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The lift house had to be solidly constructed as it supports a total of 7 kg of car and counterweight. The counterweight balances the car weight, so the lift motor just provides traction for the support ropes. A Richards motor with six speed gearbox drives a helical gear set followed by a 5:1 reduction to the traction pulley. A commercial solenoid was used to release the gravity-operated clasp brake which is fitted to the first stage of the gear train. Six ropes made from builder’s line were fitted, each one being tensioned by adjustment of nuts on one inch bolts on the counterweight. The model was brought to life by incorporating the sequence and timing power of a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). I had access to one which became redundant from a real-life machine which I helped rebuild a few years ago. I reprogrammed it and built it into a Meccano “engine” which may well become the basis for future model control. A circuit board of relays provides the interface between the 24 volt PLC and the 6 volt Meccano motors. I built boxes of buttons to represent the floor call buttons and the car panel, with door open/close buttons and a display to show which floor the car was at.

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