Slowly, but surely the winding mechanism is coming together. Having looked at the photos in my last entry, I decided that the winding drums could be a lot closer together, so I cut the assembly down the middle, trimmed the motor shafts, cut some wood out of the middle and stuck everything back together again.
I have also installed the winding cables - polyester thread. I tied a short section to the motor shaft and secured with glue, then powered up the motors to wind the thread in. Each thread is around three times the length of the incline. This allows me to cut bits off if necessary, due to wear and tear, entanglement etc. several times without having to install a completely new thread. I have also added wires to the motors, ready to connect up to the control box.
The pulley assembly has also been completed, now the pulleys have arrived. These revolve freely on a metal shaft, which also revolved freely in some brass tube. The ends are deliberately long, so I can rotate the shaft by hand once everything is assembled, if ever necessary.
This assembly will be attached vertically to the front of the winding mechanism. The centres of the pulleys line up with the track centres at the top of the incline.
I have also made the control box. I still have to do a bit of wiring, so it is not yet connected to the winding mechanism. This will eventually be screwed to the baseboard. There was almost a disaster here, as the retaining nut for one of the controllers had a damaged thread. After trying without luck to find an alternative, I glued it in position, so one controller is now permanently fixed to the control box lid.
The run up to Christmas is likely to be a bit hectic, so I don't expect to proceed much further for the moment, other than finishing the wiring. There's still 2.5 years to go, so no need to panic just yet!