Railway Adventure: a New Generation

by The Blue EM2

Chapter 10-Heave Ho! Haul Together!

If you had been present in Maretime Bay on a cool summer morning, just as the sun was beginning to rise above the ocean where it had taken its rest, you would have been the witness to something very peculiar. Unlike the normal relatively quiet and sleepy existance that Equestria's friendship capital enjoyed, there was something different that morning.

A massive army of Earth Ponies had descended on the town, and had established a work camp at the former transfer yard. Lorries and cranes were being positioned ready for the off, and the place sounded to the reverberation of engines and the gentle hissing of contractor's locomotives being brought up to steam. Behind them were several panels of sleepers and rail, as well as dump trucks loaded with ballast and supplies for the construction of the line. Temporary houses were being offloaded from trailers and placed around the site.

"What's with all the temporary housing?" Hitch asked, as he walked through the scene with Sunny by his side.

"There isn't enough space in Maretime Bay to house all the workers needed for construction," Sunny explained. "The construction leader explained this to me. Instead, the company prefers to take all the houses with it and move them as work continues. Think of it like a series of mobile homes. The Marestream's the same basic idea; a mobile home for working away from your normal home."

"That makes sense," Hitch said. "I wish it wasn't so smelly though. Look at the sky!"

The normally orange skies were quickly filling with smoke from all the construction machinery, and workers weren't exactly doing much to limit emissions from their machines. The first of the contractor's diesels roared into life and was attached to some flatbeds loaded with rail, preparing to move off.

Before work began, a pony in a hard hat and overalls stepped onto a makeshift podium. "Right, listen up you lot!" she said. "We've been contracted to build this section of railroad, as you undoubtedly already know. Although the work should be completed at a reasonable speed, doing the job properly is more important than doing it quickly- we don't want a repeat of the Highway 14 incident, do we?"

There were murmers and shaking of heads. It seemed none of them wanted to remember that particular day. So they didn't, and instead they went back to listening to the pony on the podium.

"We have a list of targets to complete. Remember that to complete construction on time we should be building an average of sixty miles a day. This means eight hour shifts, working day and night." She paused. "This won't be easy. Matter of fact this is the toughest construction job this company has ever received. But I know you won't let me down. Each of you must do your very best and use your skills to their maximum effect, understood!"

"Yes ma'am!" the workers replied.

"I thought so. Hop to it! This railroad won't build itself!"

"Unlike some things," Sprout said, who had suddenly joined them.

"You took your sweet time," Hitch said.

"My alarm didn't go off!" Sprout protested. "Clearly it's broken. I may ask Izzy to fix if when she gets back as the local clockmaker's shut for the weekend."

"What did you mean by some things?" Sunny asked.

"Didn't the Brighthouse build itself?" Sprout asked. "I mean, this magic stuff can seemingly do anything."

"Not sure where you got that idea from," Sunny replied. "It was built by a construction company and outfitted according to our needs and specifications. Imagine us trying to build something! It'd be complete chaos!"

"Speaking of chaos," Hitch said, "we already seem to have run into problems."

And they had. "Boss?" shouted a truck driver. "We need to stabilise this ground! At the moment the trucks are sinking into a bog and can't get moving again!"

As if to demonstrate his point, one of the dump trucks got stuck, its driving wheels skidding as it tried to get moving. Mud flew through the air and splattered into everything.

Sunny removed some of the mud from her muzzle. "Why not lighten the load?" she suggested. "If the trucks are too heavy to get over the boggy ground, use more trucks and have each carry less stuff!"

"That's not a bad idea, actually," the forepony said.

"We've got another problem," said another engineer. "This bridge they've asked us to put in? Our cranes aren't big enough to move it as one component. We'll need to take the bridge to pieces and reassemble it on site."

The forepony rolled her eyes. "What else can go wrong?"

---

Several thousand miles away, another engineering crew was getting to work. The large bridge that Sunny had discovered was considered a priority structure for restoration, as years out of use had presumably not been kind to the bridge. As a result, engineers had been dispatched from Bridlewood to take a closer look at what was there.

At the current moment, Izzy was looking up at the works, with Misty next to her. As both of them were unicorns, it was argued that it made sense for them to join unicorn construction efforts. This was despite the fact that both of them lacked any real engineering expertise, and were largely just watching the experts work on the structure.

Izzy took a sip of a large mug of tea whilst looking up. "Nice brew, this!" she said. "Earth ponies really are quite good at tea leaf cultivation." She glanced over to Misty. "Want some?"

"No thanks, that brew's a bit strong for my taste," Misty replied. "So, any clue what they're doing?"

Izzy put down the mug and picked up a pair of binoculars. "They seem to be looking at metal things and tapping them," she said.

"What does that mean?"

"I have no idea!" Izzy put the binoculars down. "I don't really use metal in unicycling. It's not malleable enough. Would you be interested in going up there on the platform?"

Misty shook her head. "Not really. I'm acrophobic, which means I have a fear of heights."

Izzy nodded in agreement. "Well, at least you're nice and safe down here- wait! It seems something important has happened!"

The platform which the inspector was on, which was connected to a truck, began to descend, and soon was on the ground. "Well?" a worker called.

"Got some bad news," the inspector said, adjusting his helmet around his horn. "There's no way that bridge is taking a train. It's pretty weak in several places, and we'd need a lot of money to fix it. It'd be easier trying to end the mayonnaise flood."

"BING BONG!" said several voices at once.

Misty looked confused. "What?"

"I'll explain later," Izzy replied, before trotting over. "So, it's too expensive to renovate the bridge so it can take the weight of a train, correct?"

"Precisely," the inspector replied. "We'd need to replace most of it in order to be certain it's safe to use. By that point it would be simpler to just build a new one."

Izzy blinked. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said, it would be simpler to just build a new one," the Inspector repeated. "Probably a lot cheaper, too. But you're not suggesting that-"

"It's a brilliant idea!" Izzy said. "Instead of investing loads of resources in repairing an old thing, build a new thing for less! It's perfect!" Izzy switched to her phone and set it to dial.

There was a momentary pause. "You have reached the voicemail of Zipp Storm. The pony you wish to speak to is unavailable right now. Please leave a message after the tone. To record the message again, press the Hash key."

There was a beep, and Izzy nearly dropped the phone in surprise. She quickly recovered, though. "Hi Zipp! Any chance of some spare steel going around? We could really use some girders and nuts and bolts for constructing a new bridge next to the old one. Hope to hear from you soon! Bye!"

She ended the call and popped it down. "I'm still not used to leaving voicemails. Telephone systems have gotten so complicated recently."

The inspector looked. "Well?" he asked. "Any news on resources?"

"Not yet," Izzy replied. "I asked Zipp to ring me back with any information. But right now we could be doing other things."

"Such as?"

"Figuring out where to put the other bridge, of course! There's gotta be a pony here who can use CADD software, right?"

"We are engineers," said one near the cherry picker. "It's in the job training, really. I'll get my laptop and start sketching a plan for your monitoring."

Izzy glanced back. "Productive use of time, eh?" She smiled. "Time flies when having fun!"

Suddenly, her phone buzzed again. She picked it up, and saw it was Zipp calling her back. "Do you mind if I take this?"

"Go ahead," Misty replied.

"Hi Zipp! What's cooking?"

"Not much," Zipp replied. "Sorry, but I can't help you right now. We've got a serious mess to untangle at our end..."

Comments

[The Blue EM2]

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Newly baked chapter, fresh from the oven!

[Comickook]

REALLY good job on the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up here. And, yeah, the description of the assorted complications concerning getting the train back up and running was quite well done, as was Sprout's misunderstanding of the construction of the Brighthouse (and Lampshading of the truth of the matter) and Izzy and Misty's dialogue (with Misty admitting to being afraid of heights and the reaction to her use of the word "mayonnaise" [ironically the only unicorn "jinx word" left following the return of magic and the unicorns making peace with the Pegasi]).

VERY much looking forward to more of this.

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

The normally orange skies were quickly filling with smoke from all the construction machinery, and workers weren't exactly doing much to limit emissions from their machines. The first of the contractor's diesels roared into life and was attached to some flatbeds loaded with rail, preparing to move off.

Ponies are sure gonna complain about that soon.

"We've got another problem," said another engineer. "This bridge they've asked us to put in? Our cranes aren't big enough to move it as one component. We'll need to take the bridge to pieces and reassemble it on site."

Well that's just great.

Izzy put down the mug and picked up a pair of binoculars. "They seem to be looking at metal things and tapping them," she said.

Probably checking its thickness or if it's stabile enough to hold a train and it's consist.

Misty shook her head. "Not really. I'm acrophobic, which means I have a fear of heights."

Same here, I don't like being high up. I can handle it sometimes, but it's it's too high for my liking, I panick and get scared easily.

"Got some bad news," the inspector said, adjusting his helmet around his horn. "There's no way that bridge is taking a train. It's pretty weak in several places, and we'd need a lot of money to fix it. It'd be easier trying to end the mayonnaise flood."

First off, damn it, second.
It's over the mayonnaise mention.

She ended the call and popped it down. "I'm still not used to leaving voicemails. Telephone systems have gotten so complicated recently."

You'll get used to it.

"Not much," Zipp replied. "Sorry, but I can't help you right now. We've got a serious mess to untangle at our end..."

That's just nice.

[The Blue EM2]

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Bridlewoodstock would imply there are many other jinxies yet unexplored, considering the havoc the Troggles were able to cause. But yes, it was quite fun referencing that early fantheory about the origins of the Brighthouse.

[The Blue EM2]

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1. Construction is messy. When Britain's motorways were being built, the most common complaint was noise, followed by the conduct of workers themselves.

2. Indeed.

3. That's exactly what's being done. No offense to Americans, but a lot of American railroad bridges were built extremely cheaply and needed to be constantly replaced. A notable exception were many early B&O bridges, which were built of stone and are taking trains that way several hundred times what they were built to handle.

4. I find an effective means for dealing with acrophobia is to distract myself.

5. BING BONG!

6. Hopefully.

7. It sure is.

[shining paladin]

tea /coffee is very important for morale great chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter

[The Blue EM2]

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The old joke goes that tea is the fuel that kept the army moving.