Traction151 on a Mitsubishi Elevator which is his favorite type of elevator
Traction151 (born June 17th, 1994, or also known by his real name Chris Carson) is an elevator photographer from California, specifically the San Diego area. Chris has loved elevators his whole life and remembers the excitement of riding them since his childhood. The first elevator he ever rode was a 1993 Dover Impulse at the leasing office in the Elan Apartments in the Palo Alto area of San Jose. His favorite type of elevator is a Mitsubishi Traction and he is famous within the community for his reaction to hearing the chimes.
History[]
2010-2014[]
Chris has been filming elevators since 2010 but he did not start his first YouTube Channel until 2013 since his parents were concerned about him finishing high school, getting through the SATs, and getting into college. After watching Musicfreakcc, Dieselducy and AlpalJL's videos, Chris decided to start elevator photography himself. His first elevator ever filmed was of a Vintage 1978 US Hydraulic Elevator @ Wells Fargo Forum Hall in Westfield UTC, La Jolla, CA (also filmed by AlpalJL and Elevatortimes). In the summer of 2013, Chris took a trip to Japan, which made him become one of the few elevator photographers from the United States to have filmed elevators in a country outside of North America. Once he graduated high school, he opened a YouTube account called "Chris Carson". He started uploading content he had done since 2010 and received frequent criticism since he filmed all his videos vertically instead of sideways, thus making them not full screen. In October 2013, he shot his first video in full screen of vintage 1960 Westinghouse Selectomatics at the San Diego Civic Center Parking Deck. His channel became very successful, however just before he reached 100 subscribers and 100,000 views his parents became very concerned with how elevator photography was distracting him from college. As a result, in early May 2014, his parents forced him to shut down his YouTube account in order to do better in school.
2014-Present[]
After Chris started doing better in school and his parents knew how upset Chris and his fans were about the closing of his channel, they let him open a new account under a different name. He launched his new YouTube account known as Traction151 in mid-May 2014. He started uploading his old full screen video content very quickly and excessively, which ended up receiving quite a bit of controversy. Once his old videos were up, he started making new videos at various high-rise office and hotel towers in downtown San Diego. Chris also had the opportunity to intern at OTIS Elevator Company in the San Diego area in the summer of 2014 but he did not let his elevator photography affect his internship. In May of 2015, he got the chance to meet up with upanddownadventures in Monterey to film elevators with him too. Due to the popularity of the meetup videos, Chris reached 100 subscribers about a month later as well as 100,000 views three months after that. He also hit 1 million views on Monday, November 18th 2019. Chris reached a noteworthy milestone on Thursday, June 10th, 2021 of 1,000 subscribers. Another noteworthy fact is that Traction151 entered into the YouTube Partner Program and became an official YouTube Partner on October 4th, 2023.
Trivia[]
- Similar to NationalElevator, Chris is one of the few elevator photographers from the United States known to have filmed some of the most Mitsubishi elevator videos.
- Chris is also notable to be the very first elevator photographer on YouTube to have made it a regular thing to film in high-rise, high-security office buildings around Los Angeles; something most all elevator enthusiasts assumed was never possible after 9/11. He has filmed in all but 3 downtown high-rises (777 Towers, Wells Fargo Towers and Union Bank Tower) and all but 3 high-rises outside of downtown LA (Fox Plaza, Constellation Place and Centre West).
- Chris is also known to be a major filmer of residential building elevators in the San Diego area as he has been able to film a majority of apartment and condo buildings in San Diego County, including every high-rise condominium or rental building in downtown San Diego.
- Chris has filmed every hotel/casino in Las Vegas that is 500 feet tall or more, as well as every elevator in Las Vegas going a speed of 1,000 feet per minute or more.
- He is one of the few elevator photographers in North America to have had the chance to film elevators in a foreign country, specifically Japan.
- He is currently an alumni with a finance degree from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, CA.
- His favorite kind of elevator is a Mitsubishi Traction Elevator because he loves the chimes.
- His dream is to work for Mitsubishi Electric Elevators and Escalators since he speaks a little Japanese.
- Has filmed elevators with YouTube Elevator Photographer Upanddownadventures, EvMast Productions, ElevatorNut13, Electric Bird, alpalJL, and Top Hound.
- He is one of the YouTube elevator photographers to have had a chance to intern at a major elevator company, specifically Otis Elevator Company.
- He currently has over 1K subscribers and over 2 million views.
- Chris became a YouTube Partner on October 4th, 2023.
- He currently works at Axos Bank in La Jolla, California.
- Another of his favorite pastimes/hobbies is surfing with his friends.
- He has the same birthday as other fellow popular YouTube Elevator Photographer ih8escalators.
- His channel name derives from the fact that his favorite type of elevator is Traction and his lucky number is 151.
- His YouTube channel trailer is the Ultra Fast OTIS Elevonic 411s in Los Angeles' 4th tallest Skyscraper, the 50 story, 750 foot tall Gas Company Tower.
- Cameras used are iPod touch and iPhone 3 (2010 to 2013); iPhone 4 (2014-2015); iPhone 5 (2015-2016); iPhone 6 (2016-2020); iPhone 7 (2020); iPhone 11 (2020-Present).