CFCL Australia

B76 in Melbourne in August 2006
Industry	Rail Asset Leasing
Founded	November 1998
Headquarters	Millers Point
Key people	Ian Gibbs (CEO)
Parent	Chicago Freight Car Leasing Company (51%) Marubeni Corporation (49%)
Subsidiaries	CF Rail Services
Website	www.cfcla.com.au

CFCL Australia (CFCLA) is an Australian locomotive and rolling stock leasing company operating in the rail freight market, leasing its assets to a number of private rail operators who are active in the local rail industry, predominantly on the defined standard gauge interstate network.

Though primarily based in New South Wales, CFCLA’s assets can be found operating in most Australian states and with all major train operating companies. It has rolling stock on both long term lease to these companies as well as assets that are available for spot hire. It is owned by Chicago Freight Car Leasing Company and Marubeni Corporation

History

EL class locomotives in January 2007

S311 leading CFCLA grain hoppers on an El Zorro operated train near Meredith in January 2008

CFCL Australia was established in 1998, by the American Chicago Freight Car Leasing Company. Its first contract was for the supply of a small fleet of radio controlled, automated ballast hoppers to Westrail.

The first locomotives acquired were 13 members of the EL class from Australian National in November 1998.^[1][2] In 2000, it diversified into wagons.^[3]

In March 2009, the Marubeni Corporation purchased a 49% stake in CFCLA.^[4] In November 2012, CFCLA unveiled its first intrastructure train in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.^[5] As at October 2014, it had locomotives operating construction trains on the Roy Hill line and on the Hamersley & Robe River railway.^[6]

CF Rail Services

CF Rail Services logo

In September 2010, CFCLA took out a lease on the Goulburn Railway Workshops to maintain both its locomotive and wagon fleets with the facility named the Australian Horse Power Service Centre.^[7][8][9] As well as maintaining its own fleet, Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia also perform maintenance for other operators including Qube Logistics. It also maintains locomotives at Islington Railway Workshops in Adelaide.

CF Rail Services was established in 2013, bringing together the Australian Horse Power Service Centre and the Bluebird Rail Operations engineering business at Islington.^[10]

Fleet

Initially the CFCLA locomotive fleet comprised second hand locomotives no longer required by rail operators or re-manufactured units that had been given life-extending overhauls. More recently it has purchased new locomotives

The CFCLA diesel locomotive fleet is made up of a variety of different classes of units, ranging from modern high power units to older mainline locomotives, and smaller branch line and shunting units.^[11] As at October 2014, it comprised 88 locomotives.^[6]

Most locomotives in the fleet are named after famous Australian race horses.

The CFCLA fleet also comprises over 1,700 freight wagons of a variety of types including ballast hoppers, grain hoppers, bulk mineral hoppers, and intermodal flat wagons of varying lengths and carrying capabilities. CFCLA wagons generally have four-character identification codes starting with the letter C.^[12]

References

External links

• Company website