In 1920, the Swedish heavy industry group NOHAB won the largest single locomotive order in history at that time – 1000 heavy freight locomotives in one run for the state railways of the Soviet Union. After the Russian revolution, the new Soviet state required to modernize its vast and severely run down rail network to be able to enforce the new plans of becoming an industrial superpower.

Although NOHAB was large by Swedish standards, that amount of locomotives was about what the works had produced over the last thirty years or so, so it was a major undertaking to take this contract - no doubt about that. Probably his hand was shaking, at least slightly, when the entrepreneurial middleman Mr. Gunnar W. Andersson signed the contract at May 15th, 1920. The overall contract sum was 230 million SEK which was an unbelievable sum of money at that time.

When the initial payment of some 10 tons of gold was picked up by a dedicated steamer at the port of Reval (today's Tallinn in Estonia) in November 1920, a frenetic activity was initiated to put it all together. Delivery within the scope of the current capacity was out of the question and even though the existing works was extended and the workforce was increased from 1200 to 2600 employees, it became obvious that it was necessary to outsource parts of the production to other works. Further, NOHAB needed to secure its supply for steel and foundry goods, and a suitable almost bankrupt steel foundry was acquired in 1922.

But, as an overall complex series of political events and compromises, the order was halved in 1922 and the remaining locomotives were to be built in Germany. A guess is that both the incredible inflation in Germany in the early 1920's, war damages payments and Lenin's declining health with the following domestic fight of power probably contributed to the outcome. Also, it seems like NOHAB had a tough time fulfilling this giant order at the contracted delivery rate which maybe played a role as well.

Needless to say, the cancellation caused a deep crisis at NOHAB, which hade invested heavily to fulfill the order and a financial reconstruction was required in 1925. Among others, the newly acquired steel foundry was separated from NOHAB and the banks went in as large owners, both in NOHAB and the reorganized steel foundry. The NOHAB workforce that peaked some 2600 employees in 1922 was down at 400 some five years later.

Most likely, not a single locomotive was ever built at the foundry and after the reconstruction, the steel works went into other business under a new ownership structure. The former halls that initially were built in a hurry to accommodate locomotive assembly are today in a late stage of decay, some 85 years after the Soviet order was cancelled...
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