The Beginning
From the high hills of Canterlot to the dark forests of the Everfree, one can find the ghosts of what once was. Holdovers from a long gone era, old rails, ties, rolling stock and infrastructure. These are the remnants of the Canterlot & Everfree Railway. Being planned to be the first railway to link Ponyville with the capital city, the line faced many trials and tribulations.
The line was first chartered on June 14th, 876 CE by the Canterlot Council. It was funded in part by the Rich family, the Apple family, the Hoofield Logging Co. and the Alicorn Ridge Mine, Mineral & Excavation Co. construction began from both north and south, with the two crews working towards each other to hasten the building.
Building the line was a long and difficult task for the Canterlot crew, having to build along the tall mountains which the city was perched on. It was dangerous work too, with rumors stating that five out of ten ponies perished a week while building the line. A death toll which was cut down to three after the switch from Nitroglycerin to dynamite for blasting the rock. The first mile took three months to construct, needing approximately 300 tons of TNT and five bridges to span gaps and cliffs.
The Ponyville crew however seemed to have some manner of ease when building, managing a mile a week through the relatively level farmlands. The worst that needed to be worried about was the summer heat and storms turning the dirt grading into a muddy swamp.
While the two crews worked, a third started out of Ponyville and into Everfree, getting the logging line set up in a month… at the expense of having shoddy and rickety track work. It was said that derailments were common due to the bumpy and poorly laid rails.
The line's first engine arrived in March 877 CE when it was clear the Pony-Drawn wagon trains were getting too heavy and long for ponies alone. The engine in question was purchased new, a 2-4-0 steam engine with the name “Golden Sparrow”. The engine was joined by several leased engines, such as Baltimare & Ohayo’s 34, 39, 40 and 52, and Dodge City & Appaloosa’s 4, 6 and 10. Leased as it was seen as a cost cutting measure until the line was fully profitable.
In October of that year, the first major accident struck the C&E. While moving supplies down to the last line of trackage which would join the two halves to the railway, the engine (Baltimare & Ohayo 4-4-0 No.40) hit a patch of icy track which had been frozen during a cold snap and quickly lost traction and braking force, flying down the line, pushed on and on by the icy rails and heavy cars. The train thundered down the hair-raising 4.5% grade (four and a half feet climbed per hundred feet). The brakeponies applied the brakes as best they could before attempting to bail off.
The supply train jumped the track at a hairpin turn, it was estimated to have been traveling upwards of sixty miles per hour upon derailment. The engine, five flatbeds, a boxcar, a passenger car and the caboose rolled down the mountainside, taking twelve members of the train crew and thirty five track layers with it. By the time a rescue crew could get down the mountain, it was far too late.
This accident cast a dark shadow over the Canterlot & Everfree railway. While construction resumed a week later, it called the railway into question, specifically if the mountain route was safe. Luckily runaways like the 877 crash were very rare, though it still caused many ponies to reconsider traveling on and shipping with the railway.
It was considered a day of Jubilation when the line was made whole, being planned (and rushed) to be complete during the Summer Sun Celebration. There was a parade of the railway’s finest locomotives… all three of them. Due to the budget constraints of building the line, it was more economical to lease locomotives from other railways, especially for the mountainous sections of line where many engines were needed.
The Celebration went off astoundingly well, ending with a race between the C&E’s No.1 and the B&O’s No.62 “Storm Breaker”. The 62 was a 4-4-0, riding on 60” drivers like the No.1 and was essentially an elongated version. However the engine had a higher center of gravity when compared to the No.1, and with the larger boiler, it would need more fuel and water.
No.1 and No.62 raced down Canterlot Mountain with two sets of five coaches, carrying those brave enough to attend the race, several C&E employees accompanying the B&O train.
On the curvy mountainous section of the line, No.1 gained a quick lead on the No.62, partially due to its lower center of gravity meaning it could take curves far faster than the B&O’s 62. However in the flatlands, 62 proved its worth, some claiming the engine topping Seventy Miles Per Hour at one point, overtaking the No.1.
The C&E employees who’d sneakily boarded the train began screwing down the hoofbrakes on the cars when the crew wasn’t looking, locking the wheels solid. The resistance made the 62 slow down tremendously right outside Ponyville. The No.1 overtook and charged through the station at tremendous speeds, a young Maria Ann Smith recounted having her bonnet ripped from her head by the locomotive's tailwind as it charged through the station platform.
This race sparked the longstanding feud between the Canterlot & Everfree and the Baltimare & Ohayo, a feud that wouldn’t officially end until the C&E went bankrupt, and the B&O was merged with the Equestrian United Railway network.
The Gilded Age
The Canterlot & Everfree Railway quickly became rather popular with ponies, both customer and employed. The C&E gained the nickname The Railway With A Heart due to the ticket punchers having a heart impression, and the employees doing small errands for those who lived trackside.
The line to Everfree was seeing much more traffic, as a bridge line had been built by the Los Pegasus & Vanhoover Railroad (Later Western Equestria Lines) to Alicorn Ridge, a large mountain range within the Everfree forest. Through-trains from Ponyville to Los Pegasus were a regular occurrence and brought much revenue to the line.
It was around this time that our most famous locomotive was acquired. In response to the A5 “Toy Class” 4-4-0’s being built, the Canterlot & Everfree commissioned two nearly identical locomotives, the T-1a and T-1b 4-6-0’s. The two T-1’s were pinned head to head with the Toy Class, the two engines, while somewhat slower, were much more powerful and could haul more tonnage at high speeds, some rumors stating that No.13 reached 115 Miles Per Hour while coming down the Canterlot incline.
However, as useful and popular the two were, they were riddled with faults and defects which would plague the two locomotives for the first few years of service. The 13 became the target of lots of scrutiny, more superstitious railroaders referring to the engine as “HooDoo”, a slang term for a jinxed or cursed locomotive.
This all came to a head in the winter of 904, when No.13 suffered a brake failure while running up grade to Canterlot, slamming into the rear of another passenger train which had stalled on the grade and was backing down. This would be the second most deadly wreck in C&E history.
This accident caused No.14 to also be put out of service as well, due to an inspection showing the brake linkage had been in the early stages of failure. These incidents and breakdowns had all been well covered by C&E’s management, who proceeded to file a lawsuit against the Baldwhinny Locomotive Company, which was found in their favor. Baldwhinny was ordered to rebuild the two locomotives, but however due to the troubles with the design, the plans for a fleet of T-1’s were scrapped.
From here on, the line’s fleet of mostly second-hand locomotives continued to grow, and ridership continued to climb. The railway even had the honor of transporting Princess Celestia in her private coach from Canterlot to Ponyville for an address. It seemed like the railway would continue to grow, it seemed like the railway’s hardships were behind them. However regretfully I must inform you that it wasn’t to be.
Tragedy Strikes
Alicorn Ridge Tunnel was considered the least loved part of the C&E’s trackage, it was over a mile long and curved in a slight S-shape, meaning crews couldn’t see end-to-end at any given time. And in 957, the tunnel would prove its reason for being unloved.
Cave-in’s were no uncommon sight, it wasn’t uncommon for a few bricks and soil to fall from the roof due to the mountain being somewhat unstable, but it was never any major issue… however during a late night express run from Los Pegasus to Ponyville, the roof gave way. The fireman, an earth pony named Stoker Cinders gave his account of the wreck.
We had just entered the tunnel, Doc made a comment about the water dripping from the roof. I didn’t pay much attention. We were half way through when I heard a thump on the roof of the locomotive, then another, then a stone from the roof landed on the tender and bounced into the cab. “Oh Celestia! The Tunnels Caving In!” Doc yelled as he pulled the throttle wide open. At almost three quarters through, a bracing on the roof collapsed in front of Number Ten, we hit it and derailed, the locomotive hit the side of the tunnel and came to a stop, soil pouring from the gash in the wall. I jumped out of the cab and ran as the cab filled up and the locomotive was buried. I didn’t look back, my only thought was to get out of that tunnel or die trying, and by the mercy of Celestia I made it. And good thing I did, for when I made it out, Number Ten’s boiler gave out and exploded, bringing the whole tunnel down. A copy of the original testimony given by Stoker Cinders, the only survivor of the incident.
This accident forever changed the Canterlot & Everfree, lawsuits came in full swing from the families of the nearly two hundred killed, and the line to Los Pegasus was forever closed.
Steady Decline
The C&E, desperate for financial relief from going under, made many appeals to the Equestrian government, however no aid would be provided, aside from the Royal Guard offering to help lessen the burden by taking 51% of stock. This granted them a controlling stock margin of the C&E, meaning they now had full say in the line's usage.
One of the first acts under new management was to order the replacement and scrapping of the “antiquated” steam locomotives that the C&E still had in service. Dieselization was a slow process however, with insufficient funds to purchase new locomotives. However in 961, the first order of Equestrian Locomotive Company (Elco) RS-1 diesels arrived, five in the C&E’s black and green livery, and the other five in the Equestrian Royal Guard’s pink “Flag Of Patrot” livery.
A large portion of the original steam fleet ended up scrapped at this time, others being sold on, such as No.12 and No.20 being sold to the Hooffield Lumber Company.
The Everfree Locomotive Facility shop superintendent, Walschaerts Baker, had always taken a shine to the No.13, back when he was a cleaner, and later an engineer, he always had a preference for the Ten Wheeler, always keeping it clean and polished as best he could, even though maintenance was waning and parts were getting hard to find. Finally one day, his worst fear came. No.13 was scheduled to be scrapped.
Walschaerts wouldn’t stand for this, having 13 stashed away in the back of the repair shop, having it cleaned and sheeted until he could talk the Royal Guard into selling it to him. This worked for several months until they wanted to inspect the line, which was a quarterly occurrence. Walschaerts, in a panic, had 13 coupled behind a freight train headed to Ponyville and had it towed up, missing the board of directors by minutes.
The engine stayed in Ponyville for just over a day before being towed back, some locals reported seeing the engine in the yard and disappearing overnight. Sometimes 13 would be fired up and run light-engine to Ponyville or otherwise up a spur to hide from the board. This cat-and-mouse game gained 13 the reputation of being a ghost, appearing once moment and gone the next.
Closure
967 was a year that lived in infamy with historians who study the C&E, for in this year, the Royal Guard outpost was destroyed by a Hydra, the Rich & Rich Mineral Company’s mines played out, and passenger ridership drastically fell due to the town of Everfree quickly dying.
Ultimately it was decided to close the line to passengers and normal freight operations, the line being “Rail Banked” aside from the occasional log train from Hooffield Lumber, or a Royal Guard training mission for operating a railway in hostile conditions. The final ever train ran in 985, the line falling silent, and 13 being tucked away by an elderly Walschaerts, being oiled one last time before he locked the shed, passing away not long after.
Plans exist to rip the line up for a new nature trail, though plans for this have yet to begin, as for now, the Canterlot & Everfree lays silent, like 13, quietly rusting away, waiting for revitalization… or the scrappers torch.