2 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. NSB El 17 at Flåm: Alasdair McLellan· Public domain
- 2. Nsb-17-2228-in-heidelberg--1987-05-25--picture-by-ulrich-steuber--pd: Ulrich Steuber· Public domain
what is it?
The NSB El 17 is a class of twelve electric locomotives built by Thyssen-Henschel and Norsk Elektrisk & Brown Boveri (NEBB) for the Norwegian State Railways (NSB). The class was built in two batches, the first delivered in 1982 and numbered 2221–2226, and the second delivered in 1987 and numbered 2227–2232. The traction system of the El 17 was based on the DB Class 120 of Germany (BBC, AEG and Siemens) and were among the first in the world to feature three-phase asynchronous motors.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 44 years ago, in 1982.
- Top speed is 1.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- 3 MW is about 35 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 11 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 16.3 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
- Served for 33 years (1982–2015).
electric locomotive: Draws power from overhead wires or a third rail and pulls separate carriages.
spec sheet
- built
- 1982–1987
- in service from
- 1982
- retired
- 2015
- status
- retired
- number built
- 12
- kind
- Electric
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- builders
- Thyssen-Henschel, Henschel & Sohn
- designer
- BBC and Henschel
- operators
- Norges Statsbaner, Vy
- top speed
- 150 km/h
- power
- 3 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- electric system
- Catenary
- wheel arrangement
- Bo′Bo′
- length
- 16.3 m
- weight
- 64 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q264669, Wikipedia: NSB El 17 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.