One of the unfortunate challenges to modeling rural North America is the relative lack of items geared toward agriculture, especially for the modern era.  Grain and fertilizer are massive industries throughout the mid-section of the continent, but they are largely ignored or overlooked by manufacturers.  I'm modeling a freelanced HO scale shortline in Indiana which traverses a section of the former Nickel Plate dominated by agriculture.  For me, the feel of this region can't really be achieved without the inclusion of the hardware attendant to that industry.

I had space in my town for one more business and couldn’t decide what to place there. I asked my wife if she would like to build a Quilt Shop. She thought it would be fun to do with me so the project began. I gave her the Walthers catalog and let her pick a building. The best fit for size on the layout an ability to display items in the shop for people to see, was the cornerstone Hobby Shop model (933-3475). It affords big windows for people to peer in the windows to see what the miniature shoppers are doing in the store.

Dear MRHers,

Quick questions, as my Google-fu is failing me right now...

1- What Manual ground throw was the C&Os weapon-of-choice circa 1950s?
(Greenbrier sub, if that helps)

2- Are we talking high-level lanterns and direction indicators, or just low-level "flip over" handles?

3- Any known/preferred HO sources or options?

From some searching, Century Foundry and Details-West has come up empty,

I'm loathe to buy complete CI throws just for the lanterns and direction-indicators,
(the model turnouts are already Tortoise-powered, this is a visual-only addition),

January was a rough month to start the year off with and I'm ready for work this month, albeit a few hours early. That extra day on the end will certainly make a difference! Let's see what you've got.