Chapter 1319 Train (Ⅰ)
Under the curious gazes of Joan, Medea, and Ruby, the four behemoths lined up on both sides of the railroad track, dragged the eight-car train with a rein strengthened by magic, and ran into the platform with neat steps.
A middle-aged man in a neat uniform stood on the back of the giant beast, held his head high and blew the "amplification" horn, and the high-pitched sound waves reached the ears of the giant beasts, and they all slowed down obediently.
The train conductor pulled out the red flag on his waist, turned around and waved it vigorously. The flight attendants on each train were looking out of the windows. Seeing the semaphore played by the train conductor, they quickly pulled down the brake slider. The wheels rubbed against the rails, making a long and harsh noise, and slowly stopped in front of the platform.
"I said Brother Qiao An...is this the 'magic train' you mentioned just now?" Ruby stared at the train slowly approaching the station with wide eyes, "Why... eh? It's different from what I imagined identical!"
Medea was also a little surprised.
When she saw the appearance of the four giant beasts pulling the train, the doubts on her face quickly faded away, replaced by a sneer.
"Joan, just now I heard you brag about how advanced the magical locomotive is, and you can run by burning the steam boiler, but look at these four big guys, are they specially shaped as 'steam locomotives' in the shape of Ross beast?"
"Of course not, they are living Roth beasts." Joan scratched his head in embarrassment, "To be precise, they are close relatives of 'Highland Rose Beasts' and 'Underground Rose Beasts', a kind of 'short Rose Beasts' that I have never seen before." Mauros'."
The four behemoths pulling the train, disdainful of the opinions of the outsiders, lay on the side of the road to rest, and turned their heads to chew on the large pile of corn cobs sent by the platform dispatcher, crunching and eating deliciously.
After the train came to a complete stop, the doors were opened, and the passengers got off first and then got on, which seemed very orderly.
"Sister Medea, are we still going to take this kind of, uh... fake magic train?"
Ruby's little face could not hide her disappointment.
This feeling is like going to a high-end restaurant to dine, expecting the chef to serve a high-end delicacy like foie gras and caviar, but what you are waiting for is a piece of fish and chips wrapped in a newspaper, not to mention how disappointing it is.
"I've come here, I've already bought the tickets, it would be too wasteful not to take the train." Medea took the little girl's hand and boarded the train, and forced herself to comfort herself with a smile, "Actually, this kind of animal-drawn train is also quite interesting. , let’s take it as an outdoor carriage.”
Joan followed the two ladies into the car, sat down according to the ticket number, leaned back on the bench, and looked out the window at the vast field, her mood gradually changed subtly.
When he first saw the train coming into the station, his mood was similar to that of the two female companions, and he was also disappointed.
Originally, he was looking forward to taking this opportunity to visit the magical locomotive, but it turned out that the one pulling the train was not a high-tech locomotive at all, but four naive short-haired Ross beasts, which was too rustic!
But after thinking about it, he was relieved.
In fact, when Qiao An saw the railroad tracks for the first time, Qiao An kept muttering in his heart.
Magic trains can be called the most advanced means of land transportation in the contemporary era. Even the prosperous inland areas of the Ashan Empire are rarely connected by railways, and there is not even a decent railway in the entire northern part of the New World.
The far eastern provinces with harsh climates have winter for less than half of the year, and are poorer and more backward than the New World. The new government started by the rebels has seized power for less than two years. It has not been recognized internationally, and the domestic economy is also poor and white. , Where did the capital come from to build the railway, and even remote villages like Wufeng Township have trains, which is totally unreasonable!
The new Korath Kingdom, logically speaking, could not have the technological strength and industrial capacity to design and build magical locomotives by itself, and I am afraid that it would not be able to spend enough gold and silver to import magical locomotives—in fact, it may not be possible to buy them if they have money.
If there is no magical locomotive, what will happen to the built railway?
Just left like this, exposed to wind and rain, rusted in vain? That would be too wasteful.
Under such difficult circumstances, it is indeed a hopeless way to use animal power instead of steam locomotives to pull trains.
The horn sounded again, and the four well-trained Ross beasts swallowed the last mouthful of corn cobs, stood up calmly, and moved forward in unison. The traction train started slowly, and after a period of acceleration, it finally maintained a steady speed of 25 miles per hour. level.
When the train enters the cruising stage, it is so smooth that almost no shaking can be felt.
Joan sat by the window, but his mood was not calm.
The practice of using animal power to pull rail trains was not the first in the Far East.
As Medea and Ruby just mentioned, this rail technology was first applied in the ore mining industry, and later extended to the field of municipal transportation, such as the public carriage system in Leiden Port and Midgard City. The application model is commonplace in major cities.
However, expanding the urban rail transit system to the field of outdoor long-distance transportation is indeed a great pioneering work by the Far Easterners.
Building such a railway transportation system is by no means as easy as it seems on the surface.
People from the Far East may not have mastered the technology to independently develop magical locomotives, but it can be seen from the scale of the railway that the steel manufacturing industry in this emerging country is quite developed, and it is not so easy to mass-produce rails that meet the specifications!
Only with the foundation of the steel industry can we talk about the construction of railways, otherwise it is just a fantasy.
Taking Joan's hometown of Yalfheim as an example, there is not even a large steel factory that can make rails, let alone build a main railway line.
Midgard does have this industrial capacity, especially the dwarven forge in Nidaville, which has no problem processing rails, but it is impossible to realize such a large project as the Far Eastern Railway.
The problem was not industrial technology, but that the government institutions in the colonies were too weak to organize large-scale industrial construction.
The colonial company has money and organizational skills, but the old men on the board of directors are not crazy. Instead of working hard on a large project such as railway construction, which requires huge investment and unpredictable returns, it is more cost-effective to open a few more magic crystal mines.
Qiao An also noticed that the seemingly rustic train traction beast is actually not lacking in technical content.
Rose beasts are very common in the New World. There are two main types—the "highland rose beasts" that live in the snowy mountain plateau, and the "underground rose beasts" that live in the dark regions.
These two kinds of Ross beasts are covered with thick long hair, gentle in character and slow in movement.
There are two notable differences between the Roth beasts used by the Far Easterners to pull trains and their relatives in the New World.
First of all, the hair on the body is very short, which is easy to dissipate heat, and the strong muscle groups are clearly visible. In addition, the running speed is much faster than other varieties of Ross beasts, and the endurance is also better.
Even a trained army horse can't last for several hours if it runs continuously at a speed of 25 miles per hour.
It is a miracle that these four short-haired Ross beasts dragged the train for eight or nine hours every day, and they can still maintain a healthy body!
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