Train Radio Stanchions & Antennas - Upgrading MTH Daylight cars

Have you ever had that nice new trainset of varnish to run at the home layout or the club, you get it out, handling it as carefully as you could, only to then realize that you broke one of the spindly little details that isn't available separately?

An MTH car with a broken Antenna Stanchion and bent stainless steel Antenna wire. - How do you fix this?

Yeah, me too!  The one that really started getting to me was the MTH Stanchions which tend to break, and the antenna wire tends to get easily bent and not be easy to straighten again.

Here's SP 3302 with a replacement Train Radio Antenna installed.

Well, the solution to that problem is here now from OwlMtModels as the OMM#1009 Antenna & Stanchion set for MTH passenger cars.  In July 2016 OwlMtModels released a new detail part designed to drop right into the MTH Daylight cars' roof, and replace the plastic stanchions that hold the Train Radio Antennas.  The train Radio Antennas received music and local travel related information to the passengers on the Daylight as it cruised along the surf of central California.

These new Stanchions are one of the new 4000-series 3d printed brass and bronze parts from Owl Mt Models.  The OMM 1009 set has 22 stanchions in the set, so if you loose two, there's still enough for 4 standard Daylight cars.  The MTH Daylight Combine, Tavern, Parlor-Observation, and rear Articulated unit of the paired Chair cars have these Antennas, though some of the 2450-60 series cars didn't have antennas.

Many of the single-unit Chair cars also received these Antennas at various times after they were delivered.  Adding them to cars with out stanchions is as easy as drilling two holes, one as a pilot, the second to set the depth for the stanchion to sit at.

OMM 4046 Stanchion installed on MTH Daylight car roof.

The Stanchion is notched at the top to accept a piece of wire soldered in place, I generally am using 0.008-0.015" wire.   Generally I like to use 0.010" or at largest 0.012" wire, for a really fine-scale look 0.008" or smaller would be best.

The end stanchion after soldering and trimming off the excess wire.

I've found that tack soldering the end stanchion to the antenna first is a good idea, then mount the first stanchion to the roof and the other stanchions will solder up very quickly.

Here's one of the middle stanchions with the wire installed.

I pull tension through the antenna as I go to keep the wire taught.  Then, after all the stanchions are soldered, I come back and cut the extra wire off the ends.

The new Train Radio Antenna installed and painted on the MTH Daylight Combine.

Remember to only use about 1 cubic millimeter of solder on the end of your 15-watt iron, also pre-flux the wire and notch on the stanchion so the antenna will solder in instantly.  Do any clean up with a 600-grit sanding stick to knock off any solder spikes and clean up the joint before painting.

Jason Hill

Related Articles and Links:

SP 2424 (Part 3) - Adding Radio Antenna Stanchions to an Athearn-Genesis 77-C-3 Chair Car

MTH Daylight Cars - Review & Modifications - Basic changes and upgrades I do to MTH cars coming across my workbench to improve operation and looks for historical accuracy.

Modeling Index of SP Lightweight Passenger Car Classes - (Including Daylight and other Name Trains)