Costruzioni Meccaniche di Saronno

Costruzioni Meccaniche di Saronno was an Italian company producing steam locomotives and cars, active from 1887 to 1918.

Favoured by these international cooperation agreements, the German company Maschinenfabrik Esslingen founded the Costruzioni Meccaniche di Saronno in the Varese municipality and began to manufacture its renowned steam locomotives in Italy.

At the end of the conflict the company, until then predominantly backed by German capital, was acquired by the engineer Nicola Romeo with backing from a Swiss bank, but it appears that Romeo closed the plant in 1918 and did not revive it until 1925.

The company soon began to specialize in the production of railway rolling stock, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the emerging internal combustion engine technology to license some of the first Italian railcars.

After some years of inactivity, Romeo re-started the Costruzioni Meccaniche plant as CEMSA in 1925.