Ground throw "indicators"

I love Caboose Industries ground throws but there is one crucial problem when you mount them at the edge of the layout: you can't easily see if the switch is set to the "normal" position. I am generally the only one who operates my layout and I always leave the switches set for the main line, but a mistake will cause a train to take a 4 foot drop to the floor. I needed an easy way to determine the position of the switch at a glance. Some people paint the handles with red, yellow, and green paint but I think this looks horrible, as the paint inevitably flakes and it draws attention to the out-of-scale ground throws. At the edge of the layout it isn't be so bad, except that you would need to walk over to the ground throw to see it. I wanted to be able to see from the middle of the layout area how they all were. LEDs or other lights were an option, but I am lazy (I did just remove all the Tortoise switch machines, after all).

I saw online a gentleman had glued beads to the handle of the ground throw to represent marker lights. These beads kept the handle from dropping all the way down to the layout, which apparently was then harder to grab. I didn't like how they looked but the bead idea got me thinking. So, I purchased some cheap beads online (my local hobby store didn't have a good assortment... I guess kids don't play with beads anymore), and nailed them to the layout. And, for the record, this (like all of my projects) turned out to be a Benny special. The first set of beads I ordered were 4mm (too small) and the next set were were 12mm (too large). I also ordered some 8mm cubed beads (never tried them) but finally ordered 6mm beads and they were perfect.

A couple of things to keep in mind. First, once all your scenery is done with the beads might be visually lost in the grand scheme of things. I might keep a little area around each ground throw clear of grass and weeds to prevent this. Second, any beads taller than 6mm might prevent the handle of the ground throw from rotating all the way if you place the beads directly under the handle. Third, beads smaller than 6mm have smaller diameter holes drilled through them which require smaller pins to secure them or they will shatter. However, I am pleased with how this turned out. In fact, when I had a contractor over recently he saw my layout and pointed out that he really liked the ground throws. So there.