It was ordered as part of the company's dieselization of services during the 1950s and 1960s, and was initially used on the three mainline routes of the Bergen, Dovre and Nordland Lines.

The body and mechanical components were built by NOHAB, the motors by ASEA and prime mover by EMD.

The first test runs in scheduled service were on the Nordland Line between Trondheim and Mo i Rana in October.

In March the unit was sent back to NOHAB and went on a marketing tour that would eventually reach Ankara, Turkey in 1955.

[2] The locomotive returned to Norway on 1 July 1955, where it was numbered 602 and put into service on the Nordland Line.

[4] The Finnish State Railways (VR) ordered five units in 1959, but these were cancelled for political reasons.

Three were designated Di 3b because they had a slight specification variation, with a (A1A)'(A1A)' wheel arrangement and higher top speed.

The stock was sufficient to replace all steam locomotives on the Nordland Line, and reduced travel time by one hour.

On 30 November, the Nordland Line was completed to Fauske, and the full length operated with Di 3.

The first Di 3 ran on the Røros Line in 1964, that had previously been denied due to bridges with insufficient axle load permits.

NSB had slightly fewer diesel locomotives than they needed, but plans to order additional Di 3 was never fulfilled.

On 1 April 1987, a Di 3 612 caught on fire; the damage was small enough that it could have been repaired, but NSB instead decided to put aside the unit.

Both series were put into service in 1996, but the Di 6 proved to have so many technical problems that they were returned to Siemens in 1998.

[5] During the mid-1990s, NSB had initiated a program to replace the traditional locomotive and carriage trains with new, tilting multiple units.

To supplement this, the board of NSB decided on 14 November 1996 to purchase seven tilting diesel multiple units for the Røros and Rauma Lines.

This allowed all passenger trains on diselized lines to either be operated with Class 93 be hauled by the Di 4.

In November 2001, five units were sold for NOK 250,000 each—well under market price—to the new private operator Ofotbanen.

The purchase raised controversy, because the potential operator Banetransport had offered full market price for the trains.

The Norwegian National Rail Administration bought one unit (628) for maintenance, and has painted it yellow.

The Norwegian Railway Museum in Hamar has preserved four units (602, 615, 616 and 642), of which two (602 and 616) were operated by GM-Gruppen and one (615) is kept for spare parts.

[9] The Di 3 was built by Nydquist och Holm of Trollhättan, Sweden, as part of a series of GM EMD AA16 locomotives in Europe.

The longer length is for the three b-series units and the two a-series locomotives that were made in the batch, originally intended for VR.