Built by Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA), the Rc is a universal locomotive used both in freight and passenger trains.

Altogether, there have been eight versions of the Rc-locomotive in Sweden, including the freight locomotive Rm designed to pull iron ore trains.

However, the maximum speed permitted without emergency electromagnetic track brakes is 160 km/h, and keeping extra carriages was considered too expensive.

One of the locos was badly damaged in an accident but the remaining nine have been bought by the Swedish company Tågåkeriet i Bergslagen AB (TÅGAB), and returned to Sweden.

The RAI 40-700 class (see Iranian Railways RC4) of eight engines were exported to Iran in the early eighties for use on the electrified stretches near the then-Soviet border; these were based on Rc4 but with Rm-type bogies, sand-proof air filters and no round windows on the side.