Chapter 926 Monsters Out of the
Cage With a bang, two rails were thrown heavily to the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust. The workers who had only walked a few hundred meters were already exhausted and collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath. Fortunately,
the supervisor who followed closely behind them hurried over and ordered the person in charge of logistics to bring them mung bean soup for them to replenish their energy.
Then the supervisor said to them, "If you think it's too heavy, then we will move one at a time, but let me tell you first, today only our three villages will be responsible for moving the rails, a total of 200 rails, and we have to move them before dark. Everyone, be prepared, and we will start rotating in each village tomorrow."
When everyone heard this, they breathed a sigh of relief. They were really worried that they would be asked to carry it for a whole day. Wouldn't they be really exhausted?
On the other side, it was not easy to carry the sleepers. Although there were horse carriages to pull them back and forth, the weight of the sleepers was not light. The solid wooden squares were one meter and two meters long, and they weighed dozens of kilograms. They had to carry them up and down. At the same time, they were also responsible for tying the two ends of the sleepers with wire. Fifty people were responsible for this work, and there were nearly two thousand sleepers per kilometer, which was also not easy.
If carrying rails and moving sleepers were hard work, then fixing rails was a physical and technical job.
The workers in the other two villages, a total of ten teams, each team selected a team leader and a squad leader, a total of twenty people were following the craftsmen sent by Lin Fei to learn how to fix the railway. Then, after these twenty people learned it, they were asked to bring four people each, so that it would be convenient and quick to learn.
"Everyone, look carefully. This row of black wood on the roadbed is called sleepers. Before you start working, use this long-headed hammer to measure the distance between the sleepers. If it is not in place, use the hammer to tap lightly from both sides until the distance is exactly the same as the length of the hammer head.
"Then take this black rubber pad, which is made of a mixture of hemp, asphalt and rubber. Put it where the sleepers are placed on the rails, and then put a piece of this steel plate seat on the rubber pad and align the two. "
The craftsman who was in charge of teaching them the technology placed a one-centimeter-thick forged steel plate on the rubber pad. The rubber pad mainly played the role of cushioning and increasing friction, so as to prevent the rails from shaking left and right on the sleepers.
There was a slot in the middle of the forged steel plate track seat, which could hold the bottom of the rail in the slot to prevent the rails from shaking. There were three holes on each side of the extra steel plates on both sides of the slot, which were used to hammer in spikes.
Several craftsmen first taught them to position the sleepers, and then placed a rubber pad and a steel plate track seat on them, and then directed everyone to lift a rail onto the sleepers together, and then continued to teach them the next steps.
"Watch carefully. After putting the rail in place, insert the rail spike into the hole of the plate base. Press the side with the nail cap on the base of the rail. Then use a hammer to hammer it in. Hammer two on each side to clamp the rail from both sides. Then hammer another nail into the hole outside the base. Nail this steel plate to the sleeper. Everyone, watch me do it first."
As the craftsman spoke, he told the workers to make the circle a little bigger, step back two steps to make room for themselves, and then check the distance to the sleepers. After fine-tuning, stand the rail spike in the reserved hole on the steel plate, and then swing the sledgehammer a few times to hammer a finger-thick rail spike into the sleeper.
Railroad spikes are generally flat-headed and not sharp, so when they are hammered in, the fibers of the wood will be broken together. This way, the sleepers will not be cracked. If pointed nails are used, the sleepers will definitely be split.
The craftsman demonstrated while introducing the hammering method.
Although the railroad spike is large, it also has a nail cap, which is the flat object protruding from the end of the nail. However, unlike ordinary nails, only one side of the railroad spike has a nail cap that protrudes outward, and the purpose is to use it to hold down the edge of the rail. If
you want to use such a nail to clamp the track, you have to slant it slightly inward when nailing it, so that the nails on both sides can bite the track more tightly. After all the twelve railroad spikes on a sleeper are nailed, the craftsman takes out a few paper clip-shaped curved spring buckles and then says to everyone again.
"Everyone, watch, after the railroad spikes are nailed, use this clip to clamp one at the connection between each rail and the sleeper, clamp it directly at an angle perpendicular to the rail, and then hammer it down with a hammer, and the work on this sleeper is done.
There are more than 180 sleepers to nail for each section of rail. Now you can do it yourself according to the method I said. If you don't know how to do it, you can ask again.
Remember, you guys must learn it, because you will be responsible for teaching the same group of people this technology. If you can't learn it, you should know the consequences, right? "
After the craftsmen finished teaching the twenty sergeants and squad leaders, they were asked to start working immediately, in groups of two, starting from both ends of a sleeper at the same time, so that the construction would be faster.
They started construction from the part extending from the factory and the joint they had just laid.
The twenty people lined up and began to correct the spacing between the sleepers, and then began to hammer in the spikes, and then used spring buckles to completely clamp the track.
Several craftsmen stood by and patrolled back and forth. If they found that someone was not nailing well or got the order wrong, they would personally guide on the spot. By the time they had nailed the first 100-meter-long section of rails, this group of people had also figured out the basic procedures and operating skills.
Then these squad leaders and sergeants returned to their respective teams and began to explain the process, techniques and precautions of the track installation to their team members. In this way, the two installation teams of a total of 100 people in the two villages began to install slowly.
By the time everyone had installed 500 meters of rails, the 100 installers had basically mastered the steps and processes, as well as After figuring out the precautions, everyone started to install the track faster. As long as the sleepers and rails were in place, it would only take about ten minutes for a hundred people to install a 100-meter-long section of rail.
It was like this until the afternoon. The six villages that were paving the railway had already laid the railway 1.6 kilometers from the locomotive factory. It was at this time that Lin Fei, who was in charge of the entire project, decided to temporarily stop the paving team. After receiving reports from several craftsmen, he discussed it with the leader and finally decided to agree with the craftsmen's suggestion. Now the train was driven out, and the necessary materials were pulled, and the track was laid while moving forward.
Now that 1.6 kilometers had been laid, if the original method was still followed, fifty people would move one rail at a time on foot. Not to mention whether it would be tiring, just walking back and forth would waste a lot of time, and the efficiency was really too low.
Luo Chong asked Lin Fei about the situation of the Endeavour prototype and whether the train carriage could take on this task. The answer he got was yes.
The Endeavour prototype was completed a week ago, and even painted black and red. As for the carriages that carry the rails, there are no ready-made ones.
According to the calculation that the width of the carriage is 2 to 2.5 times the track gauge, the width of the carriages used on this railway with a track gauge of only 75 cm is about 1.5 to 1.8 meters wide. In order to save costs and improve the stability of the car body, Luo Chong set the width of the car at 1.6 meters. If this width is used for passenger transportation, three seats can be placed side by side.
According to the calculation that the length of the carriage is seven to eight times the width, the length of a carriage with a width of 1.6 meters is between 11.2 meters and 12.8 meters. Luo Chong simply rounded it up and set the length of the carriage to 12 meters.
Therefore, the passenger and freight carriages manufactured by the locomotive factory before were all made according to the width of 1.6 meters and the length of 12 meters. However, the carriages used to transport goods have carriage walls on all four sides, which limits the length of the load. It is possible to transport those scattered sleepers, but it is obviously impossible to transport a hundred-meter-long rail.
In order to transport rails, at least eight carriages are needed, and they must be flatbed cars, so that the rails can pass through eight carriages and be placed on the flatbed.
There are no such flatbed carriages in the locomotive factory now, but fortunately they have produced many semi-finished freight carriages, that is, there are only two front and rear wheel frames, and then the beams of the carriage floor are installed on the wheel frames, but there is no carriage floor, let alone the standing carriage walls. Standing on the beam, you can see the track below.
In other words, the keel and ribs that have just been laid for the carriage have not yet been covered with meat and skin.
Such carriages are naturally not suitable for loading ore or transporting people, and they can't even load sleepers, but they can load rails. Anyway, that thing is long, stretching from carriage No. 1 to carriage No. 8. Even if there are holes underneath, it won't leak.
Lin Fei, Luo Chong and several researchers of the train project discussed it and finally made a plan to drive the Endeavour prototype out, hang eight semi-finished carriage trusses on the back to carry rails in the open air, and then hang eight complete freight carriages, filled with eight carriages of sleepers, and finally hang four passenger and freight carriages to carry accessories such as spikes, rail seats, rubber pads, as well as tools such as hammers, shovels, picks, and personnel responsible for paving the road.
Lin Fei and a group of craftsmen and researchers from the institute were very excited. The train they produced was finally going to go out. Although it was destined to run less than ten kilometers today, after all, it was only responsible for pulling rails, but at least they could finally see this little guy go out, and everyone was still very excited.
When the Endeavour prototype was launched for the first time, Lin Fei volunteered to be the first driver. He walked around the front of the train and directed the craftsmen to check everywhere. He added oil where it was needed and coal and water where it was needed. He also personally checked various control systems and then started to light the boiler.
The Endeavour locomotive was very small. After all, it was only half a person's height, and the driving position was not large either. Therefore, this model did not have any configurations for drivers, co-drivers, and firemen. There was only one driver and co-driver. Generally, only one person was needed to control the train, add coal and water, and put a co-driver there purely to prevent accidents.
Lin Fei did not find a co-driver. He did the work of both the fireman and the driver. Although his hands were covered with black ash, he was busy and never tired of it. After a while, the water in the boiler tank boiled, generating a large amount of steam, which was then reheated by many smoke pipes and exhaust pipes to become superheated steam. Finally, the valve was loosened and it rushed into the cylinders on both sides of the front of the train.
Boom—
steam rushed into the cylinder, pushing the piston, driving the connecting rod, pushing and pulling the three pairs of driving wheels to turn forward half a circle, and the whole locomotive suddenly shook and jumped forward half a meter.
The people watching were all excited. This "big guy" really moved.
Woo————
Lin Fei suddenly blew the whistle, and the locomotive immediately let out a sharp whistle. He stood in the driver's seat and shouted loudly, "Get out of the way, the train is leaving the station."
He was as happy as a child playing with a big toy. He put away the whistle and opened the air supply valve. Steam rushed into the cylinder again, and the train began to move forward slowly.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—
streams of white gas gushed out from both sides of the wheels. Since its birth, the Endeavor prototype finally drove out of the workshop where it was manufactured.
Outside the workshop, the four slaves who were originally gathered here to move sleepers and rails suddenly looked towards the workshop with a confused look on their faces. After the supervisors and foremen told them to wait here, they went to the workshop together. Soon after, many people were heard making a lot of noise from inside, as if everyone inside was very excited. Then suddenly there was a scream that was not like a human voice. No one knew what was making the sound, but it was very loud. Then there was a steady stream of smoke coming out of the door of the workshop. Those who didn't know thought there was a fire inside.
The slaves were confused. They knew that this city was the base for iron smelting of the Han tribe, and they also knew that there were a lot of rails stored in the workshop of the previous steel rolling mill. But they didn't know what was in this workshop. They only knew that the railway they were going to build was extended from the ground in this large workshop.
So, there should be something important inside, otherwise why would they spend so much manpower and material resources to build a railway to this big house?
Just as they were puzzled, they heard another piercing scream, and a group of craftsmen and supervisors suddenly ran out of the workshop. Everyone's eyes were focused on the deep workshop door, as if something was about to come out.
Accompanied by a burst of white mist, a red and black steel monster suddenly broke through the white mist, stepped on steel wheels, and ran out of the workshop door with sparks and lightning.
(3/3) Make up for yesterday
(end of this chapter)
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