Goninan/GE EL Class

The ELs were built by A Goninan & Co at Broadmeadow for Australian National, which ordered fourteen GE Dash 8s in June 1989, and EL51 was delivered in July 1990. They were built for passenger and fast freight work and regularly hauled the Ghan and the Indian Pacific until the CLPs took over in 1994. After that they went to National Rail, and once the NRs arrived they were sent back to AN and stored at Islington. EL59 was destroyed in a derailment at Mount Christie in February 1997.

Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia (CFCLA, now Rail First Asset Management) bought the other thirteen from 1998, its very first locos. They were regeared at Bassendean, which brought the top speed down from 140 km/h to 125 km/h and lifted their tractive effort by 19%, making them better suited to freight. Most went into CFCLA's blue, silver and yellow, and they carry the names of famous Australian racehorses.

CFCLA leased them to just about every standard gauge operator, QR National and Interail among them, and for a while they were a daily sight on QR's intermodal trains between Brisbane and Melbourne. In March 2006 EL56 was photographed on a Brisbane to Melbourne freight behind Interail 42105. SCT leased them too, and EL61 was so badly damaged when its SCT train hit a truck at Vite Vite in 2021 that it was scrapped for parts at Islington. Operators have since moved on to the newer CFs, and Rail First now lists the remaining twelve as stored and for sale.