Hi Steve. I love this really old stuff and your post sent me scrambling for permissions to post the attached.
TORONTO GREY & BRUCE Rly
The first photograph and drawing are from Rod Clarke's
Narrow Gauge Through The Bush supplement published in 2012. The photo is from the Wellington County Museum & Archives, while Rod did the drawing. The Toronto Grey & Bruce Rly had stub switches but with these stout wood switchstands, with a rotary mechanism that I gather would operate the same as the ones in your photo. They had 1:2 gearing so that when the lever was thrown 180 degrees (moving the rail), the target only travelled though 90 degrees.
HUNTSVILLE & LAKE OF BAYS Rly
Peter Foley did the drawing below of a Huntsville & Lake of Bays railway switchstand, for
The Portage Railway book authored by him and Jeff Young. These stands with stub switches were used by this narrow gauge in Ontario right until the early 1960s, and one still exists at the reincarnated line in Huntsville. As with the TG&B switchstand, it was geared 1:2 so that the target and position of the throw rail were in sync.
GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY
The final photo is the earliest shot I could find of these switchstands, taken from the
Rails To Goderich book, photo credit to Library & Archives Canada. It's not often you know the exact date of a photo this early, but it was September 14, 1860 - on the day the Prince of Wales visited Brantford, Ontario. It's on the Great Western Broad Gauge line.
Is the switchstand tall enough for you?
Cheers,
Ralph