OPP Side Story: Analyzing the Visual Dictionary in Canterlot · 3:14am Dec 4th, 2014
First, a huge thank-you to my pre-readers: MSPiper, metallusionismagic, and AShadowOfCygnus.
While I have strived (striven?) throughout CSI and OPP to look at the book wherever possible, here I had to part ways with it slightly. The visual dictionary does not have a steam locomotive in it—and why should it? They're obsolete (but awesome). It does have a diesel-electric and a pure electric, though.
That gave me a little freedom, to be honest. I could pick which locomotive was on the two pages which are obviously missing from the visual dictionary.
Steamer is a G1 pony.
Rowan is also known as "mountain ash." We'll say that's how I came up with Professor Rowan's name; the truth is I don't remember.
Professor Flankine is named after William John Macquorn Rankine.
Professor Neighsmyth is named after James Nasmyth.
Professor Neigel Gearsley is named after Sir Nigel Gresley, and was suggested by Randy Dandy-Oh.
Professor Hackworth is named after Timothy Hackworth. Where's the pun? A hack is a name for a type of horse.
Besides being a useful teaching tool, stationary boilers were and are used to power all kinds of things. A practice boiler would likely work at a lower pressure, and be prettier than an ordinary working boiler.
A governor is a type of mechanical (traditionally) or electrical device which controls the speed of a machine. Back in the day, they used weights; as their speed of rotation increased, they'd limit the speed of the machine. This is important, because many rotating and reciprocating machines can only go so fast before they tear themselves apart.
Throughout the story, whenever Steamer mentions the weight of something, bear in mind he's underestimating. For example, a modern passenger car (in the US) might weigh 50 tons without passengers.
A superelevated curve is a banked curve. Just like on a race track, it helps keep the train on the rails when it's moving at speed.
Even on a flat curve, not only can trains derail on the outside of the curve, but the forces of the train can pull (usually light) cars off the rails on the inside.
The locomotive in question is Pere Marquette 1225 [the one in the drawing above is NKP 765, but the two are identical]. 1225 lives just up the road from me, in Owosso. You might have seen it in the movie Polar Express.
A few quick specs: the locomotive weighs 442,000 pounds, carries 44,000 pounds of fuel, and 22.000 gallons of water (that's about 193,000 pounds of water), giving her an overall weight of 727,000 pounds (330,000 kg). The drvers are 69" tall, and she's 101 feet long. If you were wondering about the fuel mileage, she gets 12 miles per ton of coal.
And if you think that's big . . . the C&O Alleghenies were at least 500,000 pounds heavier.
So you, too, can be amazed at just how big the Berkshire in the book is, watch this video. While the two 0-4-0s aren't meant to be mainline locomotives, given the ponies' diminuitive stature, they're probably about the size of a pony locomotive.
As Steamer noted, one of the big advancements we made in steam locomotive technology was moving the firebox behind the driving wheels, which allowed it to carry a bigger fire. That, in turn, allowed the locomotive to make more steam, and thus become even bigger. I'm oversimplifying a bit here; there were other significant advancements like compound cylinders and superheating which also played a major role in the development of steam locomotives.
Steamer is right that bigger drivers give you a higher top speed, but they do so at the cost of low-speed tractive effort [which is why the 0-4-0s in that video have such small drivers]. By the late steam era, many locomotives were very good at going fast, but not so good at starting a train; possibly the most extreme example was the Pensylvania Railroad's T-1. Top speed of over 120mph, but at the cost of excessive wheel slip even at speed.
As Steamer mentions, water consumption is a big deal with a steam locomotive. Fuel wasn't terribly heavy, but water was, and you needed a lot of it. Some railroads developed methods to take on water on the fly, with troughs between the rails, so their flagship passenger trains didn't have to stop as often.
Automatic brakes were a major safety innovation. Previously, only the locomotive had brakes, or if the cars did, they had to be set individually by the brakeman, who scrambled from roof to roof. It's beyond the scope of the story or blog post to explain specifically how they work, but if you're interested, you can look up Westinghouse Air Brake.
There are liabilities to having a huge locomotive. It can't make sharp turns. For example, BNSF's minimum curve for industrial (low speed) areas is 670' radius. If you want to take a train through at 60mph, 2100 foot radius is about your minimum. Steamer mentions blind drivers—for obvious reasons, a steam locomotive can't flex along a set of drivers, so sometimes one or two of the center driving wheels wouldn't have flanges, allowing the wheels to track slightly off-center as the train went around a curve.
Weight's an issue, too. Assuming that PM 1225's weight was distributed evenly over its axles (which it isn't), each axle on the locomotive is carrying 63.000 pounds. For reasons of traction, the drive wheels carry the bulk of the weight—69,000 pounds per axle. In comparison, federal law allows semi-trucks to weigh 80.000 pounds, spread across 18 wheels instead of two. This gives an idea of how strong the tracks and roadbed have to be . . . and of course, we're just talking static load, here.
While Steamer might have a good idea what he's talking about when it comes to a steam locomotive, he's out of his league when it comes to an electric.
Of course, we know that an electric locomotive simply takes power from an overhead wire or a third rail, and uses it to drive motors, which turn the wheels. For what it's worth, most (if not all) of them do have couplers in the front, under a fairing. While they're not normally used, if the locomotive has to be pulled for whatever reason, it can be.
He is right that the telegraph was an important safety development for trains. Stations could communicate with each other, reporting which trains had passed and when. Orders could be passed to the crew, either at a station stop, or on the fly.
Back in the steam era, a train would have four or five crew members: the engineer, the fireman, possibly a head-end brakeman, and a conductor and a brakeman in the caboose.
Slack action is another complicated topic. While it does help a train get going, it can also break coupler knuckles. Goods can be damaged, and passengers will complain if it's excessive. Many different train handling techniques and railcar technologies were designed around it; they're all beyond the scope of this blog post.
(Start at 2:20 to see the slack being pulled out.)
The cars Steamer identifies
Box Car (right) Once the most ubiquitous of all railcars, it's slowly been displaced by other types of car, most notably the covered hopper. Grain used to be hauled in box cars, but it was very labor-intensive to unload. Once we figured out how to make a weathertight hopper car, it was much easier to pour it in the top and dump it out the bottom.
Tank Car (right) Originally made by installing a tank on top of a flat car, they are now specialty cars of their own right, carrying thousands of gallons of oil, corn syrup, molten sulpher, liquid vinyl, and all sorts of other things you don't want to be near if there's an accident.
Wood Chip Car (wrong) Once carried in open hoppers or converted box cars, they're now carried in monstrous open hoppers (wood chips are very light). There are no openings in the bottom of the car; when they get to their destination, a rotary unloader simply tips the car upside down, and the wood chips fall out.
Livestock Car (wrong) Once a common sight on the rails, they're no longer in use. It's cheaper to ship processed, frozen meat than a live cow. The open slats are so that the cows can breathe. Once upon a time, Chicago was home to huge stockyards, and that's why the meat industry is so big in Chicago. Trains out of the Midwest brought livestock to Chicago, where they were converted to 100% all-beef patties.
Covered Hopper (right) Besides grain, they're also used to carry all kinds of other dry, powdered contents, like various plastics, and even cement.
Hopper Car (right) If you've ever seen a gravity bin, you'll get the idea of a hopper car. It's open on the top, and the ends are sloped. On the bottom, a number of openings let the contents out. They're used for bulk goods that aren't affected by the weather, like iron ore, coal (although now they use gondolas, and empty them with rotary dumpers, like with the wood chip cars), gravel, and so on.
Container Car (right) Once upon a time, the humble flat car carried shipping containers. In the US, they're now usually carried on double-stack cars, a flat car with an open center so that the bottom container can be carried closer to the rails.
Piggyback Car (right, although he doesn't get the truck trailer right) Before the container revolution, semi-truck trailers were carried on flat cars. These days, it's rarely done in the US. It's not very efficient.
Flat Car (right) It's still a very versitile type of rail car; you can put anything on it. However, the 'standard' flat-deck car isn't so common any more, as it's been replaced with specialty cars.
Bulkhead Flat Car (right) Steamer is right about this one. The syle he saw in the book isn't that common now, but their descendant is the center-beam flatcar, and you see those everywhere hauling lumber. Each side can carry 4x8 sheets of plywood, or whatever other dimensional lumber you need to ship.
Gondola Car (wrong) While back in the old days, they were flat cars with sides added, they aren't any more. Think about it as the difference between a pickup truck and a flatbed truck: you can't take the sides off. They carry heavy loads that can be easily loaded and unloaded from the top, or that have to be for practical reasons. My great-grandfather ran a grocery store which also sold coal, and they had the coal shipped in a gondola, since they had to hand-shovel it out.
Depressed-center flat car (right) Used to carry tall, heavy loads.
It is 1250 miles from Omaha, Nebraska, to Manhattan. Some googling suggested that a horse-drawn cart could make about 60 miles per day, which means it would take 21 days to go on hoof. Before you say “Equestria is smaller than the US!” remember that ponies are smaller, too.
Lets see them make sense of an internal combustion engine next.
2632646
A cutaway of the engine wouldn't be all that remarkable, I don't think (assuming a simple engine). The steam locomotive pistons work pretty much the same, and there were steam locomotives that had a more internal combustion-like drivetrain, such as the Shay. The Shay specifically was invented in 1877, and I'm sure the principles of that type of design were known earlier.
m.iphotoscrap.com/Image/416/1234757269.jpg
On the other hand, the control side and upper end of a modern automobile engine would probably boggle their minds.
Does the dictionary show planes? Assuming they can recognize the things on the side are wings, the idea that we can put hundreds of tons of metal in the air would cause them to lose their minds. And spacecraft? Oh boy.
2632724
Yes, the visual dictionary shows planes, satellites, spacecraft, computers, military weapons, and so forth. Many departments in the college have copies of parts of the book, and are doing their best to wrap their minds around what they're seeing.
Since we've seen a hang glider in canon, I'd presume that they know at least the basic principles of fixed-wing flight--and it might have been easier for them, since there are pegasi. However, the scale of our aircraft, much like the locomotive, are beyond a pony's imagination.
As a fellow railroad enthusiast and IRM steam department volunteer, I really this chapter with all of the steam locomotive and train technical talk. It bring me a special sort of joy whenever I see two of my favorite thing together. I know it can be difficult in writing in supper technical details into fanfiction like this. You don't want to over do it and bore people with it. As with both the side stores and the main series, great chapter. Keep up the good work.
I always had a soft spot for steam. Eh, most steampunk shit just goes way overboard - into the territory of sheer tackiness - but the whole steam and gears thing just tickles my fancy. I was actually tinkering with a fic about a fire
manpony and his engineer buddy. Didn't get far with that one...I thought that was the coolest shit when I found out about that. The tender car literally has a scoop under it that the fireman would turn a crank to lower down. Signs along the track would indicate when the water pickup began and ended, basically as you said, a mile-long trough of water between the rails. The fireman would then lower the scoop, and the movement of the train would force the water up the scoop and throw it into the water tank in the tender.
Funny thing is, as many TONS of coal that a steam train uses, they used SO MUCH water, that they just didn't have anywhere to put it! So the tender would run out of water way before it ran out of coal.
Saw a couple of youtube vids that showed this, from British Railways. Can't find them atm...
Well, perhaps. But pure-electric trains are pretty old too. Many big cities had electric trams for public transportation even 10 or 20 years before the turn of the century. Not exactly modern tech. But admittedly, probably not something a railroad person would know much about.
2632792
Thank you!
If you haven't, you ought to read The Railway Ponies: Highball by The Descendant.
2632810
I was never as into it as some . . . I appreciate it, but most of us love what we grew up with, amirite? So for me it was the local, with a GP-7 or GP-9 at the head. But, I do have a love for machenery in general, and a steam locomotive is a damned interesting piece of tech. I had to go the the B&O rail museum after Bronycon--it was just down the street.
I've kind of had this chapter in mind ever since then. I looked at a lot of the very early locomotives, and how they were built, and started to wonder how the ponies might have made them, and what they would have thought about something the size of the C&O Allegheny they've got, which is half again as big as the 2-8-4 I was describing.
I think in the US, only the Pennsylvania RR and New York Central ever took on water on the fly, but I could be wrong. There were technical challenges to hitting a trough of water at 60 mph and scooping a few tens of thousands of gallons of water, and in the winter time, the spray was an issue, too. But a damn cool process, regardless.
They are, and I know that . . . but don't forget, in this 'verse, the ponies don't have electricity, which kind of puts the kibosh on electric locomotives.
I don't actually think Equestria is smaller than America, but then my Equestria is located on North America ("North Amareica") of a parallel Earth, instead of in another solar system. Their world is caught between glacial and interglacial conditions, with the main problem being the magical vortex, maintained by the Windigoes, Ice Giants and Lady Borea, that creates the Northern Wastes. This is enough that their versions of Alaska and Northern Canada are ice-locked and partially covered by glaciers. (Victory in the Shadow Wars lets them finally destroy these creatures, and leads to an unexpected problem -- global warming). So my Equestria in general is of North American dimensions.
Your handling of Earthly raliroading technology and its application to Equestria's culture and technology is brilliant.
2632646
They might have them, at least experimentally. Practical internal combustion engines date back to the mid-19th century in our world, and Equestrian tech is rougly 1850-1900 for power generation, c. 1950 for medical tech and c. 1750 for weapons tech.
The main reason they don't widely use them is probably a lack of oil. Hmm, wonder what Celestia had to talk to the Saddle Arabians about?
2632905 and at least 1980 for turntable and fashion laser tech.
But they still use old-school gramophones.
2632921
Some of the Schizo Tech may be magically-empowered. Both Vinyl and Rarity are, after all, Unicorns.
seveninchesofyourtime.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/montypython7.gif
To be fair to Steamers estimations, I would think most of their train's construction would be wood,which can be lighter sometimes.
Objection!
I see them every so often, although nowhere near as often as I did as a kid.
Wonderful little side story, I love the depths you go to for your research.
I don't care much about trains...
My Uncle and Grandpa does tho.
~Leonzilla
2632896
I can see that working as a story hook; I've used it before in fantasy stories (and have also been using all that work as an ongoing campaign setting in D&D and Pathfinder). It wouldn't work in CSI, though, for reasons which will eventually become apparent.
Thank you!
I'd put their medical "tech" further back, since I presume they do a lot with magic, rather than tech. The only two medical devices I can remember seeing which could easily be dated are the heart monitor (we presume it exists, since Dr. Stable has one as a cutie mark), and the X-Ray machine (which again, we presume exists because we've seen an X-ray; it could be a pony named X-ray who can see through flesh and then makes a sketch of what he sees).
It would have been funny if you used the Union Pacific Railroad's 4000-class 4-8-8-4.
barthworks.com/trains/photos/Big_Boy_4012.jpg
That train was a beast.
2632921
My Zenith console's older than that.
Agree with 2632958 that a lot of that tech is unicorn-powered, and a one-off. Vinyl powers her DJ equipment with her horn, in much the same way Flim and Flam ran the Cider Squeezy 6000. At least, that's my headcanon. But there are lots of different ways to interpret things like that, and I've got nothing against going with the tech being imported from the griffons, or the ponies having some pretty advanced tech that generally isn't seen in Ponyville because it's a backwater town.
2633023
That's true, and that is part of the reason he's underestimating. Steel-framed rail cars would be in their infancy in Equestria, from what we've seen of their trains. He's also working off unscaled drawings of things he's never seen before.
2633073
Yeah, but that's Canada. You guys were still using grain-loading box cars into the nineties. Plus, when everything's frozen solid for six months, it doesn't wear out as fast.
There might still be some rostered on American railroads, but I doubt it. Cheaper to truck the cattle to the slaughterhouse, and then ship the frozen steaks by rail.
Thank you!
2633168
See if you can somehow sucker them into reading this. Turn 'em into bronies.
2634470
Yeah, it is. Right up there with C&O's Alleghenies, size-wise.
I used PM 1225 as my exemplar locomotive, since it's just up the road from me, and I've actually seen her operate. Made the picture a little clearer in my mind, y'know? Plus, a Berkshire's a likely subject for an illustration of a steam locomotive in a general type of publication. An articulated compound would just blow his mind completely.
2634549 i.imgur.com/vw7owMF.png
~Leonzilla
2634720
Well, you never know.
Last time I visited my parent's house, I found this:
th07.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2014/338/c/e/knight_riding_pinkie_pie_by_admiral_biscuit-d88q06f.jpg
My parents are so cool.
Isn't "Professor Rowan" the name of one of the characters from Pokémon?
2634735 I thought my mom was good for that... then again she found a potato with a face and felt the need to knit it a santa hat and beard.
To parents that never lose their sense of humor
2634735 Yeah.
Ok will think about it.
2634480
Also, both Pony Vinyl and Humanoid Vinyl have technology in advance of their contemporaries. Pony Vinyl has her electronic turntable, and Humanoid Vinyl has a car which transforms into a full sound system.
Thinking about her usual fanon portrayals, there's a lot more canon evidence that Vinyl is some sort of highly-eccentric engineering genius with an obsession with sound system technnology and some sort of problem with speaking aloud (either muteness or verbal shyness) than that she is a frenetically-sociable person with a tendency toward drink, drugs and casual sex. In fact, we never actually see her engaging in normal partying as far as I can remember -- she's always the DJ. Which is a very ritualized way of participating in a party.
Oh, and also -- though I like the idea of pairing her with Octavia as at least her best friend -- they've never been shown socially-interacting in canon. Not once. The most they've been depicted is being in the same room together. A big room, and in different parts of it.
Also, as of Rainbow Rocks, at least the Humanoid Vinyl is damned brave. She clearly had a good idea of what she was getting into -- and she never even flinched, not even when the Dazzlings were generating monstrous energy forms and throwing straight-on sonic blasts right at her and the Rainbooms. And, unlike the Rainbooms, those WEREN'T her best friends she was with.
Though they may well be now.
2634826
I suppose it could be. Never played or watched Pokemon.
2634860
Now that's just awesome.
2635080
Agreed in general. We've no reason to assume that Vinyl and Octavia are a couple (although I just recently came across a comic which makes we want it to be so). In my sole story about Vinyl, she wasn't dating Octavia, although she knew of Tavi. I'd expect that of two professionals who are at the top of their game, though. Peyton Manning probably knows who Alex Rodriguez is, but they probably aren't dating. Not 100% sure; I don't really follow sports.
I personally wouldn't place too much faith on Vinyl's car as depicted in RR . . . cartoon representation, in a song, Hasbro also owns Transformers, yada yada yada. Still, I do think in the ponyverse she's a bit of a tinker/genius, and built or designed all her equipment herself. I can see her as a party girl, in with the sex, drugs, and rock and roll crowd--but I can see her as turning it off at the end of the day, too. As an amateur actor myself, I know all about being one person for gigs and another IRL. And it does have its effects, especially when you're touring.
Really, we haven't got a whole lot to hang our hats on in canon with either her or Tavi. I do think both of them live in Canterlot, rather than Ponyville . . . I guess that's my only real trigger in fanon portrayal.
The ponies would faint if this rolled on there track l offer the N&W 1218 2-6-6-4 70 inch drivers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByyMiqON5TE
2641932
Or a UP Big Boy, or an Allegheny . . . or a modern diesel locomotive. . . .
After further reflection, I think the average Equestrian locomotive would be smaller than the two tank engines in the video. Closer in size to that SUV parked near the tracks.
Or imagine them seeing one of UP's turbines in action?
What is neat is seeing the rail laying cars. Where I live they are laying down a second track. Those cars are like 4 times as long as normal and the rails are neat to see.
This was a fun chapter!
2635080
So basically an Aspie who’s latched onto DJ gear as her obsession (computers not being around yet). I can see it.
2893562 As an Aspie myself, I approve of this interpretation.
2633073 I saw a caboose on a mainline road hooked to modern cars. One with a cupola and everything, though it was in road colors not red. Charleston, SC.
I would not say that cabooses are in mainline service despite that, however.
3802770
You do sometimes, if there are going to be a lot of backing moves. Where I used to live, they struggled valiantly to get the locomotives in front of the string of cars so they didn't have somebody who had to ride on the end. I saw them gravity switch a pair of hoppers once, and another time they were pushing an empty car by hand along a facing siding.
But for most mainline moves, the caboose is dead. Sadly.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/BN_caboose,_Eola_Yard,_1993.jpg
Now I'm slightly curious how the pony engineers would react to some saucy pictures of an A4 Pacific.
4628065
I think they'd like it. It would seem more practical to them than their idea of the pilot car (which is actually a TGV) and the pushing steam locomotive.
And as an added bonus, he shares a given name with a man who promoted cultivation of a certain type of grass that is commonly grown as, among other things, hay for horses.
4860238
That's very true. So it's a pun on two levels, which is like totally the best kind of pun.