Help identifying possible mechanical component

[MattW]

Sorry for the long title and I hope I'm in the right forum. My grandfather worked for L&N for many years (~WWII till ~1983, right as they fully became Seaboard) and he has a lot of railroad "stuff" that he collected over the years (legitimately of course). He has a random piece of metal stuck in his yard that didn't strike me until today as possibly being railroad related. Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago, so I can't ask him directly, but would anyone here help me try and identify this piece? To me, it looks a little like a bar that runs between the two switch points in a switch, but I don't know how long it is, only about 12" are above ground.
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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/801 ... 131337.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Sorry the pics are so bad, I can get better ones this next week probably. But I'm at a loss as to what it originally was, and I'm hoping if I can figure that out, I might can figure out why he put it there.
Thanks for any information!

[Gadfly]

Well, I'm not sure. It sorta looks like a connecting link for the switch mechanism that goes from the switch box to the switch point(s). ......or it could be the lever for throwing the switch. I can't see the other end of it. And, I could be WAY off. Sorry.

GF

[MattW]

My dad and I pulled it out of the ground today, it's about 2.5 feet long, but the end in the ground looks like it was broken off. It has some worn-down text on it, best I could make out is "HARPER" and "78" with the 7 above the 8 and on down toward the shaft.

[JWilson]

Looks like a guy wire anchor for a telephone pole to me.

[MattW]

Looks like a guy wire anchor for a telephone pole to me.

You know, I think you're right. In the back of the yard, my grandfather has what looks like the arm of a codeline pole stuck in the ground, it used to be one end of a clothesline so it makes sense that if he has that (and some insulators that he did stuff with), then he probably got other related hardware.