COBI Steam Locomotive Class 49C DOVREGUBBEN Set 1331

COBI's Class 49C Dovregubben is a brick model built from 900 blocks of the Norwegian State Railways' most powerful steam locomotive, built for the Dovre mountain line.

Named after a troll

Dovregubben means the old man of the Dovre — the mountain king from Norse folklore who rules under the Dovrefjell, and the figure Henrik Ibsen put in Peer Gynt. Edvard Grieg's music for that scene, In the Hall of the Mountain King, is one of the most recognisable pieces ever written.

Norwegian railwaymen gave the name to a locomotive built to cross the Dovre mountains, and it is hard to imagine a better one. The line opened in 1921 with gradients steep enough that ordinary locomotives could not work it, and a machine was needed that could haul a train up a mountain.

Built in hard times, and it mattered locally

The design was ordered from Thune's Mekaniske in 1933, and the contract was a significant piece of work for the region around Hamar at a time when there was very little of it. The first three locomotives arrived in 1935 and 1936.

They had problems. Norwegian State Railways went to Krupp in Germany for design help, which the Norwegian builder took badly, and the government responded by ordering two more units from Thune's specifically to prevent industrial unrest. Seven were built in total across the A, B and C series.

They hauled freight over the mountains, set speed records on the Otta to Trondheim line, and the last one was withdrawn on 16 December 1958 when Swedish-built diesels arrived.

The real locomotive

22.8 metres long, 153 tonnes, boiler pressure 17 kg/cm², 27,300 litres of water and 8,400 kg of coal, 90 km/h forward and 45 km/h in reverse.

In the COBI range

The Norwegian counterpart to COBI's German locomotives — the BR 52 (6281, 6282, 6283, 6287) and the BR 03 (6286, 6288) — and to the British Flying Scotsman (6292).

Specifications

Pieces: 900