Can anybody tell me what kind of car this is? I've never seen one like it. It's from the Kato El Capitan set.
It says it's a "baggage dormitory". But what's with the structure across the top? https://www.katousa.com/N/AMT-ElCap/index.html
I always figured it was an aesthetic feature to transition the trains lines up to the taller cars, and/or a bit of a windbreak. Or, do you mean the railing/piping thing? Not sure what that is actually.
Radio attena for picking up AM broadcast along the route. Usually they were on top of the lounge cars but because of the extra height of the double decker cars, they had to put it on the dorm transition car where the radio was and then run speaker wiring back to the lounge. On the full dome lounge cars, Santa Fe stuck them on the ends sticking out from the dome. On the short domes they stuck one down the middle on either side of the dome.
That's not an Amtrak car! The government never came up with anything that cool. That's a Santa Fe car. I don't care who stole it later. By the way, some roads (notably the Pennsylvania) used similar antennae on locomotives for two-way radios.
However, the wire was encased in some sort of rubber insulation and ended up over an inch in diameter. The stanchions could be quite hefty too. I wish I had taken a closer photo of the antenna on top of the KCS Good Cheer when I was on top. The far end had come loose and was hanging over the side of the car. I had to pull it up and lash it to the rest of the antenna before we had the car moved to Austin. Did not want to have it flopping about in transit.
Ah yes, the "inductive Trainphone" system which somehow used an electromagnetic field to carry voice transmissions through the rail and pole line. It was quite the advancement at the time. I never knew PRR men were so articulate until seeing this 1946 film Clear Track Ahead. Take a look at Trainphone use beginning at 11:40.
