The crew of 2 walked the lonely halls looking for the massive room that was said to hold a treasure trove of society
"You know, if you would have grabbed that map we wouldn't be doing this right now." Richard said flatly as the 2 walked down some long forgotten hallway.
"Don't you think I know that!" Snapped Tyler, throwing his hands into the air in expression
"Well why don't we just go back and get the damn thing?"
Tyler said nothing, he just turned right around and walked in the general direction of his office. Took them all of 10 minutes to retrieve the map. Hours went past as the two stumbled along the long forgotten hallways looking for any clue as to where the door would be. Room after room was searched but came up empty. In their last ditch effort they entered the main storage room where they had kept the army vehicles and helicopters, aka the only room big enough to house something as large as these behemoths in the pictures.
Looking along the walls they found exactly what they had been looking for the whole time. A Gigantic stainless steel door. It must have been 50 feet tall and 50 feet wide!
"You think we should open it?" asked Richard
"I don't see why not..." Said Tyler as he walked up the the giant door an slid his pass key through the card scanner. It beeped in protest, refusing to open...
"What the hell! Whats wrong with this damn thing?" Shouted Tyler
"Let me try." Said Richard as he pulled out his own pass key. He slide it through the slot and much to the amazement of the 2 men it gave off a green light and said in a computerized voice, "Welcome Mr. Mattson"
"How come it opened for you and not me?" asked a quizzical president
Richard shrugged his shoulders, "Ya got me."
A few seconds later a metallic SNAP and a CLUNK sounded through out the room. With a hiss of air and the groan of long unused bearings the massive and extremely heavy door popped out of the wall a few inches and slid aside. The air rushed into the room to replace the other noncorrosive gas that had been injected into it 2000 years earlier.
The first mass of iron to be exposed was the Projects name sake, no.63 or, 'LEVIATHAN'. The bright red paint job gleamed in the crummy lighting of the hall. Dominating the front end of the heavy locomotive was a giant balloon stack used for arresting sparks from the wood being burned in the firebox. The headlight was of the kerosene type which could maybe be substituted for some other more readily available fuel source. A length wooden pilot protruded out from the head of the engine. Known as a cowcatcher it was used to 'push' cattle and other animals off the tracks (The creatures died most of the time anyway).
In the dim light of the rooms light fixtures the paint still glittered like the day it was built. The Jupiter, or no.60, was next to be exposed to the prying eyes of the men. The blue paint matched its red wheels like puzzle pieces in one of grandpa's giant masterpieces.
As the door continued to open a Brown and blond pony walked by and nearly fell over at the sight before his eyes. This pony arrived in Lazarus only a few days ago looking for work. He told the Government that he was extremely good with steel. Richard talked to him often about metallurgy since he used to be a welder and a machinist.
"Ah Richard, what are these?" the pony questioned
Snapping out of his gawking state, Rich said, "Oh hey Scrap Iron, these are pieces of humanities past. They basically built America, well the frame work for it anyway."
"They look awfully familiar. You think we took some or your tech and punched it together with some magic and created our trains?" Scrap asked
"That could very well be. Though yours are much smaller then these behemoths, that's for sure." Richard replied with a chuckle
While the 2 had been talking the door had opened completely, showing off the glistening giants. A massive red engine known as the 119 sat next to the Jupiter and along side the 119 sat the Inyo.
Inyo was built in 1875 for the Virginia and Truckee railroad in Nevada to move the silver ore. Its small driving wheels would tell most railroad men that it was built more for pulling then for speed. The only big differences between the Inyo and Leviathan and Jupiter was its pilot and steam dome (the down nearest the cab). The older designs of the Jupiter gave it and the Leviathan the brass plated domes where as the Inyo had the ringed domes with the brass strip in between.
The Inyo was by far the oldest of the 4, being from 1875 an all. The Jupiter and the 119 were built in the 1960s and the Leviathan was built in 2009, making it the youngest. The assortment of rail cars looked like most of the other pre1900 cars you would see in museums, but these were in allot better shape.
The other machines in the lineup Consisted of the 80 hp Case traction engine, its many moving parts covered in a thick layer of grease and oil from its last run. It was currently strapped to the first flatcar behind the Leviathan.
The next in the line was the Bucyrus-Erie Steam Crane with its long rigging laid out in front of its massive track bulk.
And last but not least, the Bucyrus-Erie Steam shovel (The one in this story is in much better shape though...). Though being slightly harder used in its life time it was a robust machine and could handle the stresses of moving the huge amounts of gravel and earth that would needed to be moved soon enough.
Scraps, Tyler and Richard walked along side the engines and cars tell they hit the very back of the room. Behind the railroad artifacts resided all the materials and machinery to keep them going for years to come. The fact that the government could do all of this without anyone outside of their ranks knowing astonished the 3 stooges. There was a whole god damn railroad in this one room!
"Rich," the president started, "What in the hell are we going to do with this stuff?"
"Exactly what the papers told us to..." replied Richard with a giant grin on his face, running his hand along the glistening brass dome on the Leviathan.
"And that is?" questioned Scrap
"Rebuild..." the stetson wearing human said flatly
_____________________
The room was filled with a cacophony of talking. Officials that had been elected only a month earlier sat around a giant oak table wondering what this meeting had been called for.
The President entered the room and held up a hand, silencing the group.
"I suppose you all are wondering why I call you people here," the group nodded an affirmative, "I happened apon an old military project known as Project LEVIATHAN." He threw the folder on the table and the pictures and papers spread out on there own.
"These are wood fired steam locomotives there steam powered cohorts were built for this same predicament, only they were designed in the 1860s." said the president, "We are supposed to use them to rebuild our society." At thos few words the group broke out in to laughter.
"What do you mean? These things are ancient!" shouted a young man of about 25.
Tyler smirked, "You forget that we are ancient as well."
That silenced the young lad but gave the rest of the group the room to continue there speaking.
An older fella with grey hair and a mustache spoke up and said "How are these supposed to help us though? We stopped using them for a reason you know."
"A friend of mine knows more about these engines and tech then anyone else in this complex. Many of you know him as 'train freak'. Here I present Richard Mattson."
Richard entered the room with a good size grin on his face and sat at the head of the table. He gathered the pictures and stuffed them back in the folder before he started speaking, "Well, I guess I am here to explain what all of this means. Steam power has been used for a long time for heating and transportation. Hell we even still use it to produce our electrical power in this very complex! Another good thing is that these contraptions are fueled by wood and water, 2 of the most common things on earth at this time."
The collection of government officials just stared wide eyed at the young man that seemed to surpass everyone in the room with his knowledge of these overbuilt teakettles.
"So your telling us that our whole future is in the hands of yourself?" an official said
"No, I have information that tells me that the Equestrians have trains them selves, though they rely on magic to produce steam. There railroads are well built and we could use there help in building our first line which will go north to the Iron Range."
Again, the officials just stared at the kid til the same old man from before said, "You know how far it is from here to the Iron Range right?"
"I do, but that's were we have to start. If we don't lay claim to that part first, which I am frankly surprised that no one else has, we might very well loose it." Richard said flatly
"What about man power, that is a big factor in such a task." said an Irish fellow of about 40 years of age, General McNeal
"I am sure that if we promise Equestria a slice of the proverbial cake they will happily provide us with some ponies to help in our endeavor."
"Seems like you have thought alot of this out, Mr. Mattson. But what about materials?",The man grabbed the description paper and read off, "With only 10 miles worth of rails and ties we couldn't possibly make it up there."
"Well Mr, Jenkins, that is another thing we will have to rely on the ponies for before we can get enough iron to build the first steel mill." commented Richard
A heavy built official grunted in amusement, "You seem to be relying on the ponies for an awful lot Mr. Mattson."
"Do you have any other ideas Mr. Lowing?" asked Tyler from his chair along side Richard
That silenced the fat man and he retreated into his mind to lick his wounds.
Turning back the the remainder of the group Tyler said, "So, any objections to my friends proposal?"
For the next minute the group talked amongst them selves and soon agreed that this was the only way.
"Good!" started Tyler, "Now the project will commence in 3 days and you all better be there, all the help is needed." With that Tyler and Richard exited the room.
Once they reached they reached the office Tyler spoke, "Richard, get down to the storehouse and start looking over everything, sing you know the most about all this stuff. I myself will change clothes and collect some heavy guys to help us."
"What are we doing now?" questioned Rich with a raised eyebrow
"We need to get that stuff outta there don't we?" Rich nodded, "Then that's what we are doing."
"Ok, guess Ill see ya there then." with that the railroad historian took his leave to the room that held humanities salvation.
Taking a some rights, a left and going down a few flights of stairs Richard found himself at the Store house. Taking his time, he looked for the stacks of rails and found them to be sitting on top of 7 of the 10 flatcars. The boxcars held all of the ties, plates and spikes needed to build 10 miles of trackage. That easy task completed he now looked over every piece of machinery in the room, the Locomotives came first. He climbed all over the engines trying to spot a single scratch or scour that would hinder the operation of such a beast, he found none on any of them. The bearings were all still greased and the wooden cabs were still as solid as ever.
the minutes ticked by and soon Tyler and his aforementioned crew of heavy men stalked into the main room, all wearing denim overalls and white shirts underneath. Rich Chuckled, "they all look like genuine railroad men." he thought.
"All right you lackeys, you ready to build a RAILROAD!!" Tyler shouted in a gruff voice
"SIR YES SIR!" the men all shouted in unison, raising there hands to their foreheads in a salute
"GOOD!!! Now each of you split in to teams of 5 half of the teams will haul the rails out here the rest are to move the ties."
With that the crew scattered into chaos before situating themselves in groups and going to work. It took the teams all of 5 hours to get the materials moved into the empty main room. Once that was completed Richard took over as team captain and instructed the men on how to lay track at the right gauge so the engines and rolling stock could run over the rails with out falling off. Since these engines were what we call standard gauge, meaning the rails were 4 ft 8 1/2 inches apart, that's what Richard told the men to do.The hammers rang aloud as the 20lb sledges slammed the spikes home. Richard and Tyler left the crew to their work after telling them the tracks needed to be laid to the elevator.
They themselves needed to gather fuel for the locomotives, a big task to say the least. Luckily they had allot of axes and allot of men to help with the work. The 2 made there way to the cafeteria, since it was lunch time this was were most of the population would be right now.
"All right people, we need some men with strong backs and arms! Who would like to volunteer?" Richard asked
Much to the pleasure of the 2 over 20 hands shot up. "Well, that's more then I thought I would get." muttered Richard, "Ok, when your all finished eating met me and the president here out in the woods to the north."
