This may have been discussed before, if so I missed it.
I am wondering why a small short line, Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad operating on ex RI Choctaw line in SE Okla would have so much rolling stock (ctr bms, intermodal, auto-racks, etc) running all over the US and Canada with its reporting marks, AOK. Does anyone know if the same entity owns both the line and rolling stock, or could there be some arrangement between the line and another entity that owns the rolling stock? Is this type of set up ever done; can it be done? I know the State of Okla owns the line and leases it to AOK. I have seen their operation and their main business seems to be switching for the UP at McAlester, OK. and deliver and pick up cars for the few customers on their line east.
Northtowne
You’ll find that the AOK cars are owned by one of the major leasing companies, which probably has some interest in the line itself as well. This line thus becomes a place for the leasing company to assign cars that can generate more car-hire as “railroad-owned” cars than they could under the leasing company’s own reporting marks.
There are other companies like that–and cars are rolling around with reporting marks like HS, EEC, NOKL, NKCR, CRLE, and probably others. For example, most of the EEC cars are owned by GE Rail Services Corporation. They may be assigned to the East Erie Commercial Railroad, but a majority of them (the box cars, anyway) are actually leased to the UP. And that’s part of the reason you don’t see too many recently-built box cars in UP lettering–this apparently works out well for all concerned. I won’t pretend to know anything about how much any od this costs, or what it saves, but a railroad like UP wouldn’t do it without some sort of fiscal advantage.