legends · 4 min read ·
Lift 3, Maintenance Log
A lift's maintenance log records a thirteenth stop in a twelve-floor building, and a tenants' notice with instructions.
**Brayford Court · Lift 3 (passenger) · Maintenance Logbook**
**Floors served:** G, 1–12 · **Maximum load:** 630 kg / 8 persons · **Last full service:** 3 Sept
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**Entry 1 · 3 Sept · Service complete (Hollis Lifts, engineer T. Pryor)**
Brakes tested. Doors calibrated. Emergency phone checked, working. Ride quality good. Lift returned to service.
**Entry 2 · 12 Sept · Fault reported (tenant, Flat 9C)**
*Lift stopped between floors 10 and 11. Doors opened onto a corridor I've never seen before, with the lights off. Got back in and it took me down.*
**Entry 3 · 13 Sept · Engineer's check (T. Pryor)**
Lift controller shows a stop at floor 13. Brayford Court has 12 floors. No floor 13 on the plans. The stop is logged on every journey, between 11 and 12, at approximately 23:58.
No fault found. The button for 13 is not fitted. The panel has no hole for it.
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**Entry 4 · 18 Sept · Fault reported (tenant, Flat 12A)**
Doors open at floor 13 at night. The corridor is lit by a single bulb. There are doors along it, numbered in the same style as the flats. I stood in the lift and looked at them for a while. They were all open a crack, and somebody was humming behind each one.
**Entry 5 · 19 Sept · Engineer's check (T. Pryor)**
Stop at 13 recorded on five journeys out of seven. Doors close after 9 seconds. The lift does not move during the stop. The load sensor shows 80 kg in the car. Car holds one passenger.
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**Lift engineer's report (T. Pryor to Brayford Court Management, 21 Sept)**
Lift 3 is operating within specification. The additional stop at floor 13 has been investigated. The controller has no record of a floor 13. The stop is generated by an internal call that originates in the car itself, and it is always made after the last passenger has pressed a floor button.
I have changed the controller board, and I've checked the cables. The stop continues. It's now set to appear on the 6th floor as well.
*I'd like to note that on the morning of 20 Sept I entered the lift at floor 1 alone. The car stopped at 13. I got out. The corridor was there. At the far end of it, a man in a maintenance overall was standing with his back to me, looking into a service cupboard. He turned round, and he was me, in my overall, with my badge, and he said, "You've got the lift. I'll take the stairs."*
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**Entry 6 · 24 Sept · Fault reported (tenant, Flat 3B)**
Lift arrived at the ground floor with the doors open and the car lit, but empty. Nobody inside. I waited. The doors didn't close. After a minute, the lift started to move with nobody in it, up, very slowly, stopping at each floor, the lights changing. When it came down again, there was someone standing in the corner. An older woman, with a shopping bag. She said, "Thank you for holding it for me."
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**Entry 7 · 1 Oct · Engineer's check (T. Pryor)**
Lift 3 has been taken out of service. Load tests show a passenger count of eight in the car at all times, regardless of how many people have boarded. Eight loads have been recorded. Eight passengers have been recorded as present in the building's occupancy register, as residents of flats 1A through 12C, but not all of the flats are occupied.
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**Tenants' association notice (Brayford Court, 6 Oct)**
Please do not use Lift 3 after 23:00. Please do not press the button for floor 13. If the lift stops on a floor you did not select, please step out and take the stairs.
If you are already inside the lift when it stops, please keep your back against the mirror and your hands at your sides. Do not speak to anyone in the car. Do not turn round.
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**Final maintenance entry (Lift 3, 27 Oct, 23:58)**
Lift returned to service at management's request. Load test: 8 persons. Car stopped at 13. Doors open. Corridor lit. The flats along it are numbered 13A to 13D, which were never on the plans.
Lift 3 was decommissioned on 29 Oct and replaced. The new unit has eight stops, all on the plans, and no floor 13. The tenants' association asked management to keep the old button panel. It is in the bin store, with the button for 13 still lit.