Turret lathes are perfect for that kind of work and are simple to operate, most have a turret feed, cross slide feed and carriage feed all with stops. All that I have seen have threaded stop rods sticking out of the back of the turret, one for each position, one of the drawbacks of these machines is that you can't load long stock from the front because the turret is in the way so leave ample room behind it to back load through the spindle.
I was running this old W & S today, in order to load stock longer then about 48" I have to push it through the guide tube from the back, it is 5 1/2" thru the spindle and I face a lot of conveyor rollers and shafting with it. use a piece of aluminum or steel bar to push the parts through the guide tube and spindle. These machines are fantastic for drilling large holes shorter then the turret travel, they will easily push the stock through the chuck so keep it as tight as possible.
On this machine the blue and yellow guide tube has a rotating spider on the end and will slide along the round bar ways with a hydraulic cylinder which is handy with long heavy solid bars. To control the end of the stock in Z place a flat ended stop bar in one of the turret positions and set the turret stop, After the finished part is parted off push the the stock out until it hits the stop bar, retract the turret, rotate it and knock out the next one.
