EL-C Rectifier

The EL-C was an electric locomotive built solely for the Virginian Railway by the General Electric Company. In total, 12 EL-C locomotives were built in 1956 & 1957. Although the EL-C proved to be a very successful design, no additional units were ever built due to the small number of railroads having electrification -- plus the advent of improved electric locomotive technology was right around the corner.

The Virginian Railway eventually sold the EL-C’s to the New Haven Railroad in the 1960s and when merged into the Penn Central railroad in 1969 the EL-C’s were reclassified as E33 locomotives. When Penn Central merged into Conrail in the mid-1970's, ten E33s were repainted and eventually retired in March 1981 when Conrail shut down its electric freight operations.

Lionel's version of the colorful Virginian EL-C is an excellent model and captures the overall look and feel of its real life counterpart. Its attractive color scheme and unique design has contributed to its popularity throughout the past 65 years.

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