They’re 2 major styles of cabooses, those with or without a cupola or extended height windows on top of the caboose Other railroads like SP, C&NW and UP preferred bay window cabooses without a cupola and windows on the side. Many of the bay window cabooses have a window at the center on a bulge. The cupola on wide vision cabooses are also bulged. Many road like ATSF, BN and it’s predecessors had mostly cupola and WV cabooses. Which style of caboose was better? I’d say having a cupola gave the caboose crew an extended view, though the bay window style lacked this and was popular with SP and others. And from what I’ve heard, SP was still getting brand new BW cabooses in the 1970s.
SP bought its last cabooses, which were bay window, in 1980. I would guess if there was a clear answer to which type is better, the other type would have ceased to exist a long time ago. Also, when you compare the height of a caboose to a boxcar or covered hopper, I would not think the cupola would give much of a view.
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
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