winding engine

winding engine (plural winding engines)

1. A stationary engine used to control a cable, for example to power a mining hoist at a pit head.
   • 1939 July, Charles E. Lee, “Swannington: One-Time Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 3:

     Now its only duty is to let down the coal required by the pumping plant at the bottom and to draw up the empties, which it does by means of a wire rope attached to a large drum driven by the original winding engine, but originally the engine pulled up the incline the coal from the pit at the bottom, [...].

• “winding engine”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.