Mismatched doors

Sometimes a boxcar may show up on your railroad with a damaged door. Your shop may install whatever door they have on hand, and not worry about painting it; especially if it is a foreign road - since you wouldn't have the correct paint anyway. You would replace the door with a primed one and send it (and the bill) on its way.

As a result, you may have cars floating around with mismatched doors, some grey primer only, and some that are completely the wrong color.

Looks like Conrail needed a door, and only had and old one leftover in Penn Central Jade Green.

A prototype mismatch, photo by Ron Hawkins, as posted on RailPhotos.com

Not all mismatches are from damage. Some roads paint doors a different color for a reason - Conrail has used yellow doors to indicate clean lading only.