Thanks for the kind words.
Yes, you had to take the cover off to play an LP. I think it's been up in the loft somewhere for decades.
What still impresses me is there's no detectable "wow" with the turntable, despite its age and how infrequently it is used.
I posted this video on YouTube eight years ago, to show someone on another board the mechanism as they had a problem with their's, I doubt it was they who've looked at it nearly three and a half thousand times!
I keep a spare belt under the turntable, as I bought two a decade or more ago when I thought the original could do with changing, just a bit of "preventative maintenance."
It's a pretty basic machine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUm33BUqFkM