Hi Al, you know that I'm a long time , loyal member of the club so I tried to limit my experience with the car to an e-mail generated from the club website. Two weeks no reply, so here goes; the car is beautiful but the mounting assembly is unimaginative at best.
The little man came in with a broken leg and a missing forearm. There is no hole up his butt to use the mounting rod mentioned above so I'm left on my own to try and make this work.
As for the stupidly prepared directions I think that was due because Lionel ordered a more sensible mounting system and China took it upon themselves to throw this failure together.
I find this all disconcerting considering what a beautiful piece of rolling stock this is.
I was able to repair the leg but there is little I can do about the missing arm other then to try to sculptor one out of an epoxy resin. Other then that I'm left with a ten point vet carrying the club flag.
As for the T mount assembly I suggest taking a finger drill and turning a hole through his little crotch drill a hole through the T assembly, then epoxy a bent wire brad to the upright T assembly and sitting our little victim on top of the up side of pin. The T assembly will need to be painted a color to blend with the man's paints and a dab of hot glue to hold him steady to the upright T assembly. I chose hot glue because it can be removed.
I know this will have a negative effect on any resale value of the car, but at lest it will work. That said he has a missing arm so any resale value is mute. Oh yea, with only one arm I had to super glue the flag poll into his left hand.
I will try and see if I can cut a slot in his crotch as is shown in your pictures, but I really don't see the space for that. It's almost like we have different men.
A beautiful car totally flawed by a very poor application. 
