window guard on UP CA-11 bay window caboose

[Albert in N]

  Bought a used brass Key Imports N scale Union Pacific CA-11 caboose at a local train show Saturday.  It is a beauty!  Looked at photos of the real ones on line thru Google.  Makes me curious about the window exterior trim, or guard, bars.  These look like a three-step ladder bent into a V and mounted sideways across the bay window on each side.  What's with these bars since appears to be unique to Uncle Pete?

[C855B]

Sliding window screens. Seriously. The screens themselves didn't last all that long in service, which is probably you didn't find many (or any) photos with the screens.

The verticals on the model portray screens in the closed position. If the screens vanished, it wouldn't have the verticals (or "rungs", per your ladder analogy), just the top and bottom tracks.

[Albert in N]

  Thanks, Mike!  That explains why the Google photos I saw of the real CA-11s had some with screens and some without.  Initially, I thought that this was some sort of art deco trim.