Interesting transport modes

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

University closes rare lift 'with a heavy heart'

A rare Paternoster lift - which has no doors and moves continually without stopping at floor level - is to be removed by a university.

Installed in the Attenborough Tower of the University of Leicester in the late 1960s, the lift was one of the last in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

While acknowledging the device will be missed, officials said it had become too expensive to maintain.  A replacement standard lift is due to be installed by September 2018.

A petition to save the lift, which has attracted more than 2,000 signatures, described it as a "fundamental part" of Attenborough Tower, and a "piece of engineering history".

The University confirmed the news "with a heavy heart".  In a statement it said: "We have done our best to maintain and update the lift, but unfortunately it has reached the end of its working life. We've looked at a range of options and thought carefully about this, but it would be both impractical and uneconomic to attempt to fix it or replace it. Spare parts for Paternosters are no longer available and need to be manufactured each time they are needed."

Before it closed Professor Gordon Campbell, from the University, said: "There are loads of safety features, there is a cord to pull, a button to press and you can also bang on the sides. Although it looks deeply dangerous, it isn't - and of course it moves at a very sedate pace."

What is a Paternoster lift?
- Invented in the 1860s by Peter Ellis, an architect from Liverpool.
- Uses open compartments on a continuously moving loop, one side going up, the other down.
- Name comes from system's resemblance to rosary prayer beads and Latin for ''Our Father', which begins the Lord's Prayer.
- Other surviving UK examples are in the University of Sheffield Arts Tower and University of Essex Albert Sloman library.

[Kempis]

A rare Paternoster lift - which has no doors and moves continually without stopping at floor level - is to be removed by a university.

Installed in the Attenborough Tower of the University of Leicester in the late 1960s, the lift was one of the last in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

While acknowledging the device will be missed, officials said it had become too expensive to maintain.  A replacement standard lift is due to be installed by September 2018.

A petition to save the lift, which has attracted more than 2,000 signatures, described it as a "fundamental part" of Attenborough Tower, and a "piece of engineering history".

The University confirmed the news "with a heavy heart".  In a statement it said: "We have done our best to maintain and update the lift, but unfortunately it has reached the end of its working life. We've looked at a range of options and thought carefully about this, but it would be both impractical and uneconomic to attempt to fix it or replace it. Spare parts for Paternosters are no longer available and need to be manufactured each time they are needed."

Before it closed Professor Gordon Campbell, from the University, said: "There are loads of safety features, there is a cord to pull, a button to press and you can also bang on the sides. Although it looks deeply dangerous, it isn't - and of course it moves at a very sedate pace."

That's sad. I remember using the Paternoster when going to Leicester for an interview. It's an efficient and elegant piece of engineering. (By coincidence, Gordon Campbell was on the interviewing panel.)

[trainer]

We had one of those 'Our Father' machines in the Arts Tower at Sheffield University.  Don't know whether it's still there.  Great fun...and probably not allowed to be installed these days with more stringent H&S^▸ (Health and Safety) rules.  No issues with doors to open of course. 

[grahame]

We had one of those 'Our Father' machines in the Arts Tower at Sheffield University.  Don't know whether it's still there.  Great fun...and probably not allowed to be installed these days with more stringent H&S^▸ (Health and Safety) rules.  No issues with doors to open of course. 

Rumour has it that it might be ...

What is a Paternoster lift?
- Invented in the 1860s by Peter Ellis, an architect from Liverpool.
- Uses open compartments on a continuously moving loop, one side going up, the other down.
- Name comes from system's resemblance to rosary prayer beads and Latin for ''Our Father', which begins the Lord's Prayer.
- Other surviving UK^▸ (United Kingdom) examples are in the University of Sheffield Arts Tower and University of Essex Albert Sloman library.

[didcotdean]

I worked in a building with a paternoster in the 80s. It had just been upgraded with trip boards as someone had an accident involving their feet being positioned over the open part of the compartment. As well as the lack of parts they have been replaced by conventional lifts as they cannot be used by people in wheelchairs or even a bit unsteady on their feet.

[froome]

I also remember a paternoster lift when I went to interview for university (January 1970 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne). Interviewees were to gather in the foyer and we were met by a university staff member, who said follow me, and promptly jumped onto one of these lifts and disappeared from view. We all looked at each other very nervously, and it took a while before anyone took enough courage to follow him. We had no idea which floor we were going to, or indeed how to get off (and going through my head was what happened if we didn't get off before it got to the top). We ended up on the top floor of the building, and my main memory is of then being regaled by the same staff member who told us they had had one suicide from this floor on each of the last 3 years!

Not surprisingly I didn't get through that interview. 

[eightf48544]

Munich Hbf signal box had a paternoster lift in the early 60s none of the visitng party used it!

[stuving]

I've always understood Paternoster lifts to be German thing - meaning they are commoer there than anywhere else. As to why that might be, I've no idea. Wikipedia confirms their survival there, but says that new ones were banned in 1974. I guess they've come to be seen by Germans as a defining national feature, hence to be protected for that reason alone.

[Oxonhutch]

I guess they've come to be seen by Germans as a defining national feature, hence to be protected for that reason alone.

A bit like:-



Men in Hats - East Germany

[eightf48544]

Unusual trasnport:

Isle of Man

Horse Trams https://www.gov.im/categories/travel-traffic-and-motoring/bus-and.../horse-trams/
Snaefell Fell tram and Manx Electric Railway Snaefell Mountain Railway | Manx Electric Railway Online
https://manxelectricrailway.co.uk/snaefell/
Laxey www.laxeyminerailway.im/ mines railway

Wales Snowdon Mountain Railway http://www.snowdonrailway.co.uk/

[TeaStew]

I met somebody who went to Leicester and told tales of "overriding" the paternoster despite numerous warning signs. Apparently once you go past the top floor it is completely dark as you move laterally before reappearing on the down side.

[Brucey]

I met somebody who went to Leicester and told tales of "overriding" the paternoster despite numerous warning signs. Apparently once you go past the top floor it is completely dark as you move laterally before reappearing on the down side.

There's actually quite a few YouTube videos of this:
Leicester University - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upgVoZKvP3M
Vienna City Hall - https://youtu.be/bCmGz8zgGJc?t=90 (sign says something like "get off, last floor"

[martyjon]

Any members of this forum remember the department store in Bristols Broadmead shopping area which had one of these contraptions installed within the store. It was the Bristol Co-operative Society's Fairfax House which at some time caught fire, fire investigators apparently concluded that it started in a store room. The store itself no longer exists, The Galleries now occupying the site.

[Western Pathfinder]

Any members of this forum remember the department store in Bristols Broadmead shopping area which had one of these contraptions installed within the store. It was the Bristol Co-operative Society's Fairfax House which at some time caught fire, fire investigators apparently concluded that it started in a store room. The store itself no longer exists, The Galleries now occupying the site.

A Local Shop for Local People.

[Red Squirrel]

Any members of this forum remember the department store in Bristols Broadmead shopping area which had one of these contraptions installed within the store. It was the Bristol Co-operative Society's Fairfax House which at some time caught fire, fire investigators apparently concluded that it started in a store room. The store itself no longer exists, The Galleries now occupying the site.

I do! As I recall, the Paternosters were removed in the refurbishment which followed the fire.

Fairfax House was the most confusing place to navigate, largely because there was a big hole right through it, through which the access road to the car park passed. It was also much, much thinner in the middle, in almost exactly the way that brontosauruses aren't, which didn't help.