Beginning in the early 2000s, the rail industry was introduced to something not seen before, new-build six-axle locomotive lease fleets. CIT Group was the first to purchase, acquiring 40 EMD SD9043MACs in late 1999 and early 2000. This was followed by 25 new General Electric AC4400CWs in 2001 and another 35 AC4400CWs in 2004. The maroon and silver SD9043MACs and blue AC4400CWs CIT rostered was something not seen since Burlington Northern began operating a fleet of 100 Oakway SD60s in the late 1980s. These were built for and used by BN under a very unique arrangement where the railroad only purchased the power output of each SD60 and the fleet was maintained by the lessor at their own shop. This differed from a traditional lease at the time where locomotives were typically operated and maintained in-house by the railroad that was leasing the power.
The CIT fleet of new EMDs and GEs would be well received by the industry, with nearly all of CIT’s fleet of lease locomotives out working for years at a time. It would be almost a decade after CIT’s second order of AC4400CW’s were delivered in 2004 before the industry saw additional new six-axle lease locomotives introduced. Citicorp Railmark, better known as Citirail, would enter the new six-axle locomotive leasing market in 2012 with the purchase of 15 new General Electric ES44ACs in 2012. This would be the first of four total purchases of new GE power each year until 2015, acquiring a total of 125 General Electric AC locomotives.
In 2019, Progress Rail decided to build its own lease fleet of SD70ACe-T4s, assembling 31 new locomotives in 2019 and 2020. With the severe downturn on locomotive needs today and the amount of stored power on Class I’s fleets, there may not be a need for new six-axle lease power to be built for quite some time.
Six axle lease locomotives built (as-built reporting marks and road numbers)
Oakway: SD60 OWY Nos. 9000-9099
CIT Group: AC4400CW CEFX Nos. 1001-1059 and SD9043MAC CEFX Nos. 100-139
Citirail: ES44AC CREX Nos. 1201-1215, 1301-1350, 1401-1435 and ES44AC (T4C) CREX Nos. 1501-1525
Progress Rail: SD70ACe-T4 EMDX Nos. 7201-7227, 7242 and SD70ACe (T4C) EMDX Nos. 2122-2124
Note – CREX Nos. 1501-1535 and EMDX Nos. 2122-2124 are considered Tier 4 Credit locomotives. Mechanically, they are Tier 3 locomotives built using emission credits after Tier 4 took effect Jan. 1, 2015.
Read more by locomotive expert Chris Guss here.
