Has anybody ever been stuck in a lift

[james60059]

At Tamworth Station about 14 Years Ago, one of my friends decided to "jump" to see if the lift bounced and needless to say we were stuck for about 30 minutes. Missed 2 Class 60's in the process .

Since then, I've ALWAYS used the stairs regardless of what I'm carrying now, as for my friend, he was sent to Coventry for the day

 

[Dai Corner]

At Tamworth Station about 14 Years Ago, one of my friends decided to "jump" to see if the lift bounced and needless to say we were stuck for about 30 minutes. Missed 2 Class 60's in the process .

Since then, I've ALWAYS used the stairs regardless of what I'm carrying now, as for my friend, he was sent to Coventry for the day

Via Birmingham or via Nuneaton?

 

[Airline Man]

I got stuck in a lift in Terminal 1 at Heathrow a few years bacK with thirty Japanese schoolgirls! Seriously. We were released after about five minutes.

 

[Cdd89]

I used to have a crippling phobia of lifts (I have walked up the stairs of 40 floor towers before).

I finally got over it after doing a bit of research, and realising that there are so many safety mechanisms that the chances of 1) dropping to your death, 2) the phone link failing, 3) a broken high rise lift not being noticed are approximately zero. In many buildings high rise lifts are constantly monitored by the front desk / security.

Lift companies treat entrapments as their highest priority of response, and the nearest engineer will abandon whatever they are doing in order to respond to one.

The phone link will be an annoying expense for lift owners soon, as analog phone systems are phased out in favour of VoIP. The replacement isn’t simple as fibre lines can’t carry a voltage and networking infrastructure also needs redundant power. The cheap option is a GSM solution with a battery backup but that relies on access to 4G which may be expensive to reach from a tower core. I do wonder if some unscrupulous owners won’t bother and their legacy systems will just stop working in 2025.

I still walk up the stairs of 40 floor towers, but for fun rather than out of crippling fear!

 

[Bletchleyite]

The phone link will be an annoying expense for lift owners soon, as analog phone systems are phased out in favour of VoIP. The replacement isn’t simple as fibre lines can’t carry a voltage and networking infrastructure also needs redundant power. The cheap option is a GSM solution with a battery backup but that relies on access to 4G which may be expensive to reach from a tower core. I do wonder if some unscrupulous owners won’t bother and their legacy systems will just stop working in 2025.

In whatever Scandinavian country it is that has alredy got rid of the regular phone system, you can get boxes that basically translate - they connect to the VOIP system and have a regular socket that the telephone plugged into it can't know isn't an old style one (same pinout, power via a transformer etc). I'm sure the lift companies will come up with (at a fee) a suitable resilient one of these.

 

[Ediswan]

The phone link will be an annoying expense for lift owners soon, as analog phone systems are phased out in favour of VoIP. The replacement isn’t simple as fibre lines can’t carry a voltage and networking infrastructure also needs redundant power.

@Bletchleyite has covered retrofit. New build are fitting plenum-rated PoE network switches in the lift cabins for assorted purposes, including VoIP. AFAIK, the only part which is unique to lifts is the cable within the lifft shaft.

The requirement to use fibre applies to the connection between a building and the public network. You can still use copper within a building.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Just occurred to me that in fact most broadband routers have a phone socket in them already. Not every provider supports it, but for those that do it acts like a phone socket if you plug a phone into it. It won't support pulse dialling, I suppose, but that's of interest to very few cases and basically no lift phones - there weren't lift phones in the day when pulse dialling was the norm, just a button that rang a bell.

 

[Brooke]

My apartment block in Lausanne has a lift that periodically gets stuck.

I’ve learned over time to give the doors a kick half way up and it will start going again; presumably something to do with a door sensor.

It’s saved me a good amount of time waiting to be let out, and also I don’t have any anxiety I might get stuck, since I know how to solve for it!

 

[Mag_seven]

Got stuck in an office lift last thing at night many years ago - the person at the end of the phone said the maintenance people would get to me in two hours but that was in no way acceptable to me so the fire brigade were called who got me out in about 15 mins!

 

[Cloud Strife]

Happened to me late at night once in work. It took a good couple of hours for the engineers to come and let me out, though it wasn't much of an issue - I just got my head down and went to sleep.

 

[aleggatta]

I worked in maintenance at a group of hospitals in Sussex, had a couple of interesting experiences

Once I got called due to the ‘unauthorised fitment of lift comfort music’. Turns out someone had hit the emergency button, it had dialled switchboard and they didn’t know how to end the call and stop it dialling back, so they just left it on hold! It was a pleasant experience nonetheless!

Had a few trappings that happened, most of the time the car was near enough to the floor that we could just open the door and let them out. Think there was only one time we had to wind the lift by hand, and of course it had to be wound against the counterweight rather than going with it!

Finally, we had a lift in an old block (now demolished) that was… an interesting experience to say the least! It had a couple of nicknames, one of the notable ones was the titanic, the groans it made when travelling the floors were quite something!

 

[maniacmartin]

Yes I got stuck in a lift before. It was an outdoor lift in the estate where I used to live, on a Friday evening. I pressed the alarm button and heard a phone ring and then got connected to an answering machine telling me to leave a message and someone would return my call between 9 and 5 Monday to Friday .

I think you can imagine the tone of the message I left. Luckily after about 10 minutes the door open buttons started working on their own accord and I was freed! (The lift hadn’t actually moved at all so I was still on the same floor as where I boarded)

 

[jamesontheroad]

Has anyone been over the top, or under the bottom, of a Paternoster?

More than a few Aston University students in the 1970's, I suspect.
I never dared ....

Doing so is usually forbidden as it may cause the whole thing to imbalance, but check This cool video out though. A brief explanation about Paternoster lifts including a ‘ride’ over the top.

I'd understood that the main risk is that, if the lift breaks down with someone trapped in a car going over the top, it would be very difficult indeed to extract them. I can't see how it'd cause any sort of significant imbalance, given that it's quite possible for it to be legitimately loaded in a very unbalanced fashion.

(We went to Sheffield specially to see the Paternoster there a few years ago, and did indeed go over the top and under the bottom - of course!)

I was a student at the University of Sheffield from 2001-04 and 2006-08, both times studying in a department in the Arts Tower, the rather elegant sixties tower block that looks out over the city. It was extensively renovated after I left and the paternoster had to be retained because of its inclusion in the listed status of the building. However maintaining it continues to be a problem, since no-one manufactures them any more. Luckily Sheffield is a city full of ingenious engineers with workshops, so whenever an oily bit snaps it is usually possible to get it replaced in a couple of weeks.

I've been over the top once, nothing much to report, except it's very dark and noisy.

I've been under the bottom once or twice, and it broke.

Whenever there was a fire alarm, the lifts paused and you had to evacuate via the two staircases. About two or three times a term I'd have to trudge from my studios on the 13th - 18th floors to the concourse. At that point there were various strategies. It would take at least 20 minutes to empty the building and do all the checks, so if it was cold it made more sense to walk over to the Union for a coffee/beer/lunch and come back later. But if you absolutely had to get back in as soon as possible (and we were architecture students, so we believed all the cr@p about working to excesss) there were a couple of tactics.

1) Walk up. Huge effort but usually quicker than waiting.

2) Wait for the two lifts or the paternoster. Long queues. Could take up to thirty minutes.

3) Walk up two or three floors, then jump onto the downward paternoster and slide smoothly underneath in order to already be in the cabs as they passed the long queue of people waiting to go up.

That last tactic is risky, because after a evacuation the system is completely imbalanced: everyone is going up and no-one is going down. In normal operation, a paternoster is really clever because it passively equalises the load of people going up with people going down. It's not actually so good in a university building, because students tend to move in large groups whenever classes end or start.

So that's what I did with my friend once... (now a wonderful architect working in London). We saw the queues, decided to run upstairs to the second or third floor and then hop on the downward paternoster. But we got trapped below ground. The paternoster broke down for about 15 minutes, meaning we were universally hated by not only the caretakers but also everyone waiting to get back in the building. I did not risk it again. If you ever visit, you should be ok to go either underneath or over the top... but never try to go under after an evacuation.

The Arts Tower has eighteen regular floors (visible from the outside) + a basement and a mezzanine at the bottom and two more floors at the top. The 19th floor is behind the louvres at the very top, and used to be home to two, back-to-back lecture theatres which each probably sat about 100 people. The paternoster machinery occupied the 19th and 20th floors, and only one elevator went to the 20th floor, so it was a complete non-sense to have up to 200 students up there during peak periods... especially if both lectures ended and another 200 students were waiting in the tiny lobbies to enter.

 

[Magdalia]

Whenever there was a fire alarm, the lifts paused and you had to evacuate via the two staircases. About two or three times a term I'd have to trudge from my studios on the 13th - 18th floors to the concourse. At that point there were various strategies. It would take at least 20 minutes to empty the building and do all the checks, so if it was cold it made more sense to walk over to the Union for a coffee/beer/lunch and come back later. But if you absolutely had to get back in as soon as possible (and we were architecture students, so we believed all the cr@p about working to excesss) there were a couple of tactics.

1) Walk up. Huge effort but usually quicker than waiting.

2) Wait for the two lifts or the paternoster. Long queues. Could take up to thirty minutes.

3) Walk up two or three floors, then jump onto the downward paternoster and slide smoothly underneath in order to already be in the cabs as they passed the long queue of people waiting to go up.

I have not been stuck in a lift, but I have worked in a 30 storey building and experienced evacuations, including one that was a genuine emergency. Walking down the stairs I reckoned it took about 30 seconds per floor because of the crowds, so from floor 30 it took 15 minutes to get out. Another factor is dizziness which sets in after about 10 flights of always turning in the same direction on a zigzag staircase. If I was designing tower blocks I would reverse the "turn" on the evacuation stairs every few floors to reduce dizziness.

One other feature of this building was that it had "inner suburban" and "outer suburban" lifts. Floor 15 was the Welwyn Garden City of the lift service. The "inner suburban" lifts only went up to floor 15, the "outer suburban" lifts did not call anywhere between the ground and floor 15. So a journey, say, between floor 5 and floor 20, required a change of lift at floor 15. One very shy colleague, working in the top half of the building, used the "inner suburban" lifts to floor 15 and completed the journey to their cellular office in the fire escape, so that they didn't have to share a lift with anyone they knew.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That sort of arrangement is common in tall buildings, the World Trade Center towers had two "interchange lobbies" between fast and stopping lifts, and I am sure the new one does too.

It is basically just like a vertical railway!

 

[Dai Corner]

That sort of arrangement is common in tall buildings, the World Trade Center towers had two "interchange lobbies" between fast and stopping lifts, and I am sure the new one does too.

It is basically just like a vertical railway!

Lift (Elevator for the Americans) suppliers employ mathematicians to maximise the efficiency of their products.

The Ups and Downs of Making Elevators Go | Mathematical Association of America

www.maa.org

The Ups and Downs of Making Elevators Go​

Theresa Christy, a mathematician at Otis Elevator Co., has dedicated her career to developing systems that make elevators run as perfectly as possible.

A profile in The Wall Street Journal details some of the challenges of her job, whether it’s determining how to get people to the Empire State Building’s Observation Deck faster or designing elevator systems at a hotel in the holy city of Mecca that can clear a building quickly enough to get most people out five times a day for prayer.

“From her sparse second-floor office in a leafy office park in Farmington, Conn.,” writes WSJ Reporter Kate Linbaugh, “she writes strings of code that allow elevators to do essentially the greatest good for the most people—including the building's owner, who has to allocate considerable space for the concrete shafts that house the cars. Her work often involves watching computer simulation programs that replay elevator decision-making.”

"I feel like I get paid to play videogames,” she said in the article. “I watch the simulation, and I see what happens, and I try to improve the score I am getting.”

Read the full article in The Wall Street Journal.

 

[DerekC]

My funniest stuck lift situation was in one of the South Quay buildings where we had the DLR upgrade team nearly thirty years ago. We were being assisted by some friendly Americans, one of whom turned out to be a wannabe (but never quite made it) Texas cowboy with a good line in stories about his personal abilities.

Towards the end of his first week the lift stuck between floors and, local efforts having failed, the London Fire Brigade was duly called. Crew arrived very promptly and got the doors open a crack from a floor with about one third of the car visible. Our hero was unwise enough to start eh conversation with "say, hope you guys know what y'r doin." Cue humorous (but rather heavy footed) playacting by the fire crew along the lines of "well mate, last bloke was in there all night but we'll do our best for you" .... "hey, Fred, have you seen the pile of crap up in the machine room" .... not surprised Fred, brake hangers look dodgy too ...." ".... well, what can you expect - it's one of them Bulgarian jobs ...."

They had him out in half an hour with a bit of judicious hand winding, but by that time he had decided he suffered from claustrophobia and was visibly pale and shaky!

 

[Mystic Force]

Story I heard from a Lift engineer thought entertaining enough to repeat.

He was called to fix a lift at Cambridge University that had become stuck and after a bit of time was able to restart the lift and free those trapped inside. When the doors open, out rolls Stephen Hawkins who unleashes a profanity laden tirade to those present. Presumably he had long enough in the lift to have it ready to go the moment the doors opened!

 

[CharlieSpotted]

I got stuck in a lift once in a small office building (4 floors + basement). The historic nature of the building meant that a "pulley" lift was unsuitable so the lift was of the type with a hydraulic (I think?) piston underneath. Myself and a couple of others in the building had recently been trained on how to free someone trapped which in this kind of lift was pretty straightforward, in that you would just hold in a button which would release the pressure until the lift dropped to the next floor level, and then open the doors. So, I wasn't trapped for long.

I did have to call on my mobile for help, though, because the lift telephone was connected to the building's VOIP telephone system, and the system's configuration had been altered over time resulting in it... going to an unmonitored voicemail box.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I was in charge of that VOIP telephone system.

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

Has anyone been over the top, or under the bottom, of a Paternoster?

Yes, I was walking through Hamburg with my then-boyfriend and we saw a paternoster through the open door of some building. The doorman kindly offered to take us on it and we went through the top and bottom together. Quite a fun experience

 

[John Luxton]

Only once. It was at the Sefton Hotel, Douglas back in the late 1990s. Lift stopped between floors.

There were several people in it.

One of the staff realised something had happened managed to open the doors.

The lift had stopped between floors it was a a bit of a step up to floor level but with helping hands everyone got out okay.

 

[plugwash]

I was going to ask if anyone has experience of the intercom failing, but alas, they probably wouldn't be here to tell us.

My experience:

I was in a lift at the University, which suddenly stopped, I tried using the alarm button, it made a noise but noone ever spoke to me over the intercom. I was not able to make a mobile phone call either but I can't remember whether it was because I didn't have a phone on me, whether the battery was flat or whether there was no signal.

After trying the alarm several times, I forced open the door, then realized I was between floors and had no way to open the outer doors. So I closed it again, I continued to try the alarm and I think I may have opened and reclosed the doors again. I still didn't get anyone speaking to me but after a few minuites the lift moved and the doors opened. The lift was poorly aligned with the floor outside but the step was small enough that I was able to exit from the lift.

After exiting from the lift, I used a litter bin to block the doors from closing. I then went to tell security what had happened but they seemed to struggle to understand what I had told them.

I was told later that there was substantial damage to the lift, though it was never made clear to me if that damage was from me forcing the door open, from the bin falling into the lift mechanism and somehow getting stuck or from something else.

the chance of a stuck lift not being noticed for 3 days is basically zero.

My worry, particularly in a place like the University building I was I was in would be that while people would notice the lift was not functional, they may not realize someone was stuck inside and since no one lift is "mission critical" they may not push to get it fixed quickly.

I would be particuarly scared if it happened on a Friday evening, so the building may be pretty much empty for two days.

 

[Wolfie]

Has anyone been over the top, or under the bottom, of a Paternoster?

Yup, quite regularly as a student in the early 80s.