De Blauwe Engel

When the Blue Angel rolled out of the factory on 15 November 1954, it proved to be a saving grace for the railway sector.
This diesel train replaced steam-engine trains on the local railways. Installing an electrical system along the unprofitable lines in the sparsely populated portions of the Netherlands would be prohibitively expensive. Without diesel trains, these lines would have been in danger of shutting down.
The Blue Angel drove mainly on the regional lines in Groningen, Friesland, Overijssel, Gelderland and – for the majority of its later years – Limburg.
Its unusual blue colour and winged decoration on the nose earned this series the nickname of ‘Blue Angel’. A well-known problem with the Blue Angel was that it had a tendency to overheat on warm days in the Limburg hills.
The NS 41 made its final trip on 2 June 1985 and was added to the Railway Museum’s collection two years later.