I had been thinking, who was the first locomotive lessor? It seems like today we see alot of NREX, HLCX, GECX and other lessors but who was first?
Excluding from one railroad to another I would say either Chrome Crankshaft or Precision National Corp., both now out of business.
RELCO has to be one of the earliest ones also.
Excluding from one railroad to another I would say either Chrome Crankshaft or Precision National Corp., both now out of business.
These are part of NREX
Having thought it over I would like to change my nomination to either George R. Silcott or Birmingham Rail & Locomotive, both small but older than the first two that I named.
I think that Silcott, BR&L, and Chrome Crankshaft (also RELCO) dealt mostly in switchers and industrial locomotives during the early years. If the intent was to find the first company to put its own leased locomotives in the consists of railroads’ mainline trains, I’d have to nominate Precision Engineering, in the late 1960s. A PECO Geep was worthy of comment and photographs then.