005 - Electric Locomotive No. 5 – “Paaluskatedraal” (The St Paalus Cathedral)
Built: 1974
Class/serial no.: Komiizaar/KV538203E
Length: 20m
Weight: 100 tonnes
Power: 1500kW
Max speed: 165 kph
Observe. Faded red or faded blue, svettkrevn or svettbluu, these are the two colours in which the locomotives are painted. Contrary to appearance, it isn’t the result of neglect. Their coachwork is designed to be unobtrusive. The St Paalus Cathedral (blue) is the sister locomotive to the St Peetrus (red), exactly as the twin cathedrals in the capital once were to each other. “Avvlijk Peetrus,” so the rhyme goes, “gaatagsii Paalus”. The two locomotives pulled the ekksprestuugr on the North-South Main Line. Where St Peetrus represented the Athenian Church, St Paalus was home to the Lutheran, one cathedral looking east, the other facing west. From the eagles on their lecterns to the cladding of their cupolas, the brass always seemed greener in the opposing Church. Five decades of state-enforced atheism suppressed these divisions.
