Chapter 1110 Dashu's First Train Trip
Chapter 1110 Dashu's First Train Trip (This chapter has been modified, and those who have subscribed will not be charged again)
When the railway line from Takumi County to the capital was opened to traffic, Luo Chong immediately had the idea of going to the capital to take a look.
Although the capital had been planned and built for nearly two years under his orders, especially the future new home palace was also there, Luo Chong had never visited it once. Now that the railway was finally opened to traffic, he would be sorry if he didn't go and take a look.
The railway from Takumi County to the capital is 367 kilometers long. Taking the current main locomotive of the Han tribe, the Endeavour, as an example, the operating speed is 25 kilometers per hour. Even if it runs at full speed without stopping all the way, it takes at least 15 hours to travel. It is the longest one-way railway line in the Han tribe.
Because the Endeavour is small in size and has a small boiler, it consumes only 400 kilograms of coal per 100 kilometers, and the coal and water car at the front of the locomotive can load at least one ton of coal at a time.
In other words, its self-sustaining capacity can run 500 kilometers on its own without stopping to add water or coal. Therefore, there is no need to set up stations in the middle of the railway from Takumi County to the capital. It is only necessary to add coal and water at the two terminal stations.
However, just in case, the design team of the railway still placed a station in the middle, that is, where the Youqiao immigrants lived.
The Youqiao immigrants were pulled here by the Jinwu Guards who escorted the craftsmen under Youzhi last summer. They were just a branch of the Youqiao family who migrated outward, with a total of only about 700 people. Later, Dashu transferred ten immigrants from Takumi County to teach them production and living techniques, and also to assimilate them as soon as possible.
Now the population composition here in the capital is relatively complex. Among them, there are more than 1,000 Jinwu Guards who are responsible for supervising the slaves to work, and the other largest part is slaves.
From the 3,000 slaves sent earlier, plus the 5,000 young and strong slaves sent from the north in the first half of this year, the number of slaves alone has reached 8,000.
In addition, there are several hundred craftsmen who have been sent here one after another, plus the more than 700 immigrants of the Qiao family. The total population of the capital has been maintained at over 10,000 people.
The food for these 10,000 people is provided by the grain tax collected by Takumi County, but vegetables cannot be transported over long distances, so they can only rely on the Qiao family who settled here.
The location of the Qiao family's residence, in relation to the capital, is similar to that of a farm outside the capital. It belongs to the suburbs of the capital and is still some distance away from the capital.
They have settled here for a year. In addition to cultivating their own land, they are mainly responsible for growing vegetables. In addition, there are official fields reclaimed here, all of which are planted with vegetables. They are usually responsible for providing vegetable supplies to the construction sites in the capital. In addition, the people here can also get an extra wage when cultivating official fields.
Before the train was opened, the construction site had to send people and vehicles to collect and transport vegetables every day. Now that the train is built, it is better to turn to the farm and take the vegetables with it when transporting building materials and food back and forth, saving manpower and transportation capacity at the capital construction site. Therefore, a station was added here.
At the same time, it is also for the train to have a place to repair and replenish supplies when it finds a fault midway.
After making up his mind to go to the capital for inspection, Luo Chong immediately summoned Dashu and asked him to start preparing for the trip.
It was such a long journey, and Luo Chong definitely couldn't take his family with him. The children were too young, and Tang Yao was just pregnant. They were not suitable for long train rides. Finally, Luo Chong talked to them and decided to go alone.
Of course, it was definitely impossible to say that he would go alone.
Luo Chong also called Dashu to go with him when he inspected the construction of the capital this time.
To be honest, although Dashu has been in charge of the logistical support for the construction of the capital in Takumi County, he has never seen what the capital looks like. This time Luo Chong asked him to go with him, and Dashu certainly would not miss this opportunity.
The trains are ready-made, so there is nothing to prepare. We only need to add a few passenger and freight carriages, but the journey this time is too long, nearly 400 kilometers, and it will take more than ten hours.
If we are delayed on the road for a while, it may take a whole day and night. Sitting on a narrow wooden hard seat for a whole day is simply torture.
Dashu was very thoughtful after receiving the order. He dispatched four passenger and freight carriages, three of which were used for passenger transport and one was used as a dining car.
The passenger carriages had also undergone a simple transformation. The chairs on the walls of the carriages were not put down, but some high-end chairs with armrests similar to "taishi chairs" were specially prepared. There were also two tables for dining, playing chess, drinking tea, reading and working. In addition, blankets and straw mats were prepared. If you were tired, you could lie on the floor in the carriage to rest. Because of the cold weather, a small charcoal stove was placed inside for boiling water and heating.
The carriage specially for Luo Chong was fully functional. The remaining two carriages for the guards were also simply transformed so that everyone could sit and lie down, and there were small tables for eating and reading.
However, they were all temporary modifications, which seemed a bit out of place and not safe enough. If it was a dedicated passenger carriage, the tables and chairs would definitely be nailed to the carriage to prevent them from moving.
It was not until mid-November of the second year of Da Ming that the train to the capital was finally ready.
In addition to the front of the train, this train has a total of 23 carriages. The last four carriages are passenger carriages. The front 19 carriages are also filled with food, iron ingots and stones, steel bars, cement and other building materials for the capital, as well as 500 boxes of beer brought by Luo Chong from Liuyang County to reward the Jinwu Guards and craftsmen here.
On November 18th, Luo Chong and Dashu, as well as several minor officials and Luo Chong's guards, boarded the train from Takumi County to the capital.
As soon as he got on the train, Luo Chong found all kinds of thoughtful special arrangements inside, and couldn't help but smile knowingly and praised.
"Dashu, it seems that you have a lot of experience in long-distance travel!"
Dashu scratched his head and said embarrassedly, "To reply to the leader, I have never taken a long-distance train, but I have had the experience of sailing on a ship, and I saw that the conditions in this train carriage are really simple, so I arranged it."
Luo Chong suddenly remembered a question when he heard this. Dashu seemed to have never taken a train before! ! !
Trains are a new thing that has only become popular in recent years. When trains were first built, only the county magistrates of the eight Hanyang counties in the north had ridden on the train with Luo Chong. At that time, Dashu had already been sent by him to be the county magistrate of Takumi County in the south, and he really had no chance to ride a train.
Later, trains began to be mass-produced and popularized. The first to be popularized were the iron and coal mines in Xingang County and Dongxin County. Later, they were popularized to Qian'an County and Chengkang County in the middle and lower reaches of the Liuyang River, which was managed by Youfu. Takuhai County in the south was the last to popularize the railway, and the railway from Takuhai County to the capital was only recently completed.
When the train was just shipped over, it was the first time that Dashu saw what a real train looked like. He got on the train and learned about it, but he had never been to the capital.
His mission in the south was very difficult. Now there were four counties in Takuhai County with a population of tens of thousands. At the same time, he was also responsible for the management of the eight counties of the Tang tribe across the river. He also had the task of transporting logistics supplies to the capital and Qiongzhou Island. The entire Han tribe's southern half of the country depended on Dashu.
Therefore, even if he wanted to take the train to the capital for two days, he didn't dare to do so. So until now, Dashu has never taken
a train. Thinking of this, Luo Chong suddenly sighed, patted Dashu on the shoulder and said, "Since you have never taken a train, take this opportunity to take one with me."
Dashu nodded, and then followed Luo Chong on the train. The guards behind him were already familiar with the train. They lined up skillfully to get on the train and found their seats.
Luo Chong brought Dashu to a table, and the two sat on the armchairs on one side. Dashu then asked Luo Chong.
"Chief, although I have never ridden a train, I also carefully learned about it from the technicians when this train first came, and I am familiar with its various functions.
"Although this railway is expensive, it is not very difficult to lay it. You just need to put down the sleepers and nail the rails.
"And the train above has a strong carrying capacity. It does not need food or fodder, let alone rest. As long as it is replenished with enough coal and clean water, it can run without sleep, and its speed is comparable to that of a war horse, and it will not get tired. It is really a magical tool for land transportation.
"But, why don't you popularize it more in the south, for example, the railway from Takumi County to the capital, although there are two routes, they are all single-line.
"And the transportation pressure on this section of Takumi County to the capital is very huge.
"I heard from You Zhi that the scale of the capital is far larger than any existing city in the Han tribe. Such a large-scale building complex requires a lot of building materials, manpower, material resources and food. In the past, it was because of insufficient materials that the construction progress of the capital was delayed. Now there are railways and trains, but it still feels insufficient.
"The capital city not only needs bricks and stones, but also a large amount of stone. Bricks and stones can be fired from local soil, but this stone is not available in the capital city, and even in Takumi County, it can only be mined and transported from Panshi County on the other side of the river. Under such circumstances, why doesn't the leader add two more lines to this road?"
Woo, woo, woo————
At this moment, the locomotive suddenly whistled, and everyone felt a rhythmic vibration, and the train began to slowly start and accelerate.
When the train reached the stage of uniform speed, Luo Chong stood up from the chair, came to the door of the carriage, looked outside and said to the tree.
"In fact, I am also clear about the situation you are talking about. If the capital city wants to build faster, the first thing to be satisfied is manpower and material resources, and these manpower and material resources need to be transported to reach the construction site in the capital city.
"I didn't say that we can't add railway lines. Isn't this starting from scratch? Let's get the train running first, and it's not too late to add lines later.
"Dashu, let me tell you, this narrow-gauge railway is very simple to lay, and it is also very easy to change the route. It's all about the efficiency of laying.
"At this stage, as long as we need it and can use it, we can lay as much as we want. It's not a difficult task. Anyway, they will all be demolished and rebuilt in the future."
Dashu was very happy when he first heard Luo Chong agree to add more railway lines, but when he heard Luo Chong say that they all had to be demolished and rebuilt, he was immediately confused.
Such a high-cost, convenient and easy-to-use railway, just demolished?
What the hell?!
He immediately asked in confusion, "Chief, aren't the current railways and trains very good? Why do we have to demolish them? Build them and then demolish them, demolish them and rebuild them again. Isn't this a waste of resources? !
"Even if our Han tribe is rich, there is no need to do this, right?!"
Luo Chong heard this and turned around to explain to Dashu.
"This is not a waste of resources, but an optimization and transformation. You haven't been with me for a long time, so you may not know that our institute already has the ability to manufacture heavy-duty locomotives.
"This heavy-duty locomotive is also called a wide-gauge railway. The one we use now is just a narrow-gauge railway with a track gauge of 75 centimeters. Each carriage is only twelve meters long and one meter six wide. It consumes a lot of fuel and has poor transportation capacity. It can only be regarded as a transitional model.
"The place where it should go most is actually to haul ore in the mine. It is not the most suitable passenger and freight railway at all. This is why I didn't ask people to make passenger carriages specifically.
"In the future, we will definitely build heavy-duty railways. By then, the railway gauge will be widened to one meter and eighty, and the specifications of the carriages will be five or six times larger than now. At that time, only one carriage will be four meters and three meters wide, about five meters high, and can reach a length of thirty-four meters. The transportation capacity will increase several times.
"With the current seating arrangement, a carriage can only carry 50 people, and the space is not large. But if it is replaced with a wide-gauge railway, even if an aisle is left in the middle of a carriage, three rows of seats can be put down on each side, so that six people can sit in a row. Even if a water room, a crew room, a washroom and a toilet are separated at the front and back of the carriage, this carriage can still carry more than 250 people, which is five times the current passenger capacity, and the riding environment is more comfortable.
"Moreover, the larger carriage space can be converted into a sleeper car. The carriage can be arranged like a passenger ship cabin, with single beds on the upper, middle and lower floors. Some high-end compartments can also be customized. A carriage can leave an aisle on the side, and all the compartments can be spread out along one side. Such a carriage can be partitioned into at least ten high-end compartments.
"This is only for passenger transport. For freight transport, the wider-gauge carriages with larger space can carry five or six times more cargo, and the speed can be even faster. This is the railway I want to popularize in the Han tribe.
"As for the narrow-gauge trains we are using now, after they are eliminated in the future, they can all be put into use in the mines. How can it be said to be a waste of resources!"
After hearing Luo Chong's explanation, Da Shu's mouth opened wider and wider, and he had become stunned. What Luo Chong was thinking at this time was that
the most suitable place for the construction of high-speed railways in the Han tribe is the plain route from Takuhai County to the capital. If a high-speed railway is not built, wouldn't it be a waste of the unique geographical environment here?!
(End of this chapter)
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