Nohab Locomotive

Of my passion and love of LEGO and trains

I was inspired by LEGO's classic 10020 Santa Fe Chief & 10194 Emerald Night to look at other iconic trains worthy to be built with LEGO. I picked this Nohab Diesel-Electric engine made in Sweden in partnership with General Electric. They have had a cultural impact on generations young and old, in Europe and North America too. I remember from my childhood and it remains valid today as well. This locomotive is not only strong but also has a lovely shape.

I believe LEGO Ideas provides an avenue to showcase what LEGO can do! Beyond it is a nice model to display, it has full functionality to run. It was carefully designed to be compatible with standard Lego Trains so can run on any standard layout too.

The Nohab in my opinion is one of the most iconic engines to have ever been built in the 20th century after the Steam era. It is an easily recognisable train due to its beautifully sleek design and color. It would also look fantastic zooming around a LEGO layout!

It is a challenging train to try and capture the essential elements in LEGO, particularly the complexity of the curves that is the beauty of this engine. The main challenge is building an approximate scale model, suitable for LEGO gauge train track and being able to be motorised. I built the physical model with genuine LEGO bricks.

There are definitely some complex parts of this model, the front curves at both ends of the engine, the bumper area and I'm proud to have the four fans on the top of the engine. I have had to rework over and over to get as close as possible to the real life thing. That said I intend to continue to look for refinements to the model as voting progresses - so I'm keen to hear your feedback!

Only official LEGO pieces used to build and the train fit on standard LEGO tracks. The locomotive is 6 studs wide, about 26 cm long, 6,4 cm wide, and 9 cm tall (10 inch long, 2.5 inch wide, and 3.6 inch tall). The carriage has about the same size. The locomotive contains less than 1000 pieces the carriage built from roughly 300 pieces. It also feateres lego led lighting.

I've placed 2 passengers and a conductor in the carriage to have a realistic scene.

Some minor printed parts (or stickers) may improve the final product. I built it in red color in tribute to the Hungarian National Railroad livery. It hauled trains along Lake Balaton too. I've built passenger cars as well, maybe one could fit in the final product or only the locomotive.

I'm also curious about your feedback.

Thank you!