Saw a weird elevator setup in a 1920s hotel in Savannah

I was checking out the old DeSoto Hotel last week and they still have the original Otis traction machine from 1927, but it's been hooked up to a modern controller. The car still has the brass cage door and everything. Has anyone else worked on a retrofit like that and found weird wiring issues?

3 comments

3 Comments

walker.cole1mo ago

Yeah, I've seen a few of those old Otis machines with new controllers. In my experience the wiring issues are usually just me staring at it for 20 minutes before admitting I can't tell what's original and what's been spliced in.

jesse99421d ago

Gotta call you out, that's usually more like 45 minutes staring and swearing.

felixlee1mo ago

Heard about a buddy who got called to a retrofit like that in an old theater. He spent an hour tracing one wire that went into a junction box, through a wall, and just ended in a capped pipe. Turns someone had just abandoned a whole circuit twenty years ago instead of pulling it out.