• Published 11th Oct 2017
  • 620 Views, 12 Comments

Wood and Steel - CodenameOne



Two conductors of the Royal Rail Service are stranded in the woods when their train runs out of fuel, and through their journey to find a way to get moving again, find love in the unlikeliest of places.

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3: Nothing Doing

After returning to the train and telling Axle the situation Drawbar decided to retire to the comfort car, electing to heed Willow Whisper's advice and taking a shower to clean himself of the soot and grime that seems to accumulate when working on an engine. He sighed contentedly as the hot water washed over his brown fur, matting his auburn mane and releasing the tension in his muscles. Drawbar was convinced that there was no better feeling than that of a hot shower after a long working day, and every time he got to leave the cabin for the day and stand under that warm current it only served to affirm his belief.

After ten minutes Drawbar had soaked, lathered, and rinsed himself and was coming out when he heard the traincar's door open and Axle shout "hey, brother, one of them ponies from the mill has come on down!" Drawbar about jumped out of his coat at the sudden call from his brother.

"Sweet Celestia, Axle, I'm not even dressed!" Drawbar complained, dripping water onto the floor. He pulled a towel down from the rafters and began to dry off, dragging the towel vigorously across his body to wick away the moisture. He heard Axle scoff behind him and could almost feel him roll his eyes.

"We ain't never wearing any clothes anyway, ya clown. Anyway, like I was saying, one of them mill colts has come on down. Said his name was Willow" Axle declared.

"Alright, alright, I'll be out in a moment" Drawbar assured, finishing drying himself off and tossing the towel up and over the rim of the shower. The comfort car was split up into three sections, with the beds up at the front, by the door, the kitchen in the middle, and the bathroom at the back. With space as limited as it was, the shower was simply a cylindrical capsule with clear glass sliding doors. The toilet and sink were crammed together opposite the shower. To get to the caboose when the train was in motion, Drawbar and Axle had to trot along narrow walkways on the outside of the comfort car. Never an appealing prospect, but with a decade on trains with the RRS they knew how to get around safely.

Satisfied he was completely dry Drawbar went up to his bunk at the front of the traincar and popped his footlocker open, pulling out a clean conductor hat and pulling it onto his head. He slid the door to the car open and stepped outside into the fading light of dusk, seeing Willow Whisper down on the ground near the engine.

"Howdy there, friend!" Willow called out, waving a hoof. Drawbar dropped down onto the gravel and trotted up to him, a professional smile on his face.

"Hello, Mr. Whisper. What can I help you with?" Drawbar asked, causing Willow to guffaw excitedly.

"Oh, goodness no, Mr. Whisper was my granddaddy! Just Willow, thank ya" he said. "Anyway, I was curious, so I thought I'd come on down here and see ya'lls engine for myself. She's a mighty fine locomotive, Drawbar, though she's a mite shorter than I thought she'd be, being a train and all."

"That's what everypony says. We're posted to a smaller detail in the Royal Rail Service, so we never need as much space or as many boxcars as the engines assigned to the bigger cities. As a matter of fact, the way the system works is--" Drawbar stopped himself when he realized he was about to start babbling about trains and the way the rail line worked, rubbing the back of his head with a hoof. "Well, come to think of it, I doubt you'd be much interested in hearing about trains."

Willow shook his head. "Oh no sir, I don't mind none at'tall. I'm actually a mite curious about how all this works. We ain't never seen much trains around before, so on the rare occasion ma brother and I get into Baltimare and see the locomotives they're always somethin' of a curiosity t' us" Willow explained.

Drawbar blinked, taken aback. "Well alright then, I suppose I could take some time to tell you about trains. Not like I got much else to be doing right now. Why don't you come on up onto the train and I'll show you around" Drawbar told the mill buck. WIllow's face brightened up like that of a little colt's in the middle of the Crystal Empire, and Drawbar thought he was liable to fall over he looked so excited, but he stood up and followed the conductor just fine as he trotted up the engine, hoisting himself up the very narrow stairway leading up to the control cabin.

"This here's the control cabin, where we 'conduct' the train. Can't really go anywhere but where the tracks take you, so we make sure the train stays at a level speed so she doesn't derail--ah, fall off the tracks--and crash. It's also where we control the brakes, but outside of all that there really isn't much else to do in here besides take in the scenery. Down these stairs," Drawbar said, popping open the hatch that led down into the firebox, "is where the coal furnace is. We keep the furnace stocked with coal to burn, and the heat from the fire boils water in the boiler. The boiled water produces steam, which travels down the steam pipes and into the steam chests adjacent to the cylinders of the engine. The steam chests are connected to the piston cylinders at the top and bottom, and the alternating flow of steam pushes the pistons up and down, powering the engine and producing locomotion."

Drawbar closed the hatch to the firebox and turned back to Willow, who nodded. "Ah think I get it. What ya'll is saying is that heat and water produce pressurized steam, and is fed into tha engine's pistons. I'm guessing that tha pistons are attached to a crankpin on tha axles, which acts on tha pulleys on the wheels to make 'em spin" Willow said.

Drawbar arched an eyebrow, impressed. "Pretty knowledgeable for somepony who rarely sees a train."

Willow shrugged. "A machine's a machine. Tha mill's running on a similar system. Tha river doesn't turn the wheel anymore, we've gotta furnace for that. That's why ma daddy brings coal on back from town; heat and water produce steam, which pushes on pistons connected t' bars that push and pull the saw up and down to cut tha logs in half. T'aint all that different from what ya'll are running."

"Hmm, maybe tomorrow you can show us around the mill" Drawbar replied, turning around and opening the door on the back of the cabin, stepping out onto the walkway and missing Willow's smile. The mill colt followed Drawbar out onto the walkway, following him as he went left and back towards the other boxcars. "Right back here is the cargo car, where we store all the boxes of goods we pick up and take from here to there. She's empty right now, so we're heading on back to the comfort car. A ladder on each end of the cargo car allows us to head up on top of the boxcar, in case we need to head back to one of the other cars while the train's in motion."

Willow paused. "Wait, ya'll move around on tha roofs of train cars while it's movin'? Ya'll must be pretty darn brave to be doin' that! I'd be scared stiff I had t' do that!"

Drawbar shrugged as he dropped down to the gravel, slowly trotting back to the comfort car. "After so many years on the job, you don't even think about it anymore."

As they came up to the comfort car Drawbar showed Willow the layout and allowed him to poke around. The comfort car was fairly mundane and didn't have many interesting bits and baubles as the other cars, so Drawbar knew it wasn't as interesting for somepony like Willow to look around in. Although Willow did ask how he and his brother were able to live in such a confined space and, as before, Drawbar had the same answer for him.

"When you've been on the job this long, well..."

Finally, they came up to the caboose, and Drawbar opened the door, allowing Willow to step inside the much smaller car. "In here is the control system for the brakes, which are attached to the wheels on this car, and various systems like the hot water tank for our shower and sinks. It's a bit of a mess of pipes, cables, and cords, but she's an important part of the train. Without her, we wouldn't be able to stop!" Drawbar said with a grin. Willow took a moment to inspect everything before turning back to face Drawbar.

"This is all mighty interesting, Drawbar! Ma brother's gonna be mighty jealous when ah tell 'im that I got t' take a look at this here train up close and personal without his knowing!" Willow said with a full smile, his pearly whites gleaming in the fading light.

Drawbar was intrigued. "You came down here without inviting your brother?"

"Yes'um, Drawbar, ah sure did! Why I--" Willow stopped, realizing the implications of Drawbar's question. The smile quickly faded from his expression, and he grew visibly nervous.

"Why did you do that?"

"W-Well, uh, ah was just a mite c-curious and ah figured ma brother wouldn't be much interested" Willow stammered out, rubbing the back of his head. Drawbar was a little curious about why he was acting so skittish all of a sudden, but decided not to press the issue. Instead, he let Willow continue. "Ah was just s-so intrigued by ya'll when ya'll came up on our mill, out of the blue all suddenly like. We don't get much visitors out where we are and ma brother and I don't go into the city much often so it gets a mite, um...l-lonely..."

Drawbar nodded knowingly and smiled, opening the door to the caboose and allowing the cool, now night, air to flow in. "Well I hope you had fun learning about our train, Willow! My brother and I will be back up on that hill tomorrow so you can show us around the mill!"

Drawbar could've sworn he saw Willow's already light-colored face go even paler, but Willow nodded all the same and trotted out of the caboose, Drawbar locking it behind him. "Uh, y-yessir, we would be mighty h-happy to show ya'll around the mill tomorrow. G-Goodnight, now!" Willow nearly yelled before taking off at a gallop down the tracks towards the mill. Drawbar calmly dropped down to the gravel and headed back up to the control cabin, stepping inside as his brother picked up a book he had sitting on the console.

"I saw that mill colt go running. What did ya'll do to scare the poor buck off like that? Tell him to clean the brake levers?" Axle teased.

Drawbar grinned and shook his head, looking up and catching the last glimpse of Willow for the night, watching him wistfully as he bound up the tracks, around the bend, and out of sight.

"I think he likes me."