A free-lance model of a Park ride. Ferris wheels have been a popular subject of Meccano models since 1911. The wheel is 4 feet in diameter, and the sixteen spokes use 96 121/2” strips, the two rings 12 more each - a total of 120. Eight of the sixteen cars are conventionally pivoted: alternate cars are rotated by a 1 1/2” contrate which engages a fixed 3/4” pinion on the hanging shaft. One revolution of the wheel therefore causes the car to perform half a revolution. (Mike Cotterill’s very own contribution to fairground technology. Ed.).
The cars are scaled to carry eight persons each.
Drive to the wheel is taken by belt to the rim; the usual drive on Meccano wheels is to the hub, but this imposes excessive strain due to the effect of inertia. It also provides an opportunity to use 6” pulleys in anger. A jockey roller on an adjustable swinging beam adjusts the tension in the drive cable.
Motive power is provided by a mains induction motor from a hair dryer, and a free-wheel is fitted to the drive pulley. A handbrake brings the wheel to rest.
The wheel carries two circles of miniature bulbs, wired in two circuits, and connected through slip-rings (made from MW 3 1/2” circular girders! on the main axle to switchgear under the base, which gives a flashing action.
A further switch mechanism causes lights on the support towers to light cumulatively from the base.
There is a pay-box with turnstile at the entrance, and a further two on exit.
A lot of strips are bent to various radii in the model, and the Alan Partridge Strip Bender was much in use, as were a set of own design plate bending rolls for Flexible Plates.