You're thinking of Trainphone.So I was a railroad engineer for 5 years for the transportation company that took over the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Railroad.
They used to use a radio rail phone system up to the late 50s. The antennas looked like a railing across the top of a car or engine. They were primitive and short distance as most communication was done with train orders or crank phones attached to wires along the rail Road that went right to the train dispatcher.
They moved to VHF high in the late 50s, I worked on the railroad from 19 85 to 1990. But I remember hearing about the radio phones and the move to VHF High. It would certainly seem that that antenna could handle 160 megahertz.
I tried about 25 different ways to try to look it up and no go. Oh well.
ya'll are all wrong. thats the thing ya use to steer that sucker
everybody knows that
Not to mention the gas pedal.You are absolutely correct. People often overlook the steering wheel on railroad equipment.
I've seen photos and movies from the 50s and 60s with some locomotives and cabooses with this type of antenna. It appears to be a 1/4 wave ground plane with seven (or maybe eight?) radials. Other than that I can't find any info about it (manufacturer/model, etc.) Anybody know?
That makes sense since the A/S/Moto "firecracker" antenna as well as the Sinclair blade antenna have become much more common on locomotives (and cabooses while those were still used).The brake wheel antenna was first introduced on wooden cabooses. Locomotives also had them to until someone pointed out the fact that the loco was made from steel.
Not my photo. Just found on Google.Cool picture, thanks for posting!