The ten members of the C Class were ordered by the Victorian Railways for heavy freight work on the Melbourne to Albury/Sydney and Melbourne to Serviceton (and later, Adelaide) corridors. The C Class were based on the design of the WAGR L Class before them, with their external appearance bearing striking similarity to the third series X Class design.

The C Class passed to National Rail in 1995, and were put into storage after the delivery of the NR Class. National Rail would later sell the class (except C501) to Allco Rail for use with Silverton. C501 was restored to original VR livery by the Seymour Rail Heritage Centre, and is leased to freight operators such as PN and El Zorro. The remainder of the class were reactivated and overhauled by 2010 in a joint venture between Allco Rail and CFCLA. When Allco Rail went into liquidation, ownership of C502, C503 and C508 passed to CFCLA outright, while the remaining units passed to Coote Industrial (and now Engenco) for lease service.

Source: Trackside