Milan Branch of the Iowa Interstate RR

I finally installed my first G-scale switch stand on one of the Milan runaround turnouts.

I painted the targets red and green along with adding some rust on the four bolts that hold the stand in place. The points are thrown with a very simple throw arm designed and fabricated by my friend, John Klocker. As you can see in the photo below, the throw arm has several different entry points for the guide wire. In addition, I reinforced both the guide wire and vertical throw wire with aluminum tubing to help stiffen both wires.

The switch stands will add a nice, realistic touch when switching.

I will be using G-scale switch stands to throw each turnout’s points.

One issue I had to resolve was how to protect each stand from being damaged by a wayward arm or elbow. The solution I settled on was to use bronze colored sprung door stops. If an operator gets too close from either side, the door stops should do a good job or getting their attention to avoid snapping off a stand.