Description
The Half-Bay Window was a design championed by the New York Central and their successors and was adopted by a handful of other roads. When researching railroads, the "what" happened is often easy to find. The "why" it happened is more often then not an educated guess that is repeated until it becomes common wisdom. The guess for the existence of the Half-Bay Window design was to give the railroad the visibility of the bay window while still clearing low and tight obstructions such as through girder bridges and depot platforms.
Southern Pacific ordered 200 phase 4 bay window cabooses from Pacific Car & Foundry for delivery in 1961. They were assigned class C-40-4. This was the only class delivered with the bay windows painted orange (although repainted cars from earlier classes had been receiving orange bays for a few years.) We know at least one of these cars survived well into the 1980s with its solid orange bays intact.
