Norway - diesel locomotives

For a full scale picture, please click on the picture shown !

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This is a so called Euro 4000 locomotive from Vossloh in Spain, from a factory which now is owned by the Swiss company Stadler Rail. Norwegian CargoNet tested this one locomotive as a candidate for replacement of their class 66 machines which were used in the very north of the country. Locomotive drivers didn't like the very cheaply built, cold and noisy class 66s and CargoNet was looking for a replacement alternative. Today CargoNet uses these locomotives in freight trains on the Mo i Rana - Bodø line. There these locomotives are known with three different class names: CD 312, Di 12 or Euro 4000.
Picture of a Railcare Vossloh Euro 4000 at Alnabru 21.6.2011 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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The diesel class Di6 was a sad story. NSB ordered from Siemens/MaK 1995-97 a series of 12 new heavy 6 axle diesels for use both in passenger trains as well as cargo trains to replace the old and outdated class Di4 Henschel diesels and the even older Di3 Nohab diesels from the 1950s. But when the new diesels arrived, it quickly turned out that the machines were of poor quality and had several serious design flaws and simply could not be fixed. A lawsuit was started and the end result was, NSB returned all of them to Siemens. Siemens tried to lease them as "MaK 2700" as part of their Siemens Dispolok business to various private operators in Germany. After much trouble and much rebuilding, only NOB, Nord-Ostsee-Bahn, which was a part of the Connex group, accepted to lease them for their Hamburg - Westerland service which they operated at that time. The machines were painted in Connex' blue-yellow-white livery. But after NOB later got better locomotives of the Siemens EuroRunner family, some of these became again free. Since they already had been accepted for use in Norway, it was easy for a private operator called CargoLink to lease four of them and bring them back to their intended homeland.
Picture of a Di6 in the colours of Connex / Nord-Ostsee-Bahn, but with CargoLink stickers 21.8.2009 in Trondheim by Ilkka Siissalo.
By the way, CargoLink went bankrupt in 2015...

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NSB class Di4 diesel with old express train coaches forming an express service from Trondheim over via Mo i Rana to Bodø. They were built by Henschel in Germany in 1980. Only five of them exist and they are more or less exclusively used on the Trondheim to Bodø line, which has a remarkably difficult terrain and climbs even out on open tundra where it crosses the Polar circle.
Picture of a Di4 from Mo i Rana 20.8.2009 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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Another huge Di4 at Bodø station 18.8.2009. It has a top speed of 140 km/h. Technically it was based on the Danish class ME, which was also made by Henschel. Picture from Bodø by Ilkka Siissalo.

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An express train is ready to leave from Bodø towards Trondheim. Six coaches are of the old 1960s generation and only the two last ones are new.
Picture from Bodø 18.8.2009 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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The newest class WLAB-2 coaches of NSB used in diesel driven express trains between for example Bodø and Trondheim have a foreign look and feel. One could imagine that they would be maybe from India or USA, but not from a European country.
Picture from Bodø 18.8.2009 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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The newest coaches need electricity for heating and so do especially the restaurant wagons. However, often they have to stand for long times at Bodø station without a locomotive which could feed them power. The solution is this generator wagon.
Picture from Bodø 18.8.2009 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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CargoNet class 66 diesel in Bodø. It is a US built General Motors diesel designed for use in the UK, and the British extremely narrow and low tunnels explain why it looks so long and low. The class 66s soon became popular in other countries in addition to Britain, not because they would be such wonderful machines, but because they are cheap. Today they are to be found at least in Germany, Netherlands, France and Poland in addition to Norway. Picture from Bodø 18.8.2009 by Ilkka Siissalo. Lately CargoNet has replaced them in the Trondheim-Bodø traffic by Vossloh Euro 4000s, one of which can be seen at the top of this page.

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A CargoNet class 66 diesel is ready to leave Bodø over the mountains towards south.
Picture from Bodø 18.8.2009 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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Driver's cab of a CargoNet class 66.
Picture from Bodø 18.8.2009 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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Two CargoNet class 66 engines in full speed pulling a tremendously long container train over the mountains from Bodø towards south.
Picture 20.8.2009 from the small station of Snåsa by Ilkka Siissalo.

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CargoNet class Di8 diesel with a timber train in full speed at Alnabru station close to Oslo. Picture by Ilkka Siissalo at Alnabru 21.6.2011.

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CargoNet class 225 was a remotorised old Di2, which got a new Caterpillar engine and a new drivers cab. Only one machine went through this refurbishing, so this was the only one of its class. It was scrapped in 2012.
Picture by Ilkka Siissalo at Alnabru depot 21.6.2011.

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The CargoNet class 226 lightweight shunter is an old Swedish locomotive of the Swedish class Z66, built by Kalmar Verkstad in 1971-73. NSB/CargoNet bought 1998-2000 from Sweden 14 of these.
Picture from Trondheim 21.8.2009 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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A similar formerly Swedish locotractor of the type Z66 like the one on the previous picture above, but this time owned by a private operator called Grenland Rail.
Picture at Alnabru near Oslo 21.6.2011 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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This six axle monster is Baneservice's class 36 alias Swedish class TMZ alias former Danish state railways class MZ, built by Nohab in Sweden, then sold to Denmark to DSB, then scrapped, then sold to Sweden again to Stena and then sold to Baneservice to Norway. Circulation and reuse of old metal :-)
Picture from Steinkjer 20.8.2009 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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Another view of the same TMZ Nohab.
Picture from Steinkjer 20.8.2009 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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A class Skd 224 medium weight shunter. These were built by Gmeinder in Germany 1978-79. NSB/CargoNet/Jernbaneverket has had 11 of them in total. Despite its small look and feel, it is the strongest shunter locomotive ever in Norway.
Picture from Kristiansand 6.7.2016 by Ilkka Siissalo.

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The old diesel tractor Skd 206.29 was used for a long time at Soknabruket. It is now kept at the Norsk samferdselshistorisk senter in Hønefoss and it has been restored to its 1960s green livery.
Picture from Hønefoss 19.10.2018 by Ilkka Siissalo.
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