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005 - Electric Locomotive No. 5 – “Paaluskatedraal” (The St Paalus Cathedral)


paalus-i-petrus

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.


#locomotives #cathedrals

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