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The Internationale Apfelpfeil Organisation, short IAO, with the full name IAO Internationale Apfelfahrten Organisation Helmut Th.K.Rall International Arrangements Organization GmbH & Co. KG better known as Apfelpfeil, was a German tourism company and had its headquarters in Freudenstadt-Grüntal, offering reader trips (organized trips or tours offered by a publication) from 1973 to 1980.

Originally aimed exclusively at rail travel "Apfelpfeil" (literally "Apple Arrow"), the operating area was soon expanded to include cruises and the Apfelpfeil was used as a shuttle serving the ships. There were branches in Ratingen, Laatzen, Frankfurt am Main and Munich.

History
The IAO was a tourism company registered with the Commercial Court in 1969 which, under the management of Helmut Th. K. Rall, General Secretary of the German Vegetarian Union, offered Europe-wide charter trips on its own trains. The offer was originally geared towards the needs of vegetarians, but then became more and more reader trips for daily newspapers and magazines. During the first reader trips, travelers were transported to the central boarding station by cab, bus or DB connection. The special train (“Apfelpfeil”) departing from there traveled during the day to Brig in Switzerland, for example, where the guests stayed overnight in hotels; the next day, the journey continued to Genoa, where the guests embarked on one of the Linea 'C' cruise ships[2].

The demand for cruise leisure travel grew so rapidly that IAO decided to conclude exclusive, comprehensive charter agreements for the German-speaking market for several ships of the Linea 'C', e.g. SS Eugenio C, Enrico 'C' and SS Federico C. The usual destinations were offered: Scandinavia, Mediterranean, Black Sea, Canary Islands. An extensive cruise program in the Caribbean was launched to enable readers to travel during the winter months as well. The Caribbean cruises lasted 10 days each. Up to five long-haul jets (Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8) were chartered to transport the passengers[3].

The company flourished, but overstretched itself with investments in the railroad wagon fleet. In particular, the cost of converting the wagons taken over from the US Army, which had been purchased at the special request of senior partner Helmut Th.K. Rall, got out of hand. The company became insolvent in 1979 and was subsequently wound up. The bankruptcy proceedings were annulled in 1989 and the company was deleted[1].

Wagon fleet
The majority of the wagon fleet was based on the UIC type X coaches and stemmed from a range of sources. Apfelpfeil acquired coaches from the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) pool (ABm223, Rheingold observation car AD4üm-62, Bcm241/242, Bm231, Bm232 and BRbuüm), from the travel companies Scharnow and Touropa and the U.S. Army (USTC), as well as from the German Sleeper and Dining Car Company (WLAs4ü-50). In total, Apfelpfeil owned around 70 wagons, which were stationed in Freudenstadt.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) converted the wagons slightly and painted them in the company's corporate colors. The vehicles were painted orange in the window area and yellow below the windows. A blue, arrow-shaped decorative stripe with white Apfelpfeil lettering was painted on them and a red apple was painted in the center of the vehicle. As most DB passenger railroad cars at this time were green or silver, with the exception of the wagons for Trans Europ Express (TEE) and InterCity trains, the brightly painted Apfelpfeil wagons stood out in rail traffic.

Following the bankruptcy of Apfelpfeil, the wagons were sold to various operators, e.g. 25 couchette cars went to the Danish State Railways (DSB) and four more carriages to Danish private railroads. The five observation cars of the former Rheingold were sold to the Mittelthurgau travel agency, a subsidiary of THURBO. Swiss Federal Railways took over five carriages from Apfelpfeil's vehicle pool, from which two club carriages, two cafeteria carriages and a disco carriage were created.

Models
The colorful cars of the Apfelpfeil were very popular with model train manufacturers. There was a passenger carriage set made by Märklin with three club carriages and one observation carriage on the Z scale. Arnold and Minitrix both produced a compartment and observation carriage in the N scale. There were different models produced by A.C.M.E., ADE, Lima, Märklin, and Railtop for the H0 scale. Tillig produced a couchette carriage set and the observation carriage in company colors, as well as a couchette carriage in chrome oxide green (special series for model railway dealers) for the TT scale.

Literature

 * Friedrich J. Ortwein, "Seereisejahre." Self-published, Cologne 2009; pages 36 and following,