Nice work …and your planning on putting it outside?
Craig, You might take a look at this switch stand from SwitchCrafters as a go by for what you want to create. Here is an enlarged photo.
(http://www.switchcrafters.com/images/catalog/SVRR-SW-ST.jpg)
Steve,
That’s pretty similar style. I’ll have to email them to see what the tie block spacing is. But from the photo it seems to wide.
Craig:
That switch stand is designed for 1:20 scale. At 3½" tall, it would be around 8½’ tall in 1:29 scale. It’s well proportioned, but in 1:29 scale it would represent the largest switch stand you ever saw! Not very useful for your finescale effort.
Otherwise a great product.
Happy RRing,
Jerry
Jerry Bowers said:
Craig:That switch stand is designed for 1:20 scale. At 3½" tall, it would be around 8½’ tall in 1:29 scale. It’s well proportioned, but in 1:29 scale it would represent the largest switch stand you ever saw! Not very useful for your finescale effort.
Otherwise a great product.
Happy RRing,
Jerry
Thanks Jerry for that information. Scratch that off the list now too! Argh…
Sorry guys, but the switch stand that Switch Crafters sells is from Sunset Valley Railroad. They sell them as an added option for their switches. I have a couple of them from Sunset Valley and they work great.
Sunset Valley Railroad is all code 250 products and designed for main line use not narrow gauge. The original owner of the company designed this product for 1/32 and live steam. I use to sell their product before the company was sold.
Chuck
Chuck Inlow said:
Sorry guys, but the switch stand that Switch Crafters sells is from Sunset Valley Railroad. They sell them as an added option for their switches. I have a couple of them from Sunset Valley and they work great.Chuck
I noticed that too right away, and went to the Sunset Valley website, but they didn’t give any measurements other then the throw length. Can you confirm Jerry’s measurements?
Craig, I’ll have to find them tomorrow in the shop and I will measure them for you.
Chuck
Craig
They are a little less than a 1/4" if I remember right.
I have drilled a new holes on the throw bar on the bottom of the switchstand to reduce the throw.
They are very nice as said before, the are a little out scale for your masterpiece. If it was me, I would use them anyway cause
they will hold up the rigors of being used where a scale one would not.
Rodney
Quote from the Switch Crafters website link that Steve provided:
“Sunset Valley Railroad Switch Stand, All brass, 3.5" tall, and excellent operation. About 3/8" throw.”
Bold emphasis added.
I also went out and measured one that I have: It is ~3.5" tall. The construction is very robust, meaning that the legs are relatively thick. Not overpowering for 1:20, but pretty hefty appearance for the smaller scales.
Yes, it is a great switch stand, but Craig is building a finescale model of correctly gauged 1:29 scale track. His track gauge is 1.95" rather than our common 1.77" gauge. Since he doesn’t accept a little out of gauge, I seriously doubt he will accept “a little out of scale.”
Happy RRing,
Jerry
Craig, I wouldn’t worry too much about the throw length, as that is something you can change just by drilling a new hole. The math isn’t too hard to figure. Here’s a drawing from my article:
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/thejoat/Track/Throwbar.JPG)
You might take a look at some of the switch stands developed for 0 Scale. There is a common complaint among 0 Scalers that their switch stands are too big to be scale. They might work in 1:29, or at least be close enough to use as a starting point.
It is always nice not to have to totally re-invent the wheel. Civil (Railroad) Engineers do that all the time, build on previous art.
Thanks Bruce for the algebra formula. I was trying to figure it out last night and my brain was fried… I remembered the formula, but couldn’t remember how to solve for A when you have B & C as unknowns. (Asquared + B squared= C squared) Last night I figured it out that A would be = to .115".
Now this morning, I plugged my numbers into your formula and got the same answer. 
I guess my math was good after all.
So I need a point movement of .163", with a throw bar length of .115". This leaves .229" of room between each tie block. The head blocks are 10" apart, or .344". 0.344" - 0.163" = 0.299"
Steve,
Thanks for the tip, now that I have some known measurements I can ask the O scalers if they have anything that would work.
Craig
Craig,
I was hoping you’d build your own! 
I’d like to see what you come up with.
This would be a great introduction to lost cast wax casting… If I only had the money to set something up like that. I’ll see what progresses from here.
The key is to have a good design that lends itself to casting and also operates well. I made my switch stand the way I did because I didn’t want to have to bend any metal - this way, mine look alike, or at least more so than if I had to bend pieces to make it. 
I wouldn’t want to have to make more then 1 or 2. I say 2 at the minimum, one for testing to see if it actually works, and the second to keep the pieces separated so they can be molded and cast together. I see this as a 3 piece design; main casting of the stand, handle, and throw bar. The rest can be brass stock (target, rod).
Just another idea that occurred to me, Craig - not to harp on the jewellery angle any more after this, I promise. Jewellers can resize rings invisibly - I’ve seen the result and it looks as if the ring was made to a smaller or larger size. I wonder if a jeweller could use the same techniques to enlarge or reduce the spread on one of those stock switchstands you’ve been checking out.
Like Bruce, however, I admit that I’d like to see you scratchbuild something precisely to your requirements, but I thought I might as well throw this last jeweller’s idea into the mix…
As for setting up something like a Do it yourself lost wax foundry, sure, you could eventually go that route. Meanwhile, the jewellers are out there…
Based on some of your posts here, I’d wager you’d be happier as a craftsman than as a historian. And teaching. if that’s the gameplan … metal and wood and plastic are a lot more fun to manage than students, administrators, parents, and all the rest!
In life it’s best to have a plan ‘A’. And no plan ‘B’.
Now back to that switch!
One point 90% finished, one more to go. I finally found some brass stock that should work for the tie bar/throw bar. So after I get the new point to this stage, its on to the throw bar. Hopefully I can use the 3 holes in the transit clips in a functional manner, slightly adjusting the width of the points. Theory and reality are sometimes different.
(http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/575028_10150876101991912_465438211_n.jpg)
(http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/545700_10150881801276912_838651911_9939659_2018364739_n.jpg)
(http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/545700_10150881801311912_838651911_9939661_1242065966_n.jpg)
Craig
Okay after only losing 1 nut and crushing 1 nut… I’ve got the first tie bar throw mostly completed A few styrene details still to be added but the mechanical aspect of it seems to be working just fine. The bolts and nuts are from scale hardware. They look great, and work well too. Now I only have 2 more to make. I have to assemble the whole point assembly off the turnout, and then after I’ve got all the holes drilled then I can go back and remove the tie bars, slip the points in place, and then rescrew the tie bars into place.
The transit clips (the piece that goes from the point to the throw bar) is suppose to have 5 holes for adjustment, but I couldn’t get more then 3 equally spaced with my hand tools. So I have a feeling like I mentioned before that I’ll be completely making a new master when I can get all my workshop tools set back up. If it’s going to be a master for a mold it needs to be perfect.
(http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/389704_10150908733636912_838651911_10013145_976816734_n.jpg)
These are the bolts I used. http://www.scalehardware.com/product_tech_info/threaded-hex-bolts-c-1/1-0-mm-threaded-hex-bolt-p-24 Craig