I was in Macys Herald Square store this afternoon to buy some towels.
On my way out, I remmembered our discussion here last week of the wooden escalators and I decided to do some handrailfanning.
In all honesty, what follows this is true to the best of my observations but basically just a lot of crap. What is important to me right now is that I had some fun observing the different types of escalators,breaking down the code numbers, searching without success for section B3 and trying to figure out why there was just an up line at the Broadway end of the building. (Even this description is getting technical). The other kick was trying to see if I was being followed while I was riding the escalators and jotting down notes on an envelope.
I need to explain some notation.
The oldest escalators have wooded sides and wooden treads (WoWo).
There are some escalators that have the original wooden sides but metal treads (WoMe)
There are some escalators that have metal sides and metal treads (MeMe)
There are a total of 7 escalator lines in the store, with 4 escalators that go up and 3 escalators that go down.
Each escalator section is identified with either a 2 digit code or a with 1 leter and 1 digit code.
The second digit identifies which of the 7 escalator lines you are on.
Down escalator lines are the even numbers 2,4 or 6
Up escalator lines are the odd numbers 1,3,5 or 7
Let's say you're going up on line 7 and are between floors 4 and 5. That section of line 7 would be labeled 47. The first number indicates the lower of the 2 floors
If you were going down on line 4 between 3rd and 2nd floor, you would be on section 24.
I suppose only the die-hard handrailfan foamers would really be interested in the above explanation.
So let's go through the store and describe the escalators.
The 7th Avenue Building has only 1 pair of up & down escalators. Up line #7 and down line # 6
They run from the 1st to the 9th floors.
From the 1st to 8th floors they are WoMe
From the 8th to 9th floor they are WoWo
In the Broadway Building there are a pair of escalators in the middle of the store.
Up line 5 and down line 4
They run from the Basement to the 8th floor.
From Basement to 1st floor WoWo
From 1st to 3rd floors MeMe
From 3rd to 8th floors WoWo
There is a second pair of escalators in the Broadway Building at the Broadway end.
Up line 3 and down line 2
They run from the Basement to the 9th floor, with one peculiarity. You can only go down from the lst floor to the basement. There is no up escalator in this pair that goes from the basement to the 1st floor.
From Basement to 1st floor WoWo
From 1st to 5th floors MeMe
From 5th to 9th floors WoWo
And finally there is just a single up line escalator near the 34th Street entrance at the Broadway end.
It is up line #1
From 1st to 6th floors MeMe
From 6th to 7th floors WoMe