Lettering for 1937 AAR boxcars - green and yellow scheme

In April 1952, the M&StL received 700 boxcars of 10’-0” IH and 3/4 IDN ends, basically a 1944 AAR design but with a 10’-0” inside height. Built by General American Transportation Corp., Lot 8026, Series 4000-5398 (even numbers only) These cars were delivered painted with green sides (DuPont #89-8127 Vorhauer Green Delux Enamel “Devin’s Green”), black ends, roof, underframe and truck sideframes. Wheels unpainted. Side stenciling was yellow, which faded in a fairly short time period, end reporting marks in white stencil paste. Most repaints by M&StL shops had the roofs green as well. There are photos showing that some cars later on had red doors, but there is no evidence that the red doors indicated that they were intended for any speci.c use, just replacement doors from the 53000 series.
In 1956, the M&StL began a repaint program displaying the new “Mikan” bright red with white stripes. Many, but not all cars of any series, were repainted in
any scheme before the November 1, 1960 take over by the C&NW.