I remember travelling in such a contraption when I was young (1960s). It was in a department store in Maidstone, a man in a uniform was employed to operate the thing and it was an experience to ride it! Only time I ever saw a lift that was manually operated using a lever to control the drive. However I also remember in the 1980s the lift on the Woolwich foot tunnel had someone to operate them - I could never understand why because they seemed to be fully automatic and all the operator did was open and close the doors and press the button! Marion
Absolutely! I never knew they made manual lifts either! I sort of assumed that they would’ve at one point, but as nobody has previously discovered any, I had no idea. Even in New Zealand where there’s quite a lot of these ultra vintage Express Lifts, even there a manual one hasn’t been discovered! And yeah, with the SMS label it’s even more cool! I’ve only seen a few which have that. It means it’s from the 50s or before if it has SMS label.
Really great and detailed video! Thanks for explaining how it works in the description too, wow 2 motors, that is so interesting. This is really a one of a kind and is so amazing. Would it be possible for you to say where this is? You can email me if you like with it as I have an email in my channel about page. I don't plan to upload any videos of it as I could not make a better video than yours anyway and I would keep the location private to myself if that is what's best as I understand if everyone tried to visit there might be some problems. I would just really like to visit as I live near this and film for my own personal records to know I have seen something so amazing!
Wow, this lift is truly incredible! It's like finally seeing something working that you have only heard of before from old books and images. Absolutely epic. Also as it has already been mentioned - this lift seems to go at around 1.2m/s which is really fast for such an old lift. Just amazing.
Absolutely! I reckon this is quite possibly the only manual Express Lift left. Even in New Zealand where there’s quite a lot of vintage gated Express Lifts, even there a manual one has never been discovered! The majority of them were probably modernised before the 80s when they wouldn’t have been considered vintage antiquities quite as much as they would be now. The ‘lift conductor design’ is something I’m particularly fascinated by! I’ve never seen anything like it in real life, other than heard of it like you say. And yeah, the speed is very impressive! The fact it’s so fast meant they had to go through all the extra hassle of giving it a levelling speed. Not an easy task in the 40s, but they of course had a method! The TruLeveller motor: 13:49
@@Lift.Tracker I have seen the motor, it looks very interesting. Reminds me of an old type of Schlieren drive system that also used two separate motors.It was also from the 1940s and the dedicated levelling motor was connected via V-belts. I have never seen lifts with a conductor design here, I guess that concept was abandoned pretty early in Switzerland. Though I know that it existed as an option until the 70s. I have schematics of many different lift controllers and the said ones mention that the option exists. There also is a modern version of the conductor control, which is just a key switch that if activated only enables car calls with the intent that a conductor operates the lift. But that is something completely different from a technical point of view.
Yeah, I found that quite cool! Beside the manual Express lift, there were 3 1970s DC generator Otis Lifts. One of them has been fully replaced, one has been modernised, and another is still there but derelict. All the old parts have just been dumped in the basement and none of it was ever taken away. It’s been there for about 5 years now lol! In the motor room, all the motors for the Otisies are still there, including the DC Generators!
