Leasing comapnies of the 70's

[ShaunCN]

where there any locomotive leasing companies operating the 1970's? what kind of power were they ussing? [^] thanks for any ones help

[oskar]

that's a good question I bet there was not that much




kevin

[Anonymous]

Relco is the only one I know of.

[Anonymous]

That's a good question, I've never really thought about it until you brought it up.

It seems that just a short while ago even railways owned most of their own rolling stock, as opposed to leasing companies.

It seems that every container train that rolls by nowadays has 9/10 cars with "DTTX" on them, and perhaps the odd one belonging to the home railway.

Why did this happen?

Do railways really make that much more money running their own rolling stock, as opposed to a leased piece of equipment?

Did railways simply not have the capital to invest in new rolling stock, when the intermodal rush started?

Thanks.

[rtstasiak]

I recall a lot of cross-railroad leasing in the 60's and 70's including Lehigh Valley leasing from Bangor and Aroostook and Pittsburg and Shawmut--EMD Geeps and SW's and leasing RS-11's from parent PRR. Canadian Pacific actually had some UP Alco FA sets running around Hamilton, ON. Same for ore power from Cartier Railway and Quebec, North Shore and Labrador. Units ran from Geeps to 6-axle ALCOs/MLWs.

In the world of leasing by non-carriers, Precision National Corporation rented out a collection of EMD Geeps. ALCO, EMD, and GE did some leasing, most of it from the ranks of trade-in material. If a locomotive could pull, then a shortline or bankrupt would probably pay for that pull! A real mix of units here, fruit salad for sure. Another rebuilder, Chrome Crankshaft, was also in the game. I think that CC mostly handled switchers.

The largest leasing operation in the 1970's had to be Conrail. Big Blue leased Big Boxes by the dozens, especially during the first years of operations. Lots of ALCO and MLW action in CN attire.

Hope this helps.

Rich

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Precision National and Relco were probably among the first non-carrier locomotive lessors. Some railroads kept their older locomotives on the roster primarily to lease to other carriers. NYC's Sharks and UP's FA/FB's are prime examples, there are undoubtedly others.
Intermodal trains are perhaps an unfair example since Trailer Train (TTX and similar reporting marks) is jointly owned by several railroads and has operated an intermodal car pool on behalf of its owners since it was incorporated in the 1950's.