As I may have mentioned, I am currently working on a Modernization of a bank of three elevators that were installed around 1962 or so. We are putting in new systems that are a bit more 2005. We are going from a bank of relays for a controller, to a state of the art, Triple Redundency, Computer-driven system. The problem is... locating all this new "space age" technology on a car that was designed for a completely different system. Since we are doing the first car (which becomes the template that the other one's will be matched to) it takes a lot longer to mock things up (and get them right) than it will for the other two cars. We are designing the schema for the entire job as we go.
WE placed a car-top box in a position that was most unfortunate yesterday. It'll be good for any service tech who has to come onto this job in the future, but there is only room enough for one mechanic on the top-front of the car now. I wanted to mount it vertically on the side of the car, but the other man wanted to mount it horizontilally from the bottom of the crosshead. My way woould have taken up almost no room off the top of the car, but his way takes up an area roughly three feet square. He's been doing this for nearly thirty years, and I've been doing it for ten months. We went with his way, and it caused no end of troouble with moving around on top of the car today.
"It's all about compromise" he constantly says, but there's some things that I wouldn't give in on if I was driving. Mobility is key. If a service man is a little uncomfortable later on, I don't give a shit. As long as my current job goes smoothly and with a minimum of fuss and stress, and anyone who is extracted from a stopped car through the upper hatch is unimpeded. Philosophies differ, but the end result is the same... A functioning elevator.
I would say "More tomorrow", but I'm heading down to Eric's for a little social decompression. See you soon.
Posted by Johnny - Oh at August 2, 2005 11:18 PM | TrackBackHey Blog-Dad,
http://whatattitudeproblem.blogs.com/home/2005/08/cant_wait_to_tr.html
Check this story out and tell me if it's true.
Posted by: Sarah the Penguin at August 4, 2005 09:46 PMYup, It's true, but it only works on select elevators. I've personally never used it, as we disable that functionality on a;l the machines that we service. Just keep in mind if you try this, that you are not only inconveniencing other passengers of your car, but you are confusing the dispatching system as well. Thereby you are affecting the performance of every elevator in the bank. Keep this in mind if you are itching to try this out in a hospital elevator. Someone could be trying to get to an O/R on another level while you're fucking with the elevator's. Please ride responsibly.
Posted by: Johnny - Oh at August 4, 2005 11:49 PM