Equestrian Railways

by shadowspark101

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

A month had passed since the boy’s arrival in Equestria. The works at Baltimare had been working on the B17, as well as the J50 Tank Engines that Benn had asked the Fillydelphia Works to build for use as yard shunters for the railway. But that wasn’t the only thing that had been going on in the workshops of the BNFR. Even though that only after a month, three B17’s, excluding ‘Champions Lodge’, were finished and running, and about ten J50’s were completed. Those weren’t the only locomotives being worked on.

The old Poniston 4-4-0’s had been receiving numerous upgrades as well. Three of them were being tested with outside cylinders, instead of inside cylinders, and two of them were having a new compound boiler tested as well, which had a working boiler pressure of 165 Psi. The science behind compounding steam was rather basic. The outside cylinders were lower pressure than the third high pressure cylinder that was tucked away in the frames. So the steam was recycled between the high pressure cylinder and the lower pressure cylinders, which moved the engine. The very last upgrade was on a rear pony truck under the cab, that was supposed to stop the locomotives from rocking and swaying when brought up to speed. These locomotives, if the tests proved successful, would be rostered under the new BNFR classification system, ‘3P 2F’. The ‘P’ stood for passenger, and the ‘F’ stood for freight. But, withdrawals commenced of the 4-4-0’s, the very first were the engines already rostered to be scrapped. And by the end of that very month, out of thirty Poniston 4-4-0’s that the railway had when John and Benn arrived, there remained less than ten in original condition, with the rest either being rebuilt or scrapped.

The engines weren’t the only things that were being built in the railways workshops. True to his word, Benn had commissioned the coach and wagon division of the works to start construction of new cranes to assist with rerailing locomotives and rolling stock, to dealing with maintenance of way trains that ran from time to time on the railway.

In order to keep the new locomotives and wagons a secret, the Poniston 4-4-0’s that hadn’t met the cutters torch or had been rebuilt were allowed to run from Baltimare to Canterlot, and from Fillydelphia to Hollow Shade Junction, which was owned by the BNFR, but the EQN also had trackage rights to this station, which was only a stop on the way to the stations in Neighagra Falls and Manehattan. The station was only a four track station, with two platforms. Platform 1 dealt with the EQN’s trains, while Platform 2 saw the BNFR’s trains. The station itself looked of Victorian Era, with arched windows, and arch doorways. The only thing that looked remotely modern was the overpass that passengers used to move from platform to platform without setting hoof on the railway line.

Meanwhile, John was at the works in Baltimare, overseeing the construction of the B17’s. He and Benn had been thinking of naming the engines, but so far hadn’t thought of any suitable names for the engines. He was taken from his thoughts, when he heard Blueprint call him over to her office which was situated in a room overseeing the works. He headed up the stairs to the door and entered, to find Blueprint looking over some papers. “You wanted to see me Blueprint?” He asked as he shut the door.

“Yeah, I would’ve sent for Benn, but you’re the nearest human here,” Blueprint said, as she motioned for John to sit down. “I bet you’re wondering why I asked for you? Well, the answer is simple. Has anyone told you how radical these designs that you and Benn have asked us to build? I mean, honestly!” She raised her voice, tossing her arms up in exasperation. “Outside frames?! I mean have you ever heard of such nonsense? And why would we need goods engines when all we have and need are passenger engines to combat the EQN!” She finished, before turning her glance to the works where some B17’s were having their boilers tested for cracks. “Y’see. The EQN hasn’t exactly been fighting fair all the time, and sooner or later they’ll plant a spy in here to see our new design practices.”

John scoffed. “You’re joking right?” He asked. “That is a dirty, underhanded trick. But….” He said, trailing off. “It HAS happened a lot in our world. Where one company has planted spies in another company to copy designs and plans. There is only one….. THAT’S IT!!” He suddenly yelled in realization, before turning to Blueprint. “Are there any patent offices at all in Equestria?” He asked.

Blueprint raised an eyebrow. “Yes but I fail to see how Patent Offices could help with the problems at hand. Unless you’re planning to…” She trailed off thinking for a second, as John motioned her to continue. “Unless you’re planning to patent the designs!” She finished, glancing over at John, who just nodded and laughed. “That’s a brilliant idea! Why didn’t we think of it sooner?” She asked, moving to her desk before rummaging through some drawers. She came back up a few seconds later with a folder labeled, ‘Patent forms’.

John looked at the patent form. It was labelled, ‘Equestrian Provisional Patent Application.’ The paper itself looked very simple, asking for the name and information of the patentee, details of the invention, and a signature of the patentee. He looked up at Blueprint. “And I’m guessing that Benn and I would have to sign and explain the inventions that we would give to the patent office?” He asked, thinking of how many of the patent papers he and Benn would have to sign, which shockingly, was a lot.

Blueprint looked at the papers, then back at John. “I hope you two have applied for citizenship. Because only a citizen can be able to sign forms like these in Equestria. Besides, imagine if we had all these ideas of yours patented,” She said, her Ocean Blue eyes sparkling in wonder. “We could build all of these ideas of yours without the EQN getting in the way.”

John raised an eyebrow. “Oh,” He said, crossing his arms. “What happened to you saying that all of these ideas were ‘radical, and difficult’? He asked. But he wasn’t expecting what happened next.

Blueprint slowly turned her head towards John. “Forget what I said!” She yelled, lunging towards him. “I was hysterical! Now, you and Benn should start work on these patents and then go down to the patent office in Canterlot!” She grabbed the folder of patents and shoved them into John’s arms, who fell out of the chair. “Now get going!” She yelled again, enveloping John in her sea green magic aura, before nearly flinging him out of her office, down the stairs, and towards the workshop doors, before finally taking a deep breath and plunking down on her chair. “I really need to get a vacation…..” She breathed in relief, as she looked down at the workponies working on the engines.

Author's Note:

Shimmering Honor and I were discussing this one day, adding a forum post that has a whole list of the engines that are built in the story. So nobody gets confused on what is what. I will add it later when I decide to name and number engines in the story.
Proofread (as always) by Shimmering Honor