//------------------------------// // Chapter 18 // Story: Upgrading the Railway Network // by The Stainmore Phoenix //------------------------------// Chapter 18 The next morning, when Dangersignal woke, he looked at the calendar. Rainbow Dash woke to see her fiancée standing there, eyes wide in surprise. She came up to see the calendar and her eyes were still shut. To Dangersignal, It showed two weeks to Nightmare Night! “What? How…it…I…unbelievable!” he spluttered. Rainbow Dash couldn’t say anything as well after Dangersignal explained the events that happened on "Nightmare Night". She was trying to wrack her brain and wake up, in hopes that an answer would come to her. Her eyes soon lit up and she began laughing heartily. Dangersignal turned to her, bewildered beyond belief. “Discord!” she laughed. “He pulled a fast one!” Dangersignal just about eye ticked! He and Discord had never been ones to be friends, but he soon started laughing as well. “I guess I can’t stay angry at him forever!” he said, after taking on a fresh supply of air. Rainbow Dash smiled and kissed him on the cheek. He went redder than his fur coat. Looking around, he sighed. Nobody saw them kiss. Being in love was one thing, but the two exchanging kisses like section tablets would have been rather embarrassing. After he finished his “danger signal” appearance, Dangersignal took up his armor and walked out to attend to his guard duties. As he passed the others on his way to “accept duty shift” from Shaydefire, he gave them a smile and greeted them warmly. To them, it was both a relief and a surprise that he’d be smiling, after last night’s fiascos. However, things weren’t going to look good in twenty minutes. He arrived to “accept duty shift” from Shaydefire, who had a message for the Alicorn captain. “Flash Sentry has been transferred here to take over for you, while you handle the Railway affairs,” the Thestral Battery Sergeant Major explained. “Besides, I’ve requested that an old friend of mine, Captain Stormstrike, another Thestral. You’ve been asked for by Jaisson and Princess Cadence to go and rescue a stranded mixed, whatever that is.” “On it,” Dangersignal said, and disappeared to remove the armor, then he headed off to the station, where Jaisson was waiting with the L&YR Class 31 0-8-0 tender engine. Once aboard the cab, Jaisson reversed the engine to collect the train. The engine was having balancing issues and by the time they had arrived, the two looked ready to puke. Once they had collected their stomachs and the train, Jaisson advanced the regulator and the train headed off. ‘Mixed trains’ are not typical in the sense that they are all coaches or all trucks. The train is made up of both trucks and coaches. The coaches had to be in the front, as the coach’s vacuum pipes had to be connected to the locomotive. The unbraked wagons were being protected by four brake vans-two between the lead wagon and brake coach and two on the end of the train. After the guard gave the crew the “green” and the “Right Away”, things went wrong. The engine began rocking and rolling violently and the trucks were not properly ‘pinned’, which caused them to snatch and bang about. The coaches were overloaded, making it hard for the engine to move them, but when the engine reached the gradient, Jaisson applied the brakes, but there was a grinding, then a metallic sheering noise. “Our brakes have failed!” he yelled. Quickly, Dangersignal found the reverse wheel and turned it hard over. Jaisson shut regulator and screwed down the tender brakes. The engine began to rock and the train gathered speed. Not wanting to risk any of the passengers lives, Dangersignal jumped onto the tender and using magic, he disconnected the front coach’s coupling and brake pipe. The coaches brought the trucks to a stop, but the engine came off the rails at the curve leading into Equestria Canterlot station. Dangersignal leapt into the air, using his magic to pull Jaisson to safety when the engine started to lean. Both were in the air as the engine tipped and slid along the ground, plowing up a few feet of green grass and dirt. “We were lucky,” Jaisson said. “Thank you for saving me.” “No problem,” Dangersignal smiled. Within the hour, cranes arrived as well as a very startled Rainbow Dash, Dragonstorm, Lightning Dust, Princess Twilight and her friends and even Princess Celestia. “What in the name of Equestria and Brunel?” Dragonstorm demanded. “Our engine lost all brakes and rocked violently, then tipped,” came Jaisson’s reply. “Dangersignal managed to uncouple the coaches and get me out when the engine tipped off the rails.” “Very quick thinking indeed,” Alistair said, looking up at the Alicorn who was landing. “No problem,” came the reply. “It’s all part of the job.” Men and work ponies moved the cranes into place to rescue the damaged engine. Dangersignal seemed to be lost in the labyrinth of his thoughts. Celestia and the others had never seen him like that. When the engine was on the rails, Dangersignal jolted out of his thoughts with a cry of triumph. “That’s it!” Startled, everyone turned to look at him. He was grinning and being as careful as possible, he made his way to the engine and gestured to the front, which was mangled. “We need to make this engine into a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement and balance the weights to make it stable on our steep gradients between the Crystal Empire and Canterlot, as well as being balanced enough to prevent the engine rocking like a seesaw,” Dangersignal said. “You’re looney,” Jaisson said. “So says the person who let me read the Railway Series,” Dangersignal retorted sharply. “Do you remember the Flying Kipper? Henry had a different shape, a cross between an Ivatt Atlantic and an LNER A0. After his accident, he was sent to Crewe and rebuilt into an LMS Black 5. Same thing with James, before he was rebuilt at Crovan‘s Gate! He was too front heavy and his leading pony truck didn‘t help matters, aiding in his derailment just outside Crosby when his wooden brakes caught fire.” Jaisson soon realized what Dangersignal was saying and grinned broadly. “You mean-give this engine an overhaul and a little bit of a different shape?” he asked the Alicorn. “Correct,” Dangersignal said. “The works can have the engine in and out in three to four months.” “I forgot about that!” he said. “You know we had to set it up at the Crystal Empire, as they were the best for carrying out repairs?” “I knew,” Dangersignal said. “We need to have this repaired. The other 2 L&YR 31 0-8-0s are to be withdrawn from working on this gradient. We’ll leave one in “original” condition and the other will become a 2-8-0.” “Good idea, then that way we can prevent more accidents,” Jaisson said. The two filled in the group while men and ponies continued to rescue the damaged Class 31. When the road was clear and inspected to make sure it was safe, Alistair, Franklyn, Jordon and Tobias went up with the LNER P2 2-8-2 and the Robinson O2 2-8-0. A pair of freshly built NER class X 4-8-0Ts were coupled to the rear brake-van. The two tankies needed to be run in and this was as good a chance as any. After the mixed train cleared section and the damaged train as well as the works train headed off to the shops, Dangersignal was lost in thought. He was thinking of a way to provide power from a smaller machine, thus allowing the bigger machines (minus the Garratts, which were needed for the longer and heavier trains) to be freed up for other services. Deciding to think about that later, he looked at the rails and noticed something that was concerning indeed. They were spread like butter. ‘Must have happened after the trains passed over them,’ he thought. Soon, track gangs came out and were replacing the rails and even talking about ways of upgrading the lines, to handle the greater volumes of traffic. Celestia went back to her castle and the rest went back to Princess Twilight’s castle, where Dangersignal went to find the answer to his problems. Sometimes having books would be a great thing, but he looked to a poster that had been made while he was in the UK. The engine in the poster was “Foxcote Manor”-a member of the ever famous GWR Manor Class 4-6-0’s, often described as “Halls on a crash diet”. His eyes lit up brighter than any decoration! “That‘s it!” he cried happily. Finding a notebook, pen, and several books on the Great Western Manors, he began making notes of all his findings. When he finished, he checked the gradients towards the Crystal Empire, his grin widened till it reached both his ears. “Manors would be a great idea,” he said to himself. “We have one, but if we could build a few more, maybe eleven more, then we’d be able to give them that route, thus allowing our other engines to runs the lines that connect to Hoofington, Las Pegasus, Trottingham, Saddle Arabia, Mustangia, Maretania, Maretonia, and so on down the map.” He soon sat down and began drawing up the Manors and looking into names. If he were back in the UK, then he’d have famous British Manors to name the engines after, but he was in Equestria, which lacked much of the excitement. There were no famously named manors to name said engines after. However, he was much more resourceful than most ponies gave him credit for and he had names and numbers for the nine addition Manors. Of course, he had to do the one thing that would satisfy his honor to his friends who’ve fallen and to soldiers and even other units who have had men fall in times of battle. The thing was to have to special Manors constructed for Royal Guard Supply Trains, much like how the British “War Department” built the 2-8-0s and 2-10-0s for heavy military supply goods, and the SR built the Q1 0-6-0s. “They might not be any War Department locos, but they’ll suffice for the duties required of them,” Dangersignal said. “But we need to make sure that the blast pipe is the right size, and if we couple that with superheating technology and steam reusage pipes, then we can have these engines handle trains that 8Fs and WDs would be handling on a daily basis. After getting the plans squared away and sent on their way to the workshops, Dangersignal turned a weary to my bed and snorted. He wasn’t going to sleep, instead he was going to take up night shift guard duties. He looked to a piece of paper and jotted down numbers and names for the manors that were being built and this is the list: 7830-Dodge City Manor 7831-Ponyville Manor 7832-Crystal Manor 7833-Trottingham Manor 7834-Canterlot Manor 7835-Las Pegasus Manor 7836-Baltimare Manor 7837-Fillydelphia Manor 7838-Cloudsdale Manor 7839-Celestial Manor 7840-Lunar Manor “I know thirty were built, but we’re building these engines ourselves,” he said and left to accept his shift.