The Soviet Union, an oppressive oligarchy for sure, but you can't help but admire some of their works of ingenuity.
The longest rigid-frame locomotive in Europe, and the world's only locomotive with 14 drivers in a single set, built to Russia's traditional 1524mm-gauge railroad, which is exactly 5ft, one of the few places where the metric system and imperial system line up perfectly.
Much like the S-1, this locomotive was largely experimental and more for show than actual functionality: built in 1934, making its first public debut at the 1935 world fair.
It was operated a few more times in the 1930s, gracing a few more public events, especially those with an international audience, but as demand for steam power decreased, combined with the overall unreliability of an over-sized, curve-destroyer, eventually the massive AA20 was stored away. Eventually the AA20 would be scrapped, the metal put to other uses.
I based the color scheme on photos of other Russian steamers, since no colored photos of the original exist. The original also had a series of Cyrillic letters on the front. I may try to recreate these at some point, but for now, my version is simply dawned with Russia's iconic red star.
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