#3260
Virginian EL-C
🇺🇸 United States ·built by General Electric· from 1955· class of 12 American electric locomotives
what is it?
The Virginian EL-C, later known as the New Haven EF-4 and E33, was an electric locomotive built for the Virginian Railway by General Electric in August 1955. They were the first successful production locomotives to use Ignitron (mercury arc) rectifier technology. Although they proved to be a successful design, no more EL-Cs were built, due to the small number of railroads that had electrification and the advent of improved electric locomotive technology.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 71 years ago, in 1955.
- 2.5 MW is about 29 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- 21 m long: about 5 cars parked nose to tail.
- Served for 26 years (1955–1981).
electric locomotive: Draws power from overhead wires or a third rail and pulls separate carriages.
spec sheet
- built
- 1955–1957
- in service from
- 1955
- retired
- 1981
- status
- preserved
- number built
- 12
- kind
- Electric
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- General Electric
- operators
- Virginian Railway, Norfolk and Western Railway, New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, Penn Central Transportation Company, Conrail
- top speed
- 105 km/h
- power
- 2.5 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- electric system
- 11 kV AC 25 Hz
- wheel arrangement
- Co′Co′
- length
- 21 m
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q4039137, Wikipedia: Virginian EL-C (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.