After the electrification of the Valtellina Railway or Ferrovia della Valtellina, the class 34 of the Rete Adriatica was not only the first electric locomotive to be used there, but also the first in the world to be operated with three-phase alternating current. The locomotives were ordered from Ganz in Budapest, which at the beginning of the century was considered the world leader in the field of electric traction and also supplied the line equipment. Two pieces were made, which were given the numbers 341 and 342. The locomotives each consisted of two halves, which together formed a large, generously glazed driver's cab.

The three-phase alternating current was transmitted via the two-pole catenary and the rails and its frequency dictated a given driving speed. The four traction motors were each connected directly to an axle without a gearbox, and the wheel diameter of 4 ft 7 in was chosen so large that the line speed of 36 km/h was sufficient for freight trains. This meant that after the start-up phase, the locomotives stabilized at a maximum of 22 mph, regardless of the loading. The locomotives were taken over by the FS in 1905 and were renamed class E.430 in 1914. They pulled freight trains on the Valtellina Railway until 1928 and were then relocated to Bolzano and Franzensfeste in South Tyrol to be used as shunting locomotives for assembling trains over the Brenner Pass. The 341 or E.430.001 is now located in the Technical Museum “Leonardo da Vinci” in Milan.

As the second series of electric locomotives on the Ferrovia della Valtellina, the three engines with the numbers 361, 362 and 363 were used. They did not have single axle drive, instead there were three coupled axles and two carrying axles. In order to master the many curves on the route, the outer coupled axle was connected to the adjacent carrying axle to form a steering bogie and the middle axle could be moved sideways. Two motors, each with 600 hp, which were mounted low in the main frame and drove the middle axle, provided the power. Two speeds of 34 and 68 km/h could be realized via a cascade circuit, which controlled the activation of the two motors with different numbers of poles.

As early as 1906, when the locomotives had not been in use for long, they were rented by the Swiss electrical company BBC. This required three more locomotives, as the operation in the newly built and electrified Simplon Tunnel required the use of five locomotives, which BBC could not yet provide. The locomotives were listed there by the SBB as Fb 3/5 and had no problem with the local frequency of 16 instead of 15.6 Hertz, also with a voltage of 3,000 volts. Only the pantographs with roller contacts were replaced with BBC pantographs. The three locomotives were returned to the FS in 1908 and remained in service there as the E.360 until the 1960s.

The E.421 was a battery operated shunter built in 1921 and used at Milan Central Station. The locomotive was built by Carminati & Toselli with electrical equipment by Tecnomasio Italiano Brown Boveri. It stood on two bogies, each with two traction motors, and had a cab in the middle. The batteries came from the Società Generale Italiana Accumulatori, were housed in two long hoods and weighed a total of 30 tonnes. They supplied the traction motors with a voltage of 450 volts.

With this equipment, the E.421 reached a top speed of 25 km/h, which made it virtually impossible to use it outside the station. Despite a continuous output of just 140 kW, the locomotive had to be charged after about an hour of shunting, which severely restricted the possible uses. For these reasons and because of the relatively complex maintenance, there was only one locomotive built. This was retired after only two years and there were initially plans to convert it for the 650 volt DC network with conductor rails of the Varese railway. After these plans were not implemented, the locomotive was scrapped in 1935 and it remained the only battery locomotive of the Italian State Railways.