Rapido Trains - 562006A - Flatcar, 73 Foot, Centerbeam - Northwestern Oklahoma

Prototype History: Centerbeam flatcars, centerbeams, center partition railcars or commonly referred to as lumber racks are specialty cars designed for carrying bundled building supplies such as dimensional lumber, wallboard, and fence posts. They are essentially bulkhead flatcars that have been reinforced by a longitudinal I-beam, often in the form of a Vierendeel truss, sometimes reinforced by diagonal members, but originally in the form of stressed panels perforated by panel-lightening "opera windows", often oval, egg-shaped or rectangular. They must be loaded symmetrically, with half of the payload on one side of the centerbeam and half on the other to avoid tipping over.

Road Name History: NOKL was established in 1973 to take over operation of the 9 mile former M-K-T line connecting Fisk, Woodward and Warner, Oklahoma. Customers include a grain elevator and a railroad car repair shop. They currently lease out their reporting marks so the many thousands of freight cars lettered NOKL actually belong to the First Union Rail car leasing operation and not this shortline.

This begs the question, why a leasing company would bother to lease a shortline’s reporting marks when they could just use their own (something ending in X such as NDYX, also used by First Union.) There is a difference between private owners and railroad owners in how car-hire is billed. Private owner cars are billed by the mile. Railroad owned cars are billed by a complex formula including per diem, the age of the car and the mileage. Therefore, depending on the service, the leasing companies earn more by using a railroad reporting mark for a car and other times they are better off running the car as a private owner.

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.