Indeed, in 1954 new NYC cars were being delivered with the
Roman style lettering and by 1955 many new cars and repaints
were getting the extended Gothic lettering. It's interesting
that NYC continued to use lines above and below the reporting
marks until around 1960 even though most railroads discontinued
that practice years earlier.

There are many good NYC box car photos from the 1950's to early
1960's in Bob Liljestrand's (Bob's Photo) softcover book illustrating
the various paint & lettering schemes (and the dates).

Tim O'Connor