1960s Otis lift at Shell Centre (behind London Eye)

Beautiful original 1960s Otis lift but unfortunately recorded in low quality :( But I recorded this back in 2009 and it's better than nothing I guess. No chance of filming it again now, but I doubt it's still there.
Notice how the lift shuts down after about 20 seconds after inactivity, even with the doors open!! - you can hear the DC Gen-set running down.
Really nice lift this one and so is the building.
To find out some more details about this facinating building, here is the link that I mentioned in the video:
www.theguardian...
Or if the link is down, google...
"Guardian The Shell Centre closure means losing a pearl of a swimming pool"

[@thewildeeper]

Thanks for sharing with us this little bit of history Mr. Matt!

[@toniturnwald9890]

Hi, you do a great job. Really nice.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

+Toni Turnwald thanks

[@lewiemcneely9143]

Might not be the best but it's still interesting. I liked the generators the best! Thanks and HI to Chay!

[@idl3k_elev]

Wow that huge lift looks more like in a department store rather than in an office. Loved those vintage black buttons! Last month I went to Hong Kong and found some really old OTIS lifts with black buttons!

[@mrmattandmrchay]

+IDLift3000 wow cool... i would have checked to see if the motor room was unlocked or not ;)

[@SamSitar]

that lift has an interesting power saver.

[@kianjsr]

On holiday in London for afew days. Love the vids

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Cool and thanks for the comment. Where do you live normally, as is it your first time in London?

[@kianjsr]

mrmattandmrchay I live in Liverpool but have never had the time to go there, LOVED IT

[@Anatole2201]

Ive been on an Otis that the Motor generator turns off like that. Its still there and running like it was the day it was installed.

[@gabrielcoyle9049]

Does it still exist

[@gabrielcoyle3067]

Do the lifts still exist?

[@dngunder]

Are you going to take a retake? Looks awesome! (except the quality, wich is rather bad)

[@mrmattandmrchay]

No chance of doing retake 1) It's probably gone (this was almost 7 years ago) and 2) we lost the contract

[@dngunder]

+mrmattandmrchay to what? :O also, looks like the indicators on the flr you started on had red filter on it

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Sorry, it's on a need to know basis! :)

[@spinba11]

The building has been knocked down now.

[@teravolt1195]

Did it use a rotary converter? An AC motor driving a DC gen for the lifts DC motor?

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Exactly right :)

[@dykodesigns]

Just to think of it, camera's in phones have made a lot of progress in just few years time. The latest ones have image sensors that are quite close to compact camera's.
Do the doors stay open when the lift is parked on the ground floor? I've seen this behaviour on a few 1960's lifts.

[@peterlomas984]

Doors normally closed on parking especially on simplex installations, on multiple units the car due to be dispatched next from the main floor will park with its doors open. This can be modified at the clients request by simply removing or adding a link in the control wiring.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Love the idea of fitting a link between terminal X and terminal Y, then testing it and seeing if it works or not. Far more interesting and exciting than just programming it to work by selecting an option from No to Yes

[@mrmattandmrchay]

In other words - "I'm old Skool!!!"

[@peterlomas984]

Yes and it also gives you a better understanding of the circuitry and how it works. As i have stated before you have to know what something is supposed to do so you can fault find when it does decide to play up.

[@Lift.Tracker]

@@peterlomas984 What’s the purpose behind lifts parking with the doors open? Is it just to reduce ware on the door motor? Similar to how the Express Lifts’s retiring cam will only operate if the lift is about to move.

[@danielburton4482]

These lifts were turned off sometime in 2016. I know because I work in Shell Centre and they were in the car park and last year when I serviced the fire extinguishers and I had to walk the whole blooming way. Round and round, up and down lol. That was July and in Sept they started the demo works with the car parks the first thing to go.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Thanks for your comment. I've not worked in the building for sometime, although when I did I wished I'd done a little more exploring! The building was fascinating and I'd no idea they had demolished the car park and the low rise buildings, leaving the tower on it's own. I remember back in about 2010 when there was a problem with the "river thames cooling system" where river water leaked and filled the entire sub-basement. You looked down the stairwell and you could see the whole of the lower levels under water!

[@danielburton4482]

I remember only to well the 'leak'.....I was based in the sub basement at the time!! I have moved up in the world since then though...Im at basement level now ha :) Shell Centre was an amazing building before the demo works...i was lucky enough to see most of it on my travels during my working day.

[@peterlomas984]

Generator shutdown timer is set too low, should be about 2 minutes.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Hi Pete, Probably using a capacitor to hold a relay on for the timer, wonder if the cap has had it?

[@peterlomas984]

Distinct possibility Matt, there would be a couple of 1600uf capacitors at least in that circuit one of them has probably blown.