An apparatus for the automatic loading and unloading of an elevator cabin equipped with at least one transport carriage which travels along with the elevator cabin, the transport carriage being displaceable at a story of the building out of and into the elevator cabin respectively, by means of a buckling-resistant driven roller chain trained about guides below the floor of the elevator cabin and engaging with an entrainment member of the transport carriage. With the transport carriage located at a starting position in the elevator cabin both confronting terminal or end elements of the buckling-resistant roller chain engage with the entrainment member secured to the transport carriage and confronting the elevator cabin floor. The buckling-resistant roller chain is driven through the agency of two synchronously rotating sprocket wheels rotatably mounted behind one another in the direction of movement of the transport carriage to both sides of the entrainment member of the transport carriage which is located in the starting position. During the outward movement of the transport carriage in the one or other direction of travel the forwardly located terminal element is disengaged from the entrainment member upon passing the corresponding sprocket wheel and during the return travel is again re-engaged and the other terminal element in the engaged position transmits the drive force to the transport carriage.
