CFCL Australia


CFCL Australia is an Australian locomotive and rolling stock leasing company operating in the rail freight market. CFCLA leases assets to a number of private rail operators 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

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. In 2000, it diversified into wagons.
In March 2009, the Marubeni Corporation purchased a 49% stake in CFCLA. In November 2012, CFCLA unveiled its first infrastructure train in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. As at October 2014, it had locomotives operating construction trains on the Roy Hill line and on the Hamersley & Robe River railway.
Marubeni relinquished its stake in CFCLA in 2016 and moving to 15% stake in CF Asia Pacific. As of January 2020 Marubeni holds no interest in either entity.
In January 2020 ownership moved from SFH to ACP.

CFCLA Maintenance previously CF Rail Services

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. 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 took over Bluebird Rail Operations engineering business at Islington.
The CF Rail Services name was dropped in 2017 to consolidate the name as CFCLA.

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. As at October 2019, it comprised 78 locomotives.
ClassImageTypeGaugeTop speed
NumberNotes
EL classDiesel-electricStandard11513ex Australian National
44 ClassDiesel-electricStandard1151Ex FreightCorp. Stored.
GL ClassDiesel-electricStandard11512rebuilt ex FreightCorp 442 class
442 classDiesel-electricStandard1152Sold to Manildra Group
500 classDiesel-electricStandard651ex South Australian Railways
B classDiesel-electricBroad1152ex V/Line via various operators
C classDiesel-electricStandard1153ex V/Line via various operators
S classDiesel-electricBroad1152Since disposed of
T classDiesel-electricBroad1004ex V/Line via various operators
G classDiesel-electricBroad1153ex V/Line via various operators
TL classDiesel-electricStandard1001ex Kowloon-Canton Railway
CD ClassDiesel-electricStandard906ex Robe River Iron Associates
VL classDiesel-electricStandard11512New build
CF classDiesel-electricStandard11510Named CF4412 Original 10 Black Caviar painted in black & pink livery
CM classDiesel-electricStandard11516New build

Most locomotives in the fleet are named after famous Australian racehorses.
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.