While looking at some old photos of southern bay window cabeese i took notice that some of the bays/cupolas were painted yellow while others were all red.does anyone remember why the southern did this? i had an old SR retiree tell me a long time ago but my memory escapes me.thanks for any info
Yellow baywindow and cupola cabooses were local cabooses and lacked radios and electrical generators. Very few cupolas existed long enough to receive the yellow cupola, a couple of the INT wood cupola cabs did and all five of the former Savannah & Atlanta cabs (three homebuilts and two ex-RDG). They were distinctive since they had a yellow band down the sides in-line with the cupola sides with white Interstate and Savannah & Atlanta lettering. The INT cabs were retired about 18 months after they were rebuilt and repainted. The S&A cabs were later patched as Southern, with their S&A lettering and the yellow side band repainted, with only the cupola sides remaining yellow. A single Norfolk Southern Magor cupola caboose remained in use up on the iNT but from what I have seen in photos it never received the yellow cupola.
Here are some links to the older baywindow cabooses that carried the yellow baywindows (examples of subsidiary cabs as they were originally panted with the yellow baywindow as well as after they were repainted Southern)... CRN X25 SOU (CRN) X27 SOU (CRN) X27 TA&G X71 SOU (TAG) X72 SOU (TENN) G&F X3265 SOU (G&F) X3265 All of the cabooses above reused old tender trucks with leaf springs. And here are some of the Grantt Mfg. local cabs... SOU X205 SOU X261 SOU X264 Here is a shot of one of the Interstate wood cabs that was rebuilt and painted in the yellow band scheme... INT X13 Savannah & Atlanta cabs... S&A X253 SOU (S&A) X253 (patch to cover yellow band can be seen... yellow on cupola rusted away) SOU (S&A) X255 (ex-RDG) Note: no yellow on cupola. SOU X256 (ex-RDG) And the former NS cupola caboose which never received the yellow band... SOU (NS) X257 I got to see the Athearn Southern yellow bay yesterday and the model looks quite sharp even though it isn't all that close. I can't help wondering, though, how it might look if a person could get a Walthers angled baywindow and replace the stock part with it to get a closer looking model. Southern cupolas were limited to the Interstate RR. trackage and was use on that line because the close clearances of the coal tipples... baywindow cabs simply couldn't clear them. The ex-S&A/RDG cabs could be done with a Northeastern cab while the S&A's homebuilt cabs might be reasonably represented using an Atlas NE-6 cab or kitbashing a Bowser N5 with the roof rebuilt. The former NS Magor... while way shorter than the prototype but the Atlas Magor cab could fit the bill. I have a clinic conducted by HO modeler Bob Harpe about modeling the rebuilt baywindow cabooses (X600 - X793, plus subsidiaries) that I will have posted later today. While it involves the use of the HO scale SOU baywindow caboose by WrightTrak there are ideas that could be useful in N-scale as well. Here's the link... will have it posted shortly... http://southernmodeler.info/Bob_Harpe/Southern_baywindow_caboose-rebuilt.pdf
