In 2005, as part of a bid to convince VIA Rail Canada to move the Montréal to Québec section of their Corridor service to the LT&L’s electrified north shore line, the TdM shops built a handful of aluminum-bodied passenger cars to match ILW’s eco-440fe dual-powered passenger locomotives. These are fairly tall cars; the TdM shops wanted to match the ~14' roofline of the eco-440fe, so the interiors are quite spacious, even with air conditioning ductwork fitted between the carbody shells and the car ceilings.

21 cars were built; 4 driving trailers (E350-E353), 2 cafe cars (E360-E361), and 14 coaches (E370-E383.) Of these, 4 were put aside for collision testing (E352, E353, E382, & E383), went to the (US) DOT’s Transportation Technology Center in Colorado for high speed destructive testing, and were subequently destroyed.

The rest of the fleet were formed into two trainsets (6 coaches, 1 cafe car, a driving trailer, and an eco-44fe) all painted in the LT&L’s 1950-era red arrow paint scheme.

The bid was accepted by VIA and the locomotives were transferred to VIA ownership in 2010; the passenger car prototypes were not, however; VIA chose to continue using their Renaissance fleet instead of buying new matching equipment.

The surviving prototypes have been repurposed for excursion trains (replacing the P&W’s collection of 1950s-era cars) and see regular service on the P&W, LT&L, and D&H.