The new MTH ES44AC has a PTC antenna array on the cab roof, similar to the UP style:
However, the MTH SD70ACe does not have this. I've seen a review of the Bachmann NS heritage units that says these have PTC arrays, but these are apparently an NS style and not the same as the UP style array.
Does anyone know if the incoming Walthers SD70ACe will have arrays, and if so, what style? For that matter, Walthers has announced UP units with pre-2005 red sill stripes and post-2005 yellow sill stripes. Units with red sill stripes would definitely not have PTC arrays, but units with yellow would have gone only a few years without PTC arrays, and nearly all presumably have them now.
Has anyone been keeping track of which incoming contemporary units have, or will have, this detail, and whether it's correct for the roads involved? For that matter, do all the MTH ES44ACs have the same PTC array (correct for UP but ? for others)? Certainly on the UP, all, or nearly all, road units have this, going back at least to SD60Ms, so this would be applicable to older units as well as the newest.
I note that a seller on the famous auction site offers 3D printed PTC arrays. I've ordered one, and it's OK, though not as crisp as the one on the MTH ES44AC.
John,
I suspect we are going to see a lot of change in antenna types and mountings over the next few years. Remember all of the small antenna types and then the white 'dome' becoming very common on western railroads?
Model manufacturers can make the type in your photo 'removable' - I suspect the after market detail folks will have some good business...
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of interest in this topic -- certainly the magazines aren't covering it, but neither are the blogs or forums. But if nobody talks about it, the manufacturers won't know if it's important. A plain cab roof at this point is preferable to molded-on detail of one style, it seems to me. The MTH SD70ACe has the old-style single white dome, which is molded on and a bear to remove so you can attach the 3D printed PTC antenna (I did this, and it turned out more or less OK, lucky the new part mostly covers the surgical scar).
BNSF has at least three styles of PTC antenna. The first is oblong rectangular white domes on either side of the central white dome:
The second is a pair of longer rectangular white domes alongside the center dome:
The third is a new style that covers the whole cab roof and appears on very late ES44C4s and new ET44C4s:
It looks like KCS uses something like a BNSF style, while one NS style seems very similar to UP:
If nobody talks about it, MR won't cover it. If MR or other outlets don't cover it, the manufacturers won't think it's important. It seems to me that there are at least four styles of PTC antenna arrays in common use. We don't have a good vocabulary to describe them, and the manufacturers don't seem to be on top of the situation in general.