I really like the look of this. I did a similar area on amodel railway once and in ngauge (one of the smallest gauges) it was a nightmare for certain details.
As for the trolley. Wire around a block like you suggest would be great and maybe use solder instead of glue for a stronger bond, potentially with some flux, you should be able to get a small amount so as to not hide the details of the mesh effect.
Also if the above does not work, you could get some of the thin mesh from say a fish net (cheap £1 thing) and wrap that around a block of wood, add pva glue to harden it then paint it?
A bit like doing rigging on model ships?