L1, L2 & L3

in production, 1915

May, 1957

August, 2000

     Originally opened as a steam powered railway in 1856, the London & Port Stanley Railway was electrified in 1915 by its owners, the City of London, Ontario.

     The first locomotive to be ordered and delivered was  "L1".  It was built by the General Electric Company in March of 1915 followed shortly there after by "L2" and "L3".  Although the builder's plate says they were built in "Toronto - Peterborough", all three locomotives were actually built in Erie, Pennsylvania.  They were then shipped to Peterborough, Ontario to have the builder's plate installed which would technically qualify them as being Canadian built thus avoiding import tariffs.

     The 65 ton, box cab electric, was mainly used for freight service on the 28 mile line between London and Port Stanley until its retirement in 1966.  It was then donated to the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa where it sat exposed to the elements for almost 30 years.  In 1995 it was declared surplus by the Museum and was offered to the Elgin County Railway Museum for preservation.  It arrived in St. Thomas on a flat car just before Christmas of that year, and restoration began shortly thereafter.  It is now cosmetically restored externally with the interior still to be done.

     Although "L3" did not survive the cutting torch, "L2" now resides at Halton County Radial Rail in Milton, Ontario.