B & O GP38-2 Question

I recently had the opportunity to visit the B&O Museum in Baltimore and had a chance to ride on the restored #3802. I'm presently in the process of painting and detailing an Athearn unit to represent 3802. Most of the detail parts have been pretty easy to find but I'm a bit stumped on one thing. What is the part circled in the attached pic? Antenna, GPS, Remote? I don't have any pictures of the loco from an angle that gives me a good detail shot, so any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Looks like a UAP.

 

Thanks for the response. Next question. What's a UAP?

 

UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). The new Official Airforce name for UFO (Unidentified Flying Object).
Actually it looks like a signal transmitter to identify the unit.

 

It might be a variation on a capacitance hat on an antenna. It's a way to shorten an antenna without using a coil.

A great example of a capacitance hat antenna is the CB&Q's "brake wheel" antenna.

In this case, it actually looks like a hat!

 

My vote supports @JimmyZ 's guess with a GPS antenna, supported by conduit.

 

Thanks all. Whatever it is, I'll try to scratch build something to resemble it. I can't tell the exact location of it's placement but it should be close.

 

I emailed the museum for an answer. We'll see what they respond with.

 

Looks like Mike had the correct guess. The response from the museum was "After checking with our rail operations team, I can tell you that this is a radio antenna for a CSX radio that is still in the cab of the locomotive".

 

Technical point, that is a straight GP38, not a Dash 2. I did get to run that unit at least once on a freight in the 1990s. Had 3 GP38s in the consist and all were painted Chessie. Wish I'd have had my camera...

 

Thanks for the info!