A tricky job in an old theater taught me to always check the pit floor first

I was called out to the Majestic Theater downtown last month for a stuck car. It was a 1950s Otis traction unit, and the usual checks came up empty. I was about to start pulling the motor when I decided to take one more look down the pit with a better light. That's when I saw it: a thick layer of old plaster dust and wood chips, almost 4 inches deep, had piled up under the car. The guide shoes were just plowing through it like a snowdrift, causing enough drag to trip the safety. We spent the next hour with a shop vac cleaning it all out, and the car ran smooth as silk. I'd never seen a pit that full of debris from building work. Now, no matter what the call is, my first move is a full pit inspection with a flashlight. Has anyone else run into a pit issue that looked like one thing but was something totally different?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamesm481mo ago

Had a similar call at the Grandview Hotel last year. Their sump pump failed and the pit had three feet of water, which the car was basically trying to swim through.

skylerp311mo ago

Did the hotel have any backup system in place at all, or were they just relying on that one pump to keep things dry? I'm always curious if places like that learn their lesson after the first flood or if they just cross their fingers it doesn't happen again. Maybe it's just me but a battery backup or a secondary pump doesn't seem that expensive compared to all the damage water does.

the_matthew29d ago

Ha, sounds like the theater decided to give you a free archaeology lesson before letting you fix the elevator. Honestly, a four inch deep layer of plaster dust is basically a hidden time capsule of bad renovation decisions. Ngl, I bet that pit had been collecting junk since the Eisenhower administration and nobody thought to clean it. Tbh, next time they might find a forgotten prop from the 1970s under there too.