so, how do you gain access to the j-box in picture #3 ? someone put a panel board under it afterwards or?

other than that, a pretty amazing job, esspecially for "back in the day" looks in good shape, i've seen some funny old conduit thats been painted 100 times in 30's buildings

i don't think EMT would have held up like this

Had to go back and look again since you bring that up. It turns out there are access panels from the other side of the wall for that box, and several others that also ajoin the wall.
That board under it houses a voltage regulator control for one of the older units.

Thats pretty interesting actually.. Those are some great pictures, i wish i had taken pictures of lots of old interesting things i've seen.. i really wish i had pictures of an old elevator control board circ late 30's - early 40's on 3 phase 575 volt.. had a different step-up transformer for each phase, was a 3 phase setup coming in with like 132 or something between phases with no high leg.. But the control board was most interesting, still in operation and annually inspected by the ontario ministry of labour

I asked an elevator repair man once how old the elevator was, he said, well there are about 25,000 elevators in Ontario, and this one is number 5075, that gives you an idea of when it was first inspected anyway

Great pics, thanks for the response