Leasing

I"m guessing that, technically, many railroads do not "own" their locomotives but lease them.  However, I think you bring up a very interesting question and I look forward to seeing the replies.

Lou in California

Era counts

The PTRA (Port Terminal Railway Association) in Houston did not own any power, then later on acquired engines of its own.

On the other hand the GH&H (Galveston, Houston & Henderson) a jointly owned line between the MKT and MP at one time owned some switch engines and then later used MKT and MP power.

I think you will find that some of the jointly owned switching and terminal companies may have not had their own engines.  There may also be some "railroads" from the IPD boxcar era that owned cars but no engines.

Subsidiaries and shortlines

There are also interesting cases like Pan Am Railways, which “owns” a bunch of locos, indirectly.  Almost all of them carry reporting marks of the Maine Central (MEC), which Pan Am owns.  Even the newest C40-8’s just acquired from CSX which are still in the process of being repainted.  There are also a small number of Boston and Maine (BM).  And only two PAR (the actual Pan Am Railways) - the two FP9s they use on inspection trains.

I’ve heard the reason why most of the locos are owned by the MEC subsidiary is either for tax purposes, or for labor agreement reasons, or possibly both.  But I don’t know for sure.

I’d guess there may be a number of interesting shortline cases as Dave suggested above.

One sort of oddball case I know of is the Grafton & Upton Railroad, which owns a number of interesting first gen diesels which they used for a few years after their ancient S2 was no longer up to increased traffic.  But what they actually use for power now is almost exclusively leased MP15’s.  Apparently the savings in fuel costs is significant.

not many in the modern era

Wendell, there must be a few others nowadays. Hopefully others will add to your list.

Back before the 1970s, there were dozens. On the passenger side, many union depots were separate corporations, I think for cost-sharing purposes. On the freight side, it was mostly due to rate-making. Many large shippers incorporated their own railroads. 

In the steam era, many such had a loco or two in their own livery. As diesels came it, many companies found it cheaper to rent locos from one of the owning railroads.

Pan Am

All of Pan Am Railway's freight equipment is all former MEC and BM cars as well, with many repainted into PAR blue but all keeping their original reporting marks and numbers. Never seen/heard of any equipment at all with PAR reporting marks except maybe those business Fs and cars - not sure of their numbering.

Orangeville Brampton Railway

The Orangeville-Brampton Railway (OBRY) in Ontario formerly had operations contracted to Cando Contracting, which had a GP9 with OBRY marks and logos. As also the Barrie-Collingwood Railway (BCRY). This also had a GP9 painted. Eventually those older units were retired and the railways ran with other CCGX (Cando's reporting mark) units. Cando also owns and operates the Central Manitoba Railway (CEMR) which also has or at least had some CEMR marked and painted locos in the past, but now mostly they just letter them for the parent company Cando.

A few years ago, operation of the Orangeville Brampton Ry. was turned over to a new operator, Trillium Rail, which uses a leased GMTX/GATX MP15DC.

Chesapeake Western

In the Virginia part of the Shenandoah Valley you have the Chesapeake Western (CHW) branchline running between Broadway, Harrisonburg, Dayton, Pleasant Valley and Elkton. CHW is a wholly owned subsidiary of NS these days. In the past they had their own steam and diesel locomotives but when since they were bought by Norfolk & Western, which went into NS, power has been supplied by the parent company. I'm not sure if they even own any cars these days with a CHW reporting mark. In the past they had a few cabeese and I believe some MOW cars still with CHW markings.

PAR boxcars

Pan am I think has some high cubes painted in all blue with PAR listed as the reporting mark.  Not sure on this as I have never seen one.  Thought I read this somewhere though.

Cincinnati Southern Railway

The Cincinnati Southern Railway runs between Cincinnati, OH and Chattanooga, TN including the section call the Rathole (Second Division - Oakdale, TN to Danville, Ky).  Cincinnati Southern owns no engines, rolling stock or equipment. The entire line is leased to, operated by and maintained by the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (CNO&TP) subsidiary of Norfolk Southern. 

Venell Farms

https://www.gazettetimes.com/business/local/venell-farms-railroad-agree-for-service/article_fa148f18-269c-11df-a9a1-001cc4c03286.html

According to the Surface Transportation Board, Larry Venell, manager of VFRC, 30742 Venell Place, Corvallis, filed to purchase from Union Pacific a 5.35-mile stretch of the line running from milepost 682.25 near Greenberry to milepost 687.6 near Corvallis. The purchase includes the track and the right-of-way.

They have an agreement with the Albany and Eastern (aka Rick Franklin Corp) to actually run the railroad, which means running a locomotive over the Portland & Western (previous operator/leasor of the branch) from the A&E in Lebanon to Corvallis to do the work. 

Camas Prairie

The Camas Prairie in North Central Idaho never owned any locomotives or rolling stock in its nearly 100 year existence.  It shared power and rolling stock from its parent roads, the Northern Pacific, later Burlington Northern and Union Pacific.  It was known as the Railroad on Stilts but most of it is inactive now including a lot of the stilts part in Lapwai Canyon.

Paul

Camas Prairie

Camas Prairie definitely had locomotives and freight cars in the early 2000s:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/Railroad.aspx?id=CSP

CSP

You are correct but it was no longer the Camas Prairie at that time, it was owned by North America Railnet which later merged with Omnitrax.  NAR called it Camas Prairie Railnet and powered the railroad with 7 former Norfolk Southern B23-7s and one ex DRGW SW1000.

While owned by UP and BN or NP, there were only a few pieces of MOW equipment lettered CSP.

Paul