A screenshot from a DieselDucy video taken at UT Austin’s Gearing Hall. Image: DieselDucy / YouTube
You ever take a few wrong clicks and find yourself on a completely unrecognizable side of YouTube? That’s the basic story of how we came to enjoy the videos of the elevator enthusiast community — a group of like-minded fans that, unlike many of us, appreciate elevators a lot more than the buildings they’re inside. None of the downtown Austin condo, apartment, or office towers we discuss on this site would be possible without elevators, and yet we often take this technology for granted — these folks don’t.
Based mostly on YouTube and spread around the world, some of the more prominent accounts in this community have posted thousands of videos over the last decade or more, filming themselves riding elevators big, small, new, old, and strange — tiny vintage paternosters to massive freight elevators and everything in between. Ask yourself, are you more of a ThyssenKrupp or an Otis kind of person?
By far the most famous elevator filmer and the so-called “founder” of its enthusiast community is the Virginia-based Andrew Reams, who posts elevator rides under the username DieselDucy and has attracted media attention and millions of views for both the charm of his videos and his outreach to other elevator enthusiasts who are on the autism spectrum. Reams, who has Asperger’s syndrome, says “80 to 90 percent” of elevator filmers are on the spectrum — the technical and sensory aspects of elevators that appeal to this community are similar to the more well-known groups of train enthusiasts with many members also on the spectrum.
“I love the stimulation,” says Reams. “It’s a multi-sensory experience, the pushing the buttons, the noises it makes, the lights, the feeling of the motion, the mechanics involved — that’s why these kids are attracted to these elevators, because it’s a multi-sensory experience.”
A large portion of Reams’ fans are boys in their early teens — drawn to elevators through autism in the same way. “Some of it has to do with the fact that they feel they have control over the elevator,” says Reams.
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