September 11, 2025
The first day of elevator assembly! This is a very slow day, since the bottom rail sections have to be placed perfectly! They have to be placed within 1/16” of where they’re supposed to be and prefereably better than that. The last shots had to be taken during the early morning, 9/12/2025 before anybody was on site because the site was so crowded with both the electricians and elevator people up today.
Here’s the 1st rail section in. Its the bottom one on the south side. This was shot at 11:38 AM, so it has taken all morning to get this set perfectly. You can see the bright orange plumb bob string just to the left of the track.
The rails are fastened to the structure much like railroad rails to the ties. This allows for thermal expansion and contraction of the rails or structure.
Here’s the joint between the bottom and middle pieces of rail on the south side. You can see that the bubble is perfectly centered in the level and can clearly see the tongue and grove joint between the rail sections.
This is the joint between the middle and top rail sections on the south. This section was put up mid afternoon or so. The elevator people put the blue temporary tape on the enclosure’s steel to protect it from the drilling and tapping chips needed to fasten the track bracket to the shaft steel.