After World War II, the DSB turned to General Motors for a license-built variant of the F-series freight locomotives. Nydquist och Holm (NoHAB) from Trollhättan, Sweden, was found as a European partner for implementation. NoHAB mainly manufactured steam locomotives, but had already started manufacturing diesel engines in the twenties and had the opportunity to manufacture the engines under license in addition to the locomotives.

Since the North American locomotives were almost always used in multiple units, there were locomotives with one or no driver's cab. A second driver's cab was added for use in Europe so that the locomotives, which were usually only used in single operation, did not have to be turned. In addition, the locomotive body had to be adapted to the smaller loading gauge. It borrowed from the GM Class of the Victorian Railways and pulled the roof line far down, which also lowered the side windows and gave the windscreens a special shape.

As with the F series, only four traction motors were used, but six axles had to be used to comply with the axle loads permitted in Europe, which led to the wheel arrangement A1A-A1A. Nevertheless, the axle load was still too high for many branch lines, so they could not be used everywhere. They had been given an additional steam boiler for use in front of passenger trains. The speed increased to 133 km/h also improved the suitability for this area of application.

The first four locomotives were delivered in 1954 and each had engines with a gross output of 1,700 hp. From the second series of 40 locomotives, which were delivered between 1956 and 1958, an improved version of the engine with 1,950 hp was used. 15 more of this version were delivered in 1964 and 1965.

The DSB used them in front of all types of trains. With the disappearance of passenger cars with steam heating, the boilers and water tanks were also removed from some locomotives. Later it was only used in front of lighter freight trains. At the DSB, the locomotives were used in scheduled operation until 1992 and then mostly sold to private operators. Some of these are still in use today and also made their way to Sweden and Germany. In Germany, ten went to Eurotrack in 1999, nine of which later went to Eichholz Verkehr und Logistik and then to Strabag.