Even though I take great interest in doing upgrades, one of my least favorite things about upgrading locomotives to TMCC was finding a way to connect the antenna for TMCC connection, mostly for steam locomotives. Sometimes it is easy and the antenna can be hot glued to a plastic coal load in the tender (if applicable), but many times it's bit more tedious. Normally I do like to put the TMCC module in the locomotive where possible, which can be a bit of project depending on which engine.
To the point now, I have quite a few Lionel scale Hudsons and other high end steamers from the 80's and 90's that could benefit my use of them largely through TMCC upgrades. For locos like the 785 Hudson that have the cotter pin handrail mounting, I figured the handrails would serve as a good TMCC antenna provided the ends touching the boiler are insulated with heat shrink tubing.
For locos like the 5340 Hudson and T-1, that would be a bit more difficult. I figured the best decision would be to replace the handrail stanchions with the TMCC plastic handrail stanchions used for the TMCC Hudsons (or other TMCC counterpart):
It may be a downgrade from to replace the stanchions from metal to plastic, but aesthetically I doubt it'll make any difference. Would this make sense and work though? I figure it could work provided each end touching the boiler is, again, insulated.