NSB El 15 is a class of

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas ...

s which are now operated by the Norwegian company

Grenland Rail Grenland is a traditional district in the county of Vestfold og Telemark, in the south-east of Norway. Located in the southeastern part of the county, Grenland is composed of the municipalities Skien, Porsgrunn, Bamble, and Siljan. Sometimes the ...

. The locomotives were originally built for the

Norwegian State Railways Vygruppen, branded as Vy, is a government-owned railway company which operates most passenger train services and many bus services in Norway. The company is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport. Its sub-brands include Vy Buss coach se ...

(NSB) in 1967 to replace the

NSB El 3 NSB El 3 was an electric locomotive used by the Norwegian State Railways (NSB) to transport iron ore on the Ofoten Line. Five twin-locomotive sets were in service from 1925 to 1967. History The Swedish part of the ore line, the Iron Ore Line, ...

and

NSB El 4 NSB El 4 was a class of electric locomotive used by the Norwegian State Railways (NSB) to transport iron ore on the Ofoten Line. NSB had a total of five triple-locomotive sets. History In 1923, Ofoten Line and the Swedish Iron Ore Line were e ...

engines on

Ofoten Line The Ofoten Line ( no, Ofotbanen) is a rail transport, railway line in Narvik, Norway. It runs from the Port of Narvik to Riksgränsen on the Norway–Sweden border, where the line continues as the Malmbanan, Ore Line via Kiruna and Gällivare to ...

. The main task there is to pull heavy

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

freight trains, and the El 15 is the most powerful engine which NSB has ever used.

History

After the electrification of Ofotbanen in 1923 NSB had been using El 3 and El 4 stock on the line. But in the 1960s these were getting worn out, and NSB decided that it needed to get new stock. NSB first acquired the El 12 stock parallel to the Swedish acquisition of the Dm3 locomotive. But unlike

Statens Järnvägar The Swedish State Railways ( sv, Statens Järnvägar) or SJ, originally the Royal Railway Board ( sv, Kungl. Järnvägsstyrelsen), was the former government agency responsible for operating the state-owned railways in Sweden. It was created i ...

, NSB chose to instead buy a newer technology locomotive from

ASEA ''Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget'' (English translation: General Swedish Electrical Limited Company; Swedish abbreviation: ASEA) was a Swedish industrial company. History ASEA was founded in 1883 by Ludvig Fredholm in Västerås as ...

, based on the

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n CFR 060 EA. Thus NSB managed to get the same power out of their two-engined El 15s as the Swedish got out of their three-engined Dm3s. Since the locomotives were to be operated in pairs, NSB considered only installing driver cabins on one end, but chose in the end to install them on both ends to allow the locomotives to operate more flexibly, including allowing them to operate passenger trains. The locomotives were numbered 15 2191 to 15 2196. 161-106-0 Hallsberg 2006 SRS

In 1996 the operation of the ore trains was taken over by

Malmtrafik LKAB Malmtrafik, earlier Malmtrafik i Kiruna AB (''MTAB''), is a Swedish railway company which operates the iron ore freight trains on the Iron Ore Line and the Ofoten Line. MTAB is a wholly owned subsidiary of the mining company Luossavaara– ...

, owned by NSB, SJ and

LKAB Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag (LKAB) is a government owned Swedish mining company. The company mines iron ore at Kiruna and at Malmberget in northern Sweden. The company was established in 1890, and has been 100% state-owned since the 1950s ...

, the owner of the mines. The new company ordered 18 new IORE locomotives from Bombardier and in 2004 the ageing engines were sold to Hector Rail. After deliveries of new locomotives to Hector Rail in 2019, they were taken out of service and were sold to the Norwegian company Grenland Rail in 2020, where they have been painted dark-blue and reclassified as El 15.

References

Jernbane.net article on the El 15

Hector Rail fact page
{{Swedish railway stock El 15 Electric locomotives of Norway Standard gauge locomotives of Norway ASEA locomotives Co′Co′ locomotives 15 kV AC locomotives Ofoten Line Railway locomotives introduced in 1967 Electric locomotives of Sweden Locomotives of Sweden