A little bit of History........

In the early 30’s of the 20th century, General Motors Corporation, together with it’s sister company Electro-Motive-Division developed the legendary “F series“ locomotives. The entire “F series” were moved by the legendary 567 B or C engines.

After World War II, this kind of locomotive, has been built under licence by NOHAB in Trollhättan (Sweden) an Anglo-Franco-Belge in La Croyère (Belgium). In the year 1954 the Luxembourg State Railways (CFL) had to grow up the speed of the international express trains on the Amsterdam-Liège-Luxembourg route. As the CFL possessed only freight train steam locomotives (so the 55 and 56 series), modern and fast Diesel locomotives were necessary. The fact, that the Belgium State Railways (SNCB) had ordered the 202, 203, 204 series , made it possible that the CFL could get 4 locomotives in a rather quick period. The 4 locomotives numbered 1601 to 1604, represented the so called “Streamlined Design”, and were on these days the most modern European locomotives. The career of 1604 begun on April 21^st 1955. In the mid 60’s, with the delivering of the 20 locomotives of the 1800 series, the 1600’s were condemned to haul local trains on the Luxembourg-Troisvierges line (“The North Line”).

In 1984, 1601 was the first locomotive to be withdrawn. The rests of 1601 were scrapped in 1989. Finally, in 1994, the 1600’s were definitely withdrawn, an it was 1604 to haul the last commercial train on September 23^rd 1994. 1602 and 1603 were finally sold to Belgium, whereas 1604 should stay in Luxembourg. In fact 1604 was, since 1988, classified as a national industrial monument. The restoration  of 1604 began on September 15^th 1995 and it should last till August 18^th 1998. On April 30^th 1999, 1604 was officially inaugurated by the Minister of Culture. A couple of days later, 1604 participated on a European meeting of NOHAB an Anglo-Franco-Belge locomotives in Randers (DK). This was probably the longest an farest trip for a CFL locomotive. 1604, as the only surviving locomotive of this kind in Luxembourg, is agreed to run in Belgium an France.

Technical details:

Virtual locomotives can be downloaded here.