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.
This Southern Railway phase 1 transition era version pre-dates our previous run by virtue of having Roman style lettering for the SOUTHERN name and road number. Cars in this paint scheme began to arrive in 1941. This remained the standard for about 11 or 12 years before gothic style lettering was introduced for cabooses.
