On my Racor stand, the handle is lined up with the eye bolt that is hooked up to the throw rod. The 'eye' is on the side away from the handle. Your first picture looks like a Racor, complete with the bent handle They must not be strong enough, account my handle is bent too. When the switch is hard to throw, you're inclined to 'put your back into it', I spent 8 months as a Brakeman before I 'went Firing', so I speak from experiencerkcarguy wrote: ↑Thu Aug 16, 2018 11:11 am Good info and pics, thanks Mike.
In the picture I posted with the green diamond switch stand, I see that the handle is straight down the side of the stand. Where would this handle be oriented in comparison to where the points are? I want to make sure I index my handle to the linkage arm correctly and I have no idea how the prototype was aligned in that aspect.
The handle notches in the table are at 45 degrees each side of the vertical casting leg, and the target shaft is at 45 degrees to the handle, to put the flats at 90 degrees to the track. The eye is between the 'feet' of the casting, so this one would have been mounted with the legs parallel to the track, so that the throw rod was between the two head ties.
The eye bolt is screwed into a boss on the bottom of the shaft. You screw it in or out to adjust the throw. There's no lock nut or anything on it, when it's 'captured' by the yoke on the end of the throw rod, it ain't going anywhere. If you want a picture, I can do it tomorrow morning when it's light.
The CB&Q targets were a long, rectangular, red, piece of sheet metal that were mounted crossways of the shaft. The BN changed them to vertical. Somebody must have got slapped in the face by one as they bailed off the waycar to line the switch back. The only place we had two targets was in the yard.
Mike