First, you are not making a centrifuge! You will turning the loco through some angle, slowly, by hand, and only fairly occasionally.

So you don't need an elaborate bearing, just one that will take the load, and a plain brass, bronze or cast-iron bush carrying a mild-steel shaft (I assume the M12 bolt) would be more than enough.

In fact if an ordinary bolt will not be to ever-so-high accuracy even on the plain shank, and for this purpose it would not really matter if the bearing is a plain hole drilled through mild-steel the bearing-length of the shank. Drill it carefully to produce a reasonably smooth wall, and provide an oil-hole or grease-nipple in its top centre.

If you look at commercial engine-hoists, lifting-trolley etc. most don't have anything more than steel pins in steel bushes, though higher-quality ones may have reamed holes and hardened, ground pins.

(You can buy shouldered socket-screws with hardened and ground shanks, precisely for such purposes, and they are not very expensive. I am using two M6 versions for my steam-lorry engine's gudgeon pins… don't worry purists, it's an enclosed engine!)

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Looking at typical loco lifts occasionally featured in the magazine, the fulcrum is usually set at approximately the loco's axis of mass, to balance the load to a large extent.

Some use a worm and wheel for rotation, though that's not essential provided you can control the over-turning and lock the assembly in place, easily. One way for anything like that is a large-diameter hand-wheel, clipped or loose-pinned to the shaft for safety in use, but readily removeable for access to the work itself.

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Looking at your beam description, will that wide alumimium-angle, even with the deeper web pointing correctly downwards, leave sufficient access to the up-turned loco? Or is the beam a frame wider inside than the loco itself?

A cog with a worm operated by a handle would create a moveable non locking spit

Michael, if you go into my photos you will see the version I made. Very simple and I made it in a few weeks. The design was published in an old ME mag. If you need the mag issue number etc. or a photo copy let me know.

Alan