Rapido Trains - 538011A - Open Hopper, 5-Bay Autoflood III - Gulf Power - Random - Set #1

Specific Item Information: Random Selection from Road # 8001, 8017, 8022, 8035, 8047, 8053

Model Information: Production began on these all-aluminum body railcars in 2004. What followed was thousands of orders for these rapid discharge hoppers, which have traversed almost all of North America. With millions of tons of coal per year being mined and hauled out of various locations across the continent, you would be hard pressed to not have seen one of these prototype cars in a modern day coal train.
This 4200 cubic foot, exterior post prototype (not to be confused with other types of prototype exterior-post or interior post models) is primarily used as a rapid discharge car, which can unload their cargo in a matter of seconds via the bottom bay doors. However, the car can also be equipped with a rotary coupler at the A end of the car (or on both ends on double-rotary cars), as indicated by the color blocks on the cars’ ends, for either bottom discharge or rotary unloading based on the infrastructure at the final processing facility.

Road Name History: Gulf Power Company (GPC) is a U.S. electric utility founded in 1925 and headquartered in Pensacola, Florida. It has over 450,000 customers in 10 counties and 71 towns in northwest Florida, and a generating capacity of 2.278 GW.
GPC was founded in 1925, and was acquired by Juno Beach-based NextEra Energy (the parent company of Florida Power & Light) in 2019. In 2021 GPC was legally merged into Florida Power & Light. NextEra has stated it will operate GPC as a separate company within FPL through 2021.From Wikipedia

Brand/Importer Information: Rapido Trains Inc. is a high-end manufacturer of model trains and accessories in HO, OO and N (North American 1:160 and British 1:148) scales. The firm's mission is to recreate the entire rail travel experience, from fully-detailed interiors and under-frames on models to fully-wired telephone poles for model railroads.

The name RAPIDO was introduced by Canadian National in 1965 to headline the railway's high-speed intercity passenger services. Until the mid-1980s, RAPIDO stood for fast schedules, frequent trains, and superb service.

Today, Rapido Trains continues the RAPIDO concept with state-of-the-art models and attention to fine detail. This company is not related to the venerable (and now defunct) German manufacturer Arnold Rapido, nor the present-day Arnold (which is owned by the United Kingdom's Hornby), Canadian based Rapido Trains was founded in 2003.