Equestrian Railways

by shadowspark101

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

‘Champions Lodge’ thundered along the line between Canterlot and Baltimare. The two boys and Regulator were feeling very pleased of themselves. The engine seemed to run almost on its own, all the boys had to do was keep on the controls and watch where they were going.

John turned to Regulator. “So, what’s the huge deal about this Nationalization Plan? I understand why you don’t like it, but I am not fully grasping the situation here. Care to enlighten us?”

Regulator nodded. “Well, the full story begins about 4 years ago,” He began. “The railways were losing a lot of money because of lack of maintenance to the tracks and locomotives. A lot of Equestria doesn’t exactly take the railway because of Unicorns having the power to teleport and all, and also because of the new Zeppelin business going on right now,” Regulator said, pointing to a floating Zeppelin that was going above the train. “Anyway, this had been going on for a while. Until the Board of Directors at the EQN decided to pass a National Traction Act, which would bring all the railways into Equestrian National. Of course, it had to be approved by the Board before it could be mailed out, and luckily it didn’t. So we were safe for a few months. Fast forward 5 months, and Waybill came along. The Princesses decided to pass the railway board unto him. He decided that it would be impossible to simply ask the railways to be nationalized. He chose to try and force the companies into a state to which they really had no choice but to be nationalized. He started off by buying out all the smaller companies that he could, until there were only three other major companies left.” Regulator said, but John quickly cut in.

“So, allow me to dumb it down in a story of five minutes or so,” John said. “This Waybill dude comes along AFTER the EQN Board’s original plan failed. So he decides to buy out the competition in order to shove the other railways into a corner. Now that has happened, he thinks that it’s all a matter of time before the last companies become nationalized into the EQN, in order to combat a zeppelin company?”

Regulator nodded. “That’s about right, more or less.” He said, as John turned to put more coal in the firebox. Regulator turned to Benn. “You said that this engine was from your world, care to explain to me about your world, and some engines that are there?”

John and Benn looked at each other. John waved his hand, and Benn began to speak. “Well, it’s a long story. But our world has few remaining steam locomotives, since many countries have gone to diesel and electrification. The only place where anyone can see steam locomotives at all is in museums and on heritage railways,” He said, thinking of what else to say. “As for individual engines, there are quite a few that John and I could name. A good engine to start with would be the LNER A4’s, they are the speed record holders on our world for steam traction, with a speed record being 126 miles per hour.”

Regulator blinked twice, dumbfounded. “126 MILES PER HOUR!?” He yelled in amazement. “A steam locomotive managed that feat of speed!? Our fastest engine can only go about 60 miles per hour. And how fast is this engine going!?”

John looked at the speed gauge. “Ha-ha. About 80-90 miles,” He said, as if it was no big deal. “Don’t you start fainting on us now.” He chuckled, looking at Regulator, who was looking a bit pale.

“What other engines are there on your world?” He asked Benn weakly. Almost afraid to find out what else human’s had made.

“Oh, lots actually,” Benn said, then he stopped to think. “Let’s see, we have the LMS Black 5’s, about 842 of them were built. Then we have the Great Westerns’ 4-6-0s, like the Kings, Castles, Halls, and so on. Oh, then we have the Southern Railway’s Bullied Pacific’s. But that’s only some of the thousands of engines that were built in Britain,” He then turned to John. “What about you John, I know America built the Big Boy 4-8-8-4’s, but what else did you yanks make?”

John nodded, before thinking. “We made some pretty good engines, actually,” He grinned. “We made the Challenger 4-6-6-4’s, which were basically smaller Big Boy’s. There were the GS-4 and GS-6’s, those were 4-8-4 Northern types. There were also the Hudson 4-6-4’s, the Niagara 4-8-4’s, the B&O Dockside Tanks, which were 0-4-0’s,” He then looked at Regulator. “Shall we go on?” He asked with a smug grin.

Regulator was leaned up against the tender, he looked completely pale and was shaking. “N-n-no, I-I-I think I have heard enough.” He said weakly.

John and Benn looked at each other, before breaking out in complete laughter. Regulator gulped as the two had their laugh, before John looked out the cab window. “Hey, I think I see Canterlot guys!”

Regulator managed to get out of his stupor and look out the window as well. “Yup, that’s Canterlot alright,” He said. “We better slow down to pull into the station.” He then looked at his watch, his eyes nearly bugged out of his head at what he was seeing. Dear Celestia, we’re ten minutes early! I thought we had left fifteen minutes late. He looked at the two humans. Something tells me that these two are the saints we’ve been looking for. Regulator grinned, as the city came into view.

Canterlot Union Station was the biggest station in Equestria. It had almost twelve platforms, four of these were bay platforms. The station was also busy, with commuters, vacationers, and passengers taking the EQN’s trains to their destinations, as well as any BNFR trains that came in.

A little foal was with his mother and father at track five when the little foal saw something. “Mommy Mommy!” He cried, pulling his mother’s tail a bit. “I see a train, I see a train!”

The mother looked at her son. “I know sweetie, we’re in a train station, so you’ll see a lot of trains and-” She was cut off as a Gresley whistle cut through the air.

‘Champions Lodge’ pulled into the station. The passengers were shocked at the sheer size of the locomotive, the engines that all the railways had were 4-4-0s. But this was something new. This locomotive was a 4-6-0, it was painted black with red stripes, and was numbered 61643. It was also owned by a railway called British Railways. But that wasn’t the shocker of the day for the passengers and ponies. Leaning out of the cab was a sort of hairless monkey, and there was another in the cab, with a pony as well. The ponies looked on, as the tallest monkey leapt out of the cab of the engine, and uncoupled the engine from the train, before joining the other monkey and pony in the cab.

“Alright, so according to my notes, we’re about ten minutes early.” One said.

“Impressive, I thought you said we were fifteen minutes down Regulator?” Asked the other one.

“I did, we left Baltimare fifteen minutes late, but because of you hitting eighty or ninety miles per hour on the main line, we managed to make up a lot of time, and then some.” The pony, who the passengers knew as Regulator, said.

“Ha! Just imagine if this train was being pulled by Sir Nigel Gresley, or any of the A4’s. Wouldn’t that be a shock Benn, I mean look at those ponies, they’re all in a state of shock.” Laughed the tallest monkey.

“Oh, wow,” Chuckled Benn. “You’re right John, we are a sight to behold, John?” Benn asked, turning to where John was, but he was not there.

“Behold! The elegance that is Sir Nigel Gresley’s B17s!” John said with tons of bravado, as he stood on the platform. Benn looked out of the cab and facepalmed, before grabbing John by the ear and dragging him back to the cab. “Ow, ow, ow! Okay okay, I’ll behave!” John whined in pain.

Benn then opened the regulator, and ‘Champions Lodge’ moved out of the station, and towards the yards.

The turntables at Canterlot were Equestria’s largest turntables. Not only were they used to turn engines around for return trips, they were also used to turn coaches and trucks around, so they were large enough to accommodate about four coaches. Benn parked the B17 right on the table, to the shock and awe of the crews that were already there with their locomotives.

“What is that thing?”

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t look like any engine I’ve ever seen before.”

“What company is ‘British Railways?’ I mean it sounds like gibberish to me.”

The crews watched as John motioned to the turntable pony. “Yo!” He called. “Do you think you could turn us towards the hopper and water tower? We need to fill and coal up before our return train.”

The turntable operator nodded, still stunned at the fact of a creature talking to him. He turned the table towards the coaling and watering line. And watched as the B17 moved forwards towards the hopper and water tower.

John clambered up to the top of the tender and grabbed the hose bag, before putting it in the tender tank. As the water tank was being filled, and the tender being filled with coal, he looked around. He just chuckled at what he saw, ponies staring slack-jawed at the sight before them, and behind them, the city of Canterlot. Now, John and Benn were bronies, so John could only guess that Benn was taking in the sights as well. He waited a few minutes more, before removing the hose bag and swinging the tower arm away from him. He then clambered down and back into the cab. “You should see those ponies out there,” John said, laughing. “They’re staring at us so confused, I swear I saw a fly go in one stallion’s mouth, and four came out another’s mouth.”

Benn laughed. “I see,” He said, as the tender was being finished being coaled. “So, remember our deal, you’re the driver now.” Both boys shook hands, before the B17 moved back to the turntable tracks.

The boys didn’t see it, but in a larger building overlooking the yards, a white Unicorn Stallion moved the curtains back. “What sort of machine is that!?” He yelled, turning towards a long table with ponies sitting at it.

“Well, Mr. Waybill, we’re not really sure, but we will look into it.” A unicorn mare said, trying to hide a bit of her fear.

“Make sure you do, that Fillydelphia Flyer was early! You hear me? Early! How are we supposed to get that BNFR to be nationalized if they are able to run trains to that schedule!?”

The other ponies looked at each other. This had been a surprising turn of events, ordinarily, the Fillydelphia Flyer was hardly ever on time, and only was 5 minutes late. This never gave the crews a proper time to coal and water the engine before having to set off again, which made the service usually late to Fillydelphia.

“Sir, we will look into it, that engine was nothing like we’ve ever seen before, and I’m sure that it will make headline news tomorrow, if not for the engine, than maybe for the crew of the engine.” Another pony said, this one a light yellow Earth Pony Stallion.

“Maybe, Maybe,” Said Waybill coldly, as he moved the curtain back to see ‘Champions Lodge’ back into the covered station. “We’ll get our answers and then some.”

Back at the station, Benn had just coupled up the B17 to the train. Some ponies came walking up to the engine. “Excuse me?” Asked a blue Pegasus stallion. “But what locomotive is this?” Benn looked at the two ponies, and was shocked at what he saw. There, standing in front of his face, was his OC, Shimmering Honor.

“Erm, well,” Benn said, trying to keep his composure. “This is a B17 my friend. It’s a prototype design, so there may be more being built, or maybe not. Anyway, I am Benn. And you are?”

“Oh, how rude of me. I’m Shimmering Honor, and my friend over here is Shadowspark,” Shimmering Honor said, motioning to the gray Pegasus next to him. “We were just curious about what engine this is, and a bit on who you two were.”

Benn nodded. “John!” He called. “You may want to answer some questions!”

John poked out of the cab window. “Hello there,” He said calmly. “Name’s John, and I’m guessing you two are Shimmering Honor and Shadowspark?” He asked, playing dumb. “And to answer your first question, we are humans, NOT monkeys!”

Shadowspark nodded and held out a fist, to which John bumped. “Cool meeting you two,” Shadowspark said quietly. “We better get going Honor.”

Shimmering Honor nodded. “Right, thanks for talking you two.” He said, as he and Shadowspark stretched their wings and flew off.

Benn and John looked at each other, before John quickly looked back and saw the green flag waving, and the loud whistle of the guard sound out. “Right of way,” He said. “Let’s turn loose the dogs of war.”

And with a loud whistle, ‘Champions Lodge’ set off for Baltimare. Leaving behind a quite surprised Canterlot Union Station.

Comments

[Shimmering Honor]

i love it

[RedDeadElite]

Railroad Tycoon anyone?