The North American Elevator Guide is a project created by elevator enthusiast Tkefan29 in 2019, with the goal of creating an encyclopedia of the various elevators and escalators in the United States and Canada. It is intended a more reliable alternative to the Elevator Wiki encyclopedia on Fandom, because since that wiki can be edited by anyone (and lacks the strict sourcing requirements and misinformation protections found on Wikipedia) the Elevator Wiki is often inaccurate or misleading.

The Guide was initially released to the public in February 2020, and has been improved and expanded hundreds of times since. Today, a trio of editors from the elevator community maintain the Guide, and we're always in the process of researching, expanding the Guide's content, and rewriting parts of our work to improve its clarity and accuracy. 

Associated Projects

• the Guide's YouTube channel, with reference videos to supplement our written content

• the elevaTOURS Elevator Database, a database of elevator ID numbers in the US and Canada, operated by our correspondents BC'sVators and Vancity Elevators

• the Archives of Transport and Retail, operated by 42-BRT, which will soon house the Guide's repository of elevator and escalator product documents

• the Elevator Identification Guide, operated by Jowevator 3219, which helps to identify an elevator by its door tracks and shaft equipment

• the Hand Dryer Guide, a similar encyclopedia of hand dryers in North America, operated by ExcelElevations 4U (a former Guide collaborator)