end do not denote 2 extra elevators. The numbers on the far left light up when someone hit the up button on any floor. For example, if someone pushed the up button of 5, the 5 button on the far left will light up. If you hit the down button, the numbers on the far right will light up depending on which floor the down button was pressed. Notice there is no Number 1 on the far right or a 20 on the far left.

I hope this beautiful building is well occupied. what a great building to have an office in.

(PART1)These are beautiful! The operation is similiar to old schindler lifts with very similar pop-out buttons. In one of my videos I did some experiments with pulling out the buttons whilst in travel (watch?v=x5oqDXOuHlQ - see 2:00 onwards). One of my first uploads to youtube, wasn't my best! The lift indeed did miss the call that I pulled out. Without any selected calls, it went up to the highest floor then stopped and opened. (>part2>)

Love love these setup. We had better quality of elevators back then we do today

Hey now! Thats an AWESOME elevator!!

those elevators have a mind of their own. like furby!

@dieselducy It allowed the human operator to pass floors where the call button had been pressed. And yes, considering that in 1955 most elevators had a big wooden handle on a bronze wheel, this was very state-of-the art.

Very Art Deco style. LOL they even have floor 13!

Did he just said that this building took a direct hot by F5 tornado?! Impossible!!!

These are nice elevators. The motors sound really nice too.

When the westy wants to go the westy will go words I live by

this is one elevator I'd like to ride too. runs very well. older elevators make interesting sounds. some elevators at Umass Amherst were similar. fun pop out buttons.

R.I.P Westy's I will miss tuem

A couple of extra facts since I've been fascinated with this building since I was a kid. (1) The lobby was for First National Bank's tellers (they share the lower floors with an insurance company) and when they moved into their own building two blocks over the investment firm Dean Witter Reynolds occupied the first floor. (2) The 20th floor that you filmed was a restaurant and the night of the tornado two of my great aunts were up there having supper. When the storm first hit they all moved to the emergency stairwell. (3) It did indeed take on a F5 directly and if you look up at the SW corner of the building you can see the building twist a few degrees and the bricks off the elevator shaft popped off. Too bad you weren't able to see where the reinforced the steel on the lower floors. (4) Several days after the May 11, 1970 tornado downtown was kept evacuated for fears the building was going to fall. Actually, it sat empty for about six years until a group of real estate investors in Amarillo bought the building for the back taxes. (5) Texas Tech University received several grants to inspect the building and the south facade on what I remember to be the 5th & 5th floors was torn away so the engineers and students could study. This is how the Texas Tech Wind Engineering program was started. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal has a lot of pictures from that tornado. Thanks for letting me babble on. lubbockonline.com/slideshows/010309/373680407/slide1.shtml

These elevators are cool but look like they could use some minor servicing. It could be on PEAK UP or PEAK DOWN. I love the WESTY BELL! Brings back soooo MANY MEMORIES!!

That's great video of these elevators is really fast came in seconds!!! Awesome mate.

i love this video those westinghouse elevators are awesome :)

I love those buttons there so cool

The numbers on the end are not extra elevators. They light up when someone pushes an up or down button on one of the floors. Notice on floor 20 you don't have a 20 number on the left. You can't go up any higher than 20. Notice on floor 1, you don't have a 1 on the right. You can't go down from the bottom floor.

Nice building! Nice Westinghouse Elevator System! I love how you always refer to the stairs in a building as the man-powered elevator. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! "Here's the man-powered elevator, & obviously it's a Westinghouse." Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

Wow it is huge

Unfortunately, I looked up on the TDLR Elevator Lookup, and I found out that Schindler had modernized these elevators in 2013. So now, these historic elevators have been horribly butchered.

This is a place I would like to hang out. The metro tower lobby

(PART2>)02:30 Love the inconsistent bulb lighting which is probably a mechanical selector out of adjustment 04:50 I think these lifts seem to end up at the top floor-relay logic 05:12 COOL! My heart starts racing as I thought you would get to film the motor room :) 06:16 You mentioned these U/START/D buttons. I've seen these in Express(UK) and Otis lifts and always wondered what functionality they had-you seem to know,could you explain more? Also PASS button?(>Part3>)

Did he said this building took a direct hit by a f5 tornado?! Impossible!!!

the elevator is amazing

The side indicators on the lobby panel were not for additional elevators but rater were floor call indicators. One side is up calls the other down calls. You mentioned that the elevators were going all the way up to 20 before heading down. When I was a kid we hade elevators like this in Chicago and the door man in the lobby once explained the lobby panel operation to me. The elevators have selectable modes and the main modes used were morning rush, normal automatic, evening rush. My guess would be that the elevators are running in evening rush mode. In this mode the any elevator going up would continue to the top floor in anticipation of many down calls being made. This would also explain why the THIS CAR NEXT light came on when at the top floor. Floor 20 would be the staging floor in evening rush mode. If the elevators were in morning rush mode they would stage at the lobby level and again the lights THIS CAR NEXT and ANOTHER CAR NEXT would come into play. It was all to make the system more efficient. My guess would be that there is some issue with the relay logic in normal automatic mode so the cheep fix was to run it in evening rush mode. This mode would keep the cars independent but is not as efficient for normal operation as more then one car could stop at the same call if it is not already cleared. They would not use morning rush as this usably required an operator at the lobby panel to release the cars when loading in the lobby. Building managers were worried about reliability of the system and Westinghouse eased there minds by having a manual mode individually selectable for each car that would allow an operator to run them completely bypassing the relay logic. Also to calm passengers if the car got stuck there was an intercom into the cars to communicate as most people at the time were used to manual elevators with a trained operator incase of issues. This feature gave people a feeling of someone being in charge.

They are very nice lifts! I love how the buttons pop out when the lift gets to the floor you want. Iv'e never seen that here in New Zealand

I am in Lubbock and rode those elevators after modernization.

i found a set of elevators like this in Washington PA but there OTIS and there only 11 floors

Hey, I've been watching one of your videos like the Starks Building video you did when I was younger. This is video is one of the videos I grew up watching.

These elevators look really awesome. There is a building in downtown Lansing, Michigan that has 1961 Haughton traction elevators and the original letter box. I hope to do a video on them like this soon.

i like the elevator that stops when u talk to it and when you say go it wil go

(PART3>)08:15 There is probably a relay that cancels ALL calls at the point of reaching the top. I wonder whether the system with relay logic was designed this way-i.e. the logic wasn't complex enough to cancel individual buttons 11:10 OMG I bet the motor room door was up there! 12:40 you commented 'click click'.Wonder what that is.A relay or part of mechanical selector. 13:30 LOVE that lobby panel!Wished you'd filmed that more instead of the post box and lobby at the start hehe :) Great vid!

Very nice! One thing: the outer columns on the big indicator-panel in the lobby are showing the up and down calls from the floors. If you look at the very left one, you see the upper floor missing. This is, because the left column shows up-calls and there can't be an up call from the uppermost floor. Similar the right indicators: they would light up for down calls, so the lowest floor is missing. (Works like an annunciator in the cab of a manually controlled elevator.)

hey dieselducy you should make more road trip videos i love those

Weird, was watching the Buddy Holly Story when I viewed this video. Literally just checking out elevators and skyscrapers and played this.

I'd love a closer more detailed view of that awesome selectomatic control panel

This is an elevator!

i love westinghouse elevators can you film more

Going to go see these myself as well as the old hotel settles hope these are still there and the settles is 15 floors built in 1930 they replaced the elevators but a lot of the buildings decor were restored by hand so gotta do a hotel tour there

One of my first viewed videos of your channel, the video is fantastic well done

Love the bell

This is an awesome elevator! It’s got a lot of character. The odd behaviour of the elevators could be a sign of dodgy relays

At 3:36 I think that green light means the elevator is going up - just like the call stations on every floor except 20

They did not want six elevators. The floor indicators on the left and on the right illuminate when someone pushes the hall call buttons on the upper floors. Either up (left) or down (right).

Yes I do like those elevators

The bldg is now called NTS Building. It was originally called The Great Plains Life Bldg. There was an urban legend that there was a image of a tornado on the west side of the bricks on the outside.

I kind of like this elevator system because of the bell on elevator #2 but do the 3 other elevators have a working bell

Selectomatic....wonder if it got its name because of how temperamental it is. "When the westy wants to leave, the westy will leave" lol

I am sure you knew this.. but when you said that they orgininally intended for 6 elevators... Actually, those numbers on the left and right side of the lobby announcer board indicate which floors a call is being placed. Food for thought. :)

10:00 well that was a weird bell

That wasn't the interlock, that was a spring to assist and keep the shaft doors closed under their own power. You pointed the camera straight at the interlock: it's your classic Westinghouse "T" interlock.

I would love to just sit in the elevators and watch the journey they make from top to bottom.

Well... seems neither Schindler nor OTIS can maintain old elevators. If Schindler does, they simply fall apart. If OTIS does, they fall appart and have their machine rooms turned into museums. PS: Wow! Nice "pop-out" buttons! No controller memory required. Impressive! :D

The building and the elevator reminds me of South Building at the hospital I work at

1:50 - Andrew: I don't think this mailbox is-- Phone: Message arrived.

In my country,the underground train station platform screen dors are made from Westinghouse

Those are neat. Bet it was a cool ride

Andrew i like that elevator.

Express sold these in the UK as the Express DMR.

At 4:34 there was Union Pacific Eastbound

If you listen very closely you can here relays when the elevator goes by a floor

@JonathanElevator29 I worked in Macy's SF for several years. The floor buttons light up and go out when the floor is reached. A nice feature: you can pull the button if you press the wrong floor, or naughty children punch them all. There are (or were; I haven't been there in years) a lot of Selectomatics in SF. My late uncle was a salesman for Westinghouse. I like to think he was responsible for that.

What an awesome RU-vid channel you have are of Lists

@dieselducy Doorframes are, at the least, so is the cab itself (seen Otis use the same), but the fixtures and cntrollers, DEFINATELY them.

There’s a Ghost In The Elevator 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 0:49

I like that bell

I'm suprised the building got it by an F5 Tornado.

They Should ad ones in Macy’s

Sad that these were modded. I found some almost just like this here in St Paul!

My 2nd favourite was the one with door disease

Aweso0me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That green light means the elevator is ready to select the floor

I noticed that there are phantom elevators on the selectomatic. Systems (extra elevators on the panel that can't be explained).

Those elevators act like they have been drinking LOL😂😂😂

ROCK LOBSTER!!!!!

building leans slightly due to the 1970 tornado. I was stuck in one of them for almost and hour one time but it sure was an adventure hanging out with all of my co-workers when our offices where on the top floor. Floors above the 8th are no longer occupied under order of the fire marshal.

The buttons are probably Pre-lexan (black buttons) that Otis used them on 1950s to early 1970s too. And why do they serve the 13th floor? I thought the 13th floor is considered unlucky in US.

The North most elevator, doesn't have a lift in it right now (it has been removed). Only the 2 South most elevators work right now. They are all being pulled out and replaced with modern, reliable elevators. P.S. Did you notice the jolt between floors 9 and 10 where the shaft/building is twisted from the tornado?

Uh Oh! You stepped Wall-E! 0:36

13:56. You ain't going nowhere.

When in priority up, they lobby dispatch when the next car arrives to maximize use efficiency. This car next lights when you're next to go... another car next lights if you're not next in line. The car literally waits at lobby until another arrives.

13!

i wanna see the machine room! :)

GENERIC LIFT COMPANIES WERE HERE O-O

I would love to see the machine room in this building...

I thought the braille plates always had to be to the left of the buttons