Just my observation...

[Railfan1]

Recently I have seem to notice, in pictures and in person, that railroads seem to be relying more on each other for power usage than leasing locomotives from Helm and CEFX for example. While railfanning a CSX hotspot recently, I noticed a large amount of UP and NS power. Now I know this goes on quiet often but this area used to have a large amount of lease power present. In other areas on the NS, I have again noticed a large presence of foreign rail power instead of, what was once, known for leasing locomotives. Has anyone else noticed this? Have rates possibly gone up on leasing? I know that this has been occuring on the two East coast railways but I do not know about the big two on the West coast. Any insight?

[Railway Man]

Traffic is down 2-5% nationwide and new locomotives continue to be delivered, so the need for lease locomotives is down.  Lease locomotives follow supply/demand curves like everything else; when demand is down price must go down too, or park the units.  When demand goes up, price can go up too.

RWM

[Awesome!]

Keep in mind with all the extra locomotives park. It's better off to swap between rival and to use existing locomotive than, leasing the unit at a large $$ amount.

[tomikawaTT]

The other factor is that a lot of that foreign power came in pulling run-through trains - and there are NS and CSX home-road units in LA and San Diego right now that got there the same way.  The railroads love avoiding the hassle of cutting units in and out of consists.

If there are enough railroad-owned units to handle the traffic, leasing companies get to park their newer units and sell off their older units - possibly to somebody who wants to convert them to Green Goats or gensets...

Chuck