Looks great! Why rebuild the roof again?
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That's a good question, Jim! I've heard that the reason had to do with adding an air conditioner, which was supposedly easier on a flat roof. But the fact that GE U-Boats, which had a curved roof, got air conditioners on a curved base indicates that this is not the correct reason. Actually, as CF7s were meant to be an economical way to repurpose old F-Units, the cab's original curved contour was initially retained. However, this meant that the cab doors needed to be specially fabricated, and that added enough to the cost that partway through production a fabricated cab, with an angled roof, was used to take advantage of "off the shelf" doors. And that saved enough money to make it practical. Many older CF7s, when being cycled through the Cleburne Shops again, were retrofitted with the new angled-roof cab as well. So why, then, spend more money to replace an already existing cab on these engines? It turns out the the new angled-roof cab could easily accommodate a three-man crew, which was an advantage on the locals to which these CF7s were most often assigned. (Thank goodness Cary F. Poole found documentation of all this for his book "CF7 Locomotives: From Cleburne to Everywhere" (The Railroad Press, 1997, ISBN 0-9657709-0-7)
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