011 - Electric Locomotives Nos. 11 – 14
Electric Locomotive No. 11 – “Rosiníko” (Red Nicholas)
Built: 1975
Class/serial no.: Komiizaar/KV538223E
Length: 20m
Weight: 100 tonnes
Power: 1500kW
Max speed: 165 kph
Mythology is ever-present in our culture. It’s no surprise, then, to find among the locomotives one named for a mythical figure. In the case of No. 11 Locomotive, it is the universal patriarch, Rosiníko (‘Nicholas the Red’). Yule Goats and trolls, giants and dwarfs... so great is our liking for myth some have said, we’ve become the subject of our own invention.
Electric Locomotive No. 12 – “Jaako Noorii”
Built: 1965
Class/serial no.: Valtikk/BZ447274E
Length: 19m
Weight: 85 tonnes
Power: 1250kW
Max speed: 145 kph
And still they come. Named the “General Secretary Kabak” upon her completion, Nmr. 12 Lokomotiv was renamed along with “The St Peetrus Cathedral” and others. She is called “Jaako Noorii” now after the inaugural president of the Inter-War Republic and narrator of our national story.
Electric Locomotive No. 13 – “Jernezikkfabrikk” (The State Locomotive Works)
Built: 1986
Class/serial no.: Mammutt/MV206759E
Length: 22m
Weight: 110 tonnes
Power: 1650kW
Max speed: 150 kph
Thirteen, unlucky for some, if not for us… In this as in other matters – pizza, ice-cream, those little cars based on old Fiat designs – we follow the Iitaljansk lead. Seventeen is our unlucky number.
No. 13 Locomotive - “Jernezikkfabrikk” – carries the name of the workshops in which she was built. MV206759E was last of the line, the final locomotive to roll out of the factory of the State Locomotive Works. Following The Twilight of the Autocrats, the works closed their doors, lying dormant for years pending demolition, making way for a shopping mall and the office of a foreign bank.
Electric Locomotive No. 14 – “Dnogro Ekkspres”
Built: 1973
Class/serial no.: Komiizaar/KV538199E
Length: 20m
Weight: 100 tonnes
Power: 1500kW
Max speed: 165 kph
No. 14 Locomotive - “Dnogro Ekkspres” - rumbles past you. She is not the first to bear this name, travelling in the wake of illustrious predecessors, once working the line from Tarrinstøy to Leguu via Dnogro. Locomotive follows locomotive now, engine after engine. How many are there? Count them – nineteen in total. The train is long, then, very long indeed. It grew organically. Coaches and wagons were added as the need for them arose and when they were available. Additional locomotives came after. They form the head of the mighty beast, this blue whale of a train, dragging its vast bulk behind it.
