Chapter 922: The Locomotive Era (Part II)
“Half a year.” Barov said it flatly, as though the syllables themselves might expose some error. “You intend to extend the railway deep into the Barbarian Land — in half a year.” He had seen miracles. He had catalogued them, filed them, tried to budget around them. He widened his eyes regardless. “The Ministry of Construction spent more than six months building the Kingdom Main Street between the Border Area and Longsong Stronghold. That road is less than one-fifth the distance between the forest and Taquila. You’re certain Mr. Karl can accomplish this?”
A murmur passed through the gathered officials. The Kingdom Main Street had been Roland’s first large-scale project after the merger — two thousand workers, half a year, and still condemned by many as a waste of resources at the time. This new railway, by every visible measure, was more ambitious and its window was shorter. A few officials exchanged glances that said what they wouldn’t. Even with Neverwinter’s full labor force committed to the work, the timeline seemed impossible.
Karl Van Bate, Minister of Construction, kept his own counsel. His expression was the expression of a man running numbers inside his head and not liking them.
Roland understood the concern. There were ongoing projects throughout the city; every new commitment strained the same pool of workers and materials. But the comparison to the road was misleading. The road had required high-grade cement, compacted by rollers, laid to standards that needed sustained quality control across every meter. A railway roadbed was different work — simpler preparation, simpler ballast. The track looked complex and wasn’t.
Anna had demonstrated it. One section: half a day. Each joint welded in under ten seconds, bar to track, seamless. No bolts. No hot-metal seaming, no misalignment where sections met. In comparison to any traditional joining method Roland had ever encountered, her work was not just faster — it was better. He’d watched her move down the line, Blackfire touching joint after joint, leaving behind something that looked poured rather than assembled.
He’d stood at the end of that section and made himself admit it: that is as close to perfect as this gets.
The finished rail before the officials was nearly seamless. Invisible thermal-expansion gaps remained — they had to; physics required it — but to the eye the track was one continuous piece. No clatter. No vibration rippling back through the frame with every joint. A passenger on this train would feel nothing the rail network did not want them to feel.
She had done the whole section before lunch.
That was why Roland had given the construction schedule he’d given. Leaf probably needed five days to clear and lay a section of ground. Workers needed ten days to build and pack a roadbed of equivalent length. Anna needed one day to weld. She had time to spare — Maggie could carry her to the site in the morning and back to the castle by noon.
He had chosen not to explain the witches’ roles in detail. The officials knew some of what the witches could do; they didn’t know all of it; that gap did useful work. Beyond Neverwinter, too, there might be additional help available — witches from Sleeping Island, abilities as yet unknown to him. He hadn’t had the chance to ask Tilly. After arriving in the city, he had gone straight to see the wolf girl, and then immediately into the meeting.
While the officials studied the track, Roland turned his attention to the locomotive itself. It looked, he admitted, old-fashioned next to the seamless rail it stood on — an engineering anachronism. The steam locomotive was divided into two sections: a fourth-generation steam engine mated to a transmission assembly at the front, and a coal car behind it. Between them sat the driver’s cab, from which the engineers could manage speed, feed the boiler, and signal with the steam whistle.
The unification war had interrupted development. The prototype was not complete. And yet compared to what would have passed for a first-generation steam locomotive in the world where Roland had grown up, this machine was already ahead. Crankshaft drive instead of flywheel and belt. Mechanical linkage between the wheels on both sides instead of gears — nothing to stick, nothing to shear. His design had been ruthlessly simplified, which was why it still looked like something assembled from components rather than designed from the ground up.
It had no mechanical brake. Stopping required a crew member at the capstan. The driver’s cab was positioned on the connecting beam between fore and aft, which meant whoever sat there would feel every vibration the engine produced. There was no electrical equipment; communication between stations was conducted by whistle or voice.
He had noted every defect during the build. He would address them one by one, the way he had addressed every failure in the first steam engine design. That was not a reason to delay.
“Your Majesty, what’s the cargo capacity?” Kyle Sichi, Minister of Chemical Industry, leaned closer to examine the wheel assembly. “Higher than a concrete boat?”
“Five or six times, at this stage.” Roland let that land before he continued. “With development, it could carry what would currently require a hundred boats.”
Barov swallowed. As City Hall Director, he knew what a hundred concrete boats meant. He knew it in terms of coal tonnage, iron tonnage, supply lines and campaign logistics and everything that had ever bottlenecked on river transport.
“A hundred.”
“And the speed?” Petrov’s voice was careful, as if he were approaching the question from the side.
“I’ll know more after the first test run. It won’t be slower than a concrete boat.”
In this era, land transport meant horses and wooden wheels on packed earth — slow, punishing, destructive to the vehicles and the cargo alike. River transport was Graycastle’s spine, and the steam-powered paddle steamers had already made that spine stronger than anything the continent had seen. For the officials standing here, a concrete boat was the fastest and most reliable thing that moved goods at scale.
The room went quiet again. A different quiet this time — not skepticism, but the stillness that preceded recalculation.
Roland, watching them, felt something he recognized as satisfaction. Two years ago, this speech would have earned him concerned glances. Perhaps a discreet inquiry about the king’s health. Now they stood in silence and worked to believe it, because they had learned — at some cost to their certainty — that he was usually right.
He wanted to boost morale as the war approached. The train was the most honest way he could do it.
“Your Majesty,” Barov said at last. “A vehicle like this could be the most effective thing we’ve ever shown the public. May we organize the test run as a public demonstration? Let the people of Neverwinter see it for themselves?”
Roland understood immediately what kind of propaganda effect Barov had in mind. The City Hall Director had come a long way from the man who had once preached against every expenditure that didn’t fit in a ledger column. He had learned to guide opinion, to shape mood, to turn a spectacle into a message.
Roland smiled. “As you wish.”
Chapter 922: The Locomotive Era (Part Ⅱ)
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
“In just half a year… Will it really be possible for us to extend the railway deep into the Barbarian Land?” Hearing Roland’s plan, Barov, who had already witnessed many “miracles”, still widened his eyes in disbelief. “It took the Ministry of Construction more than half a year to complete an ordinary road linking the Border Area and the Longsong Area, and this Kingdom Main Street was less than one-fifth of the distance between the forest and Taquila. Are you sure that Mr. Karl will be able to complete such a task?”
The officials began to whisper among themselves. The Kingdom Main Street was the first large-scale construction project Roland had initiated after Longsong Stronghold merged with Border Town. It had employed about 2,000 workers and had been considered a waste of resources by many people back then. Now this new railroad project was even more unbelievable. Considering its limited construction period, many officials believed that it would be an impossible mission, even if all the workers in Neverwinter were to be hired for this project.
Karl Van Bate, the Minister of Construction, remained silent and seemed to be racking his brain for a proper solution.
Roland was clear about their concern. At present, there were many ongoing construction projects in the city. They were justifiably worried that the expense of this railway project would be too enormous for the city’s limited resources. However, in fact, as compared to the road’s cement pavements which needed high-quality materials and roller compaction, the railway’s roadbed building and ballast pavement were much easier.
As for the final step of installing the rails, it only looked complicated, but it was actually the fastest step of the entire construction process.
Roland had watched Anna’s demo of welding the metal parts with Blackfire. She could weld a bar to two tracks at once, and the average time for welding each joint was less than 10 seconds. In comparison to the traditional bolts or the hot-melting connections used in the modern world, her ability not only substantially improved the wielding quality but also saved a lot of manpower and material. Roland felt that her work couldn’t be any more perfect.
The experimental railway in front of everyone was an almost seamless rail made by Anna. To compensate for the distortions that could be caused by thermal expansion, there were still invisible gaps left in between the tracks, but on the surface, they were seamless. This meant that when the train was running on these tracks, the passengers inside it would not experience the frequent shaking or hear the constant clatter that were part of modern trains.
Ana had finished welding this section of the tracks in just half a day.
This was why Roland made the construction period for the railroad project so short.
Leaf probably needed only five days to place the crossties and rails in a section of a given length, while the workers used to take 10 days to build and pave a roadbed of an equal length. Meanwhile, Anna needed just one day to weld the same section of railroad. She had ample time and was able to take it slow. Maggie could take her to work in the morning and bring her back to the castle in time for lunch.
Roland did not want to explain the details of the witches’ abilities to the officials, since not everyone knew the witches well. Meanwhile, he predicted that the construction period could be even shorter if he could find some relevant witches from Sleeping Island who were willing to offer help for the project. However, he had not yet had a chance to ask Tilly about her witches’ abilities, since he had gone straight to the wolf girl and then to the meeting immediately after he had arrived at Neverwinter.
Seeing Roland ignore Barov’s question, the officials turned their eyes to the train.
In contrast to the seamless rail, which appeared very futuristic, the train itself seemed to be an antique. Its steam locomotive was divided into two parts. The front part consisted of a fourth generation steam engine and a transmission device, and the rear part was a coal car. A driver’s cabin was located between these two parts, from where the drivers could control the speed of the train, add coal to the boiler, and blow the steam whistle.
Due to the interruption caused by the Gyaycastle unification war, this steam locomotive was still just an unfinished prototype, yet it was already much better than the first generation steam locomotives of the world where Roland had lived before. Its steam engine adopted crankshafts instead of flywheels and drive belts. Instead of gears, which could easily get stuck, a mechanical linkage which moved seamlessly was utilized to connect the wheels on both sides of the locomotive to the engine.
Roland had simplified his design for the locomotive as much as possible. As a result, it looked as if he had just patched all the main components together. When compared to a modern train, it had numerous defects. It had no mechanical brake and needed manpower to turn the capstan to stop the train. As the drivers’ cabin was on the connecting beam that linked the front and rear parts of the locomotive engine, the drivers would be disturbed by the constant shaking and vibrations caused by the steam engine when driving the train. It was not equipped with any electrical device, so the drivers and the other workers on the train had to blow the steam whistle or shout to each other to communicate. However, it was already the best design possible based on the current technological capabilities of Neverwinter.
He had to build this prototype first, and then gradually improve it, just like what he had done with the first generation steam engine.
“Your Majesty, what’s the carrying capacity of this thing?” Kyle Sichi, the Minister of Chemical Industry, asked with curiosity. “Is it any higher than that of a concrete boat?”
“I think its cargo capacity should be almost five or six times that of a concrete boat.” Roland was satisfied seeing the surprised looks on the officials’ faces. “But this is just the beginning. With technical progress, it’ll be able to carry cargo which needs 100 concrete boats to transport at once.”
“A, A hundred?” Barov swallowed hard. As the City Hall Director, he was well aware of the meaning of the number.
“So… what about its speed?” Petrov asked in a trembling voice.
“I’m not sure. I’m still waiting for the test results, but it definitely won’t be slower than a concrete boat.”
In this era, horse-drawn carriages and some other pack animals were the principal forms of transportation on land. On the bumpy and soft ground, their transportation efficiency was low. Besides, carriages did not have any rubber tires or any other kind of shock absorption measures, so their wooden wheels often got shattered by the repeated shaking on the road. Under such circumstances, the Kingdom of Graycastle used ships as the main mode of transportation. In the inland rivers, the steam-powered boats, which did not need to move with the help of the wind, quickly outshone the traditional sailing ships. Given that, in the view of the officials, the concrete boats were already extremely fast and efficient carriers.
Hearing that a train would be able to travel faster and carry more cargo than a concrete boat, they fell into silence.
They instinctually wanted to deny such a possibility but felt reluctant to do so, since they were afraid that it might turn out to be true. Seeing the bewildered officials, Roland could not help but feel proud. If he had told them such a thing two years ago, he would have been regarded as a lunatic. As the war was fast approaching now, and he had failed to improve the boats, he wanted to use this new invention he built to boost his subjects’ morale.
After all, he had not exaggerated the strength of the train.
After all, the steam engine was only the first generation of industrial power sources.
Once the trains could be equipped with internal combustion engines, they would become the dominant mode of transportation on land.
“Your Majesty, could you please show us how it works?” Barov asked after a while.
“Yes, but not now. It still lacks some key components. We need another week to complete it.” Roland shook his head.
“According to the plan you gave to the Ministry of Construction before the unification war, you intend to use the railway to connect the mine to the wharf, right?” Barov asked.
“Yes.” Roland sensed that Barov had something else to say.
“Such a powerful vehicle will boost our people’s morale and greatly help the City Hall in our war propaganda work,” Barov spoke out his idea. “Is it alright to let all your subjects witness this incredible scene on the day of the train’s test run?”
Roland immediately understood what kind of propaganda effect Barov wanted to achieve and was pleased to see that his City Hall Director had learned to guide the people’s opinion during these years.
“As you wish,” he smiled and said.