Home Forums General Discussion Print Talk Free 1964 Otis elevator prints

Our San Francisco condo just completed a renovation of its original 1964 two-car 28-floor Otis elevator, and of course they junked the relay- and thyratron-based UCL controller. I'm an engineer, so for fun I asked for the on-site prints. I spent a pleasant couple of hours looking them over, being confused by many things, but impressed by the design overall.

Before I consign them to the recycle bin, I thought I'd check here to see if anyone wants them. There are about 40 C-size prints, but I'll bet there are duplicates. I've attached the title block from one page.

I have alot of old equipment with prints in horrible shape and those look to be in great shape. Any way to scan them and send in an email?

Sorry, I don't have a scanner that works for 18" x 24" sheets. And they actually are not in great shape, many of them are quite bedraggled.

But if they would be useful I'd be happy to roll them up in a tube and send them to you.

My scanner isn't big enough, but a friend pointed out that taking photos with a camera works pretty well. I've done that and converted the prints to three PDFs:
boards.pdf: the 16 prints that were mounted to boards and hung in the machine room for easy viewing
sheets13.pdf: a set of 13 loose sheets, with duplicates
sheets9.pdf: a set of 9 loose sheets, with duplicates

The files are big because the resolution is pretty high, so I can't attach them to this message. I've put them at www.shustek.com/elevator, but I can't guarantee that they'll stay there forever. Let me know if there's a more permanent place I can put them.

There are various handwritten revisions on the prints, reflecting changes that were made over the years. I like the note on one of the loose sheets that says "Take care of prints, they probably aren't buying new elevators anytime soon." Well, it only took them 57 years...

Len, thanks for taking the time to take pictures and upload. Those prints are actually in pretty good shape.

I am an elevator / escalator mechanic for a certain NYS entity and we still have some old prints laying around from the old Otis machines that were in service in the 1940's. Civil service work and office spaces are indeed a time capsule LOL. They would make a fine addition in a frame to any elevator mancave.

These schematics look amazing compared to the one I just ordered from Unitec. Is there legend?
Any folks here familiar with these older symbols?

Take a picture of the symbols you want information about.. I am sure that we can identify them for you. A picture of the symbol in the circuit is preferable.