THE BLACK RIVER VALLEY MODEL RAILROAD WEB SITE
Train Phone Antenna Project
October 2018
After numbering my Bachmann ALCO FA2 locomotive and its Walther's Trainline FA companion I decided to install the iconic 'train phone antennas' popular on the Pennsylvania Rail Road locomotives. While looking for something suitable for the antenna stanchions, I checked my parts bins for Athearn BB locomotive metal hand rail stanchions, which had proved viable in the past. No such luck. I shopped for very small cotter pins, no luck. I finally tracked down two sets of Cal-Scale PRR Antenna Stanchions at P.F. & S. Railway Supply in Pasco, Washington. Shown are the Stanchion kits and my locally generated drilling templates for the FA and FA2 locomotives.
After applying the drilling template for the FA2 and drilling the holes on top of the body shell with my handy dandy Black and Decker electric screwdriver the antenna stanchions were placed in the holes.
With the holes drilled and the stanchions in place, I threaded a piece of .015-inch music wire through the loops at the top of the stanchions. Here is a side view with the fireman's side antenna wire in place. Talk about tedious. Because of some rought handling, notice the engineer's side air horn is missing.
I carefully threaded the engineer's side antenna wire into place. With both antenna wires in place I glued the stanchions from inside the body shell with small drops of LocTite super glue being careful to hold all the stanchions securely,.
Here is the completed antenna installation. The ends of the antenna wires were trimmed and terminated in the appropriate location. Notice the missing air horn is back in place.
Walthers Trainline PRR #9600 is the running mate for #9617. It too will receive the PRR 'Train Phone Antennas' in the near future. The drilling template is made and the stanchions are on hand.
March 2018
All of the tools are out and the FAs body shell is seperate from the chassis. The Cal-Scale PRR Antenna Stanchions are small and hard to hold onto. Here the .015-inch music wire is in place on the fireman's side.
Here the engineer's side antenna wire is in place. Threading the music wire throug the stanchions took a little time and had to be done before gluing the stachions in place to ensure proper alignment.
Pennsylvania FA #9600 with 'Train Phone Antennas'.
Pennsy FA2 #9617 and FA #9600, working together at the head of a string of gondolas pass the Redwing Flour Mill on the BRVRRs eastbound mainline.
