Chapter 356 Railway
On the second day, after a night's rest and a simple meal in the cafeteria of Anka Village, everyone continued on their journey. As the carriage started moving, Anka Village gradually faded from everyone's sight.
Gradually, the farmlands and plantations came to an abrupt end and turned into a desolate savanna. The straight gravel road in the wilderness looked particularly abrupt against the backdrop of the surrounding wilderness. This feeling was like the subway station built in the farmland, making people feel lonely.
I don't know how long I walked, but a long object suddenly appeared on the south side of the road. From a distance, it looked like a river lying on the horizon and extending east and west, but it was raised on the ground and was very regular. It should be something man-made.
As the carriage continued to move forward, everyone felt more and more that the object was unusual. It gradually moved closer and closer to the road, and it seemed as if there was no end.
When the building was finally parallel to the road, everyone could see its full picture. Two ballasts made of crushed stones were laid on the ground, running parallel to each other and about ten meters wide. Thick, trimmed wooden strips were placed on the stones, and on the wooden strips there seemed to be thick iron bars with red rust.
Everyone started talking: "What is that?"
Aryan explained to them: "That's the railway."
"railway?"
"Yes, it is a kind of rail transportation. Like roads, it can transport people and goods. However, it is not a horse-drawn carriage that runs on it, but a steam locomotive with a cargo box behind it. All you need to know is that it is a road."
"Mr. Aryan! That thing called railway across the street, the iron bars on it are the source of its name, right? But can cars really run on it?"
Aryan: "Yes, but they are not iron bars, but rails. You should be familiar with rails. They are very common in some mines, but they used to be wooden rails, and they were used to transport minerals to mine carts. Later, the British took the lead in improving this type of rail, and then applied it to land, thus forming railways. In fact, there are things with similar principles in the Far East, but those are concave, and the wheels run in the ruts (Qinchi Road), while the railway is convex, and the wheels are specially designed to run in the middle of two rails."
"What are the wood and gravel under the rails for? Can't they be laid directly on the road surface?"
"That wood is called a sleeper, and the stones at the bottom are called ballast. Their function is to bear the pressure of the rails. The steam locomotive is quite heavy. If there is nothing underneath to lay the pressure on the rails, the rails will cut into the soil like a knife cutting tofu."
"So that's how it is. Now we can understand!"
Aryan went on to say: “Not only that, ballast can also buffer shock, stabilize the roadbed, reduce noise, and quickly drain water.”
"How much pig iron is needed for such a road?"
Aryan: "I don't know, but it's inevitable. This kind of railway is often calculated in kilometers. Many railways in Europe and America are calculated in thousands of miles."
Aryan's words caused everyone to be shocked. They really couldn't imagine how much iron this thing called railway would consume.
By 1870, the total length of railways in the world exceeded 210,000 kilometers. The United States and Germany were emerging powers in railway construction, Britain and France played a stable role, and the relatively backward Austro-Hungarian Empire and Tsarist Russia also made great progress in railway construction.
The 60 kilometers of the First Railway in East Africa is nothing in the world. It is even behind many colonies. Moreover, after the completion of the First Railway, it has not been opened to traffic so far. It has been idle for some time since its completion.
So some people noticed this and asked: "Mr. Aryan! Then why don't we see the steam locomotive you mentioned running on it?"
"Let me ask Mr. Viricks about this question first." Then Aryan turned around and communicated with Viricks in German.
After a while.
"Okay, now I know the general situation. The railway standards of the Kingdom of East Africa are different from those of most countries in the world, so there are some technical deficiencies. This is the result of the railway in front of us, which is called the First Railway in East Africa. After the First Railway was built, it has been waiting for the locomotive to be developed. But just now, Mr. Alex told me that the finished locomotive has completed the final test in Austria and will be officially shipped from Austria to East Africa for trial operation next month."
In the end, the Hechingen Vienna Energy and Power Company persuaded Ernst to maintain the original plan. After all, everyone had worked so hard for so long and the results were about to come out. How could they change their minds at will?
Where is Austria? No one knows, but according to Aryan, this railway is now just for show.
"Mr. Aryan, the function of this railway sounds no different from that of a highway. Why do you want to build a railway, which is thankless? I think it would be better to use the spare money to build a few more highways."
Aryan: "Then you are totally wrong. Railways and roads are very different. Let me tell you this. The horse-drawn carriages we make now rely on horses for power. Horses need to consume food, eat, drink, defecate, urinate, and sleep. Their physical strength will also be consumed over the distance, and they can't pull much. But railways don't have so many problems. The locomotives running on the railways rely on steam engines for power. You should have seen how powerful steam engines are. Steam engines only need people to keep adding coal to the boiler to generate power continuously."
We all came to East Africa by ship, so we have seen the big chimney of the steamship.
"Mr. Aryan, that big chimney on the ship!"
Aryan: "Yes, that's the thing. Just like when water boils, steam will hit the lid of the kettle. The steam will form high pressure in a confined space, repeatedly pushing the piston to move. The piston drives the gears and crankshaft, and finally makes the wheels turn. If you have seen the steam engines used for survival in textile factories, you can probably understand its operating principle more intuitively."
Textile factories are indeed the places where steam engines are most easily accessible, especially in the Far East. In fact, the first railway in the Far East was built by British capitalist Durand outside Xuanwumen in Beijing in 1865. The British "used a strange car to run on the railway at a very high speed" to win the recognition of the Qing government. However, this railway not only did not receive praise, but also caused panic among the Qing rulers. Therefore, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the commander of the concession army to demolish it on the grounds that "it would harm my fields and houses and hinder my feng shui." China's first railway died in this way.
This railway existed for a very short time, so many people have not seen it. On the contrary, there are many textile factories in the Far East, but the impact they bring to people is not as shocking as that of the railway.
When seeing a machine in a factory that runs on steam engines for the first time, most people would exclaim, "Excellent craftsmanship." But if seeing a steam locomotive for the first time, it would trigger fear. The British writer Dickens had very complicated feelings about the railway. He was impressed by the great power of the railway, but also felt fear for this uncontrollable force. In Dombey and Son, Dickens described the powerful destructive power of the railway by recording the changes in "Stargard": "Traces of earthquakes can be seen everywhere." Using "earthquake" as a metaphor, the author vividly shows the sense of destruction brought by the construction of the railway, and also implies the lasting damage that is difficult to restore to its original state after the disaster. The author also uses negative words such as "crumbling", "messy", "mixed", and "dilapidated" to make readers feel the sense of fragmentation and chaos brought by the construction of the railway, giving people a huge visual and psychological impact.
(End of this chapter)
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