a web winding and severing apparatus using a linear carriage arrangement wherein the cores are positioned relative to feed to a winding drum in a bilateral manner such that a core is always adjacent to the drum ready to receive the leading edge of the web . a pair of reciprocating carriages are mounted on a frame which supports a winding drum for rotation . the carriages movement relative to the drum is independent , yet coordinated such that as one carriage carries a filling winding core , the other stands ready on the opposite side of the winding drum with an empty core . as the web is severed the second carriage positions its core to become the winding core and the first carriage moves away to off - load the full core , then , returns to a ready position with a fresh core .