I’ve got 2 old Athearn F7’s with portholes on the side. Would these have been left open for ventilation, or should I put some plastic over them for window glazing?
Off topic - I was listening to “Toyland, Toyland, once you pass its borders you can never return again.” I laughed. I was sitting in my workroom installing Kadees on a half-century-old passenger car I’d just scored on eBay. Whoever wrote that line from Toyland was certainly not a model railroader!
It was rare for them to be open although some pictures do show them that way. Best is to glaze them over as the most common way of running. They weren’t for ventilation. The grills on the top of the carbody took care of that. They were to provide light for the crew to walk past the engine and generator. With the amount of noise in there nobody spent time there who didn’t need to.
They make a set of clear plastic for windshields and the port hole glass. They are nice because they fit flush instead of behind a scale foot of plastic wall. There is tons of air space around the wheel wells for ventilation.