Engines of a revolution

Emerald rolled her eyes before promptly shutting the filly’s mouth with her magic, leaving her slightly stunned

“Now now, Summer, no need to be rude,” she said, releasing the mouth of the filly, apparently named Summer, meanwhile I was rubbing my ear in an attempt to stop the ringing “Luke here is our guest”

“Hi” I said, trying to break the ice.

“W-what are you?” Summer asked nervously.

“Summer!” Emerald chastised.

“No, it’s fine” I said, giving a soft smile “I’m a Human, don’t worry, I won’t bite”

“Why are you going to be staying here?” she asked.

“I’ve been injured” I explained “I’ll be staying here whilst I heal, so I can travel to where I work easier”

“And…where do you work?” She asked.

“He’s my assistant” Emerald cut in “when he’s not trackside”

“Mum, one of my friends is having a sleepover” Summer said “am I ok to go?”

“That’s fine” she said, just make sure your asleep by a reasonable time” the filly beamed before walking towards Emerald and giving her a hug, she then pulled away and headed towards the door

“Thank you, I’ll be back tomorrow” she said, before turning to me “It was…nice meeting you, Luke” and with that, she left the house.

“You never said you had a child.” I said.

“I never felt the need to” Emerald said “And you never asked”

“which begs the question” I said “If you’re the mother, where’s the-?”

“Not present” she replied, somewhat tersely “He up and left the moment he found out that I was pregnant, the both of us ended up better off without him” that was a touchy subject, it seemed, I’d have to avoid it in future.

“Well” I said “for what it’s worth, she seems like a nice kid”

A short while later we were leaving the house to visit Canterlot works, now that I wasn’t carrying all of that stuff I could walk somewhat painlessly.

“Are you ok?” Emerald asked.

“Yeah, I should be fine so long as I don’t push myself” I said “It’ll be good to see here complete”

“Not quite.” she said “She’s in a grey livery to begin with, and won’t get her livery or the number you specified until she performs to the management’s satisfaction tomorrow” I frowned.

“I was hoping to see her in blue” I said.

“You will” Emerald chuckled as we entered the works “just be patient, if this locomotive is as good as you say it is, then you have nothing to worry about.” We entered the main hall and my breath was taken away from me. Sat on the turntable in the center of the works, simmering gently, was Falcor herself, the first of the J3/1s. She was quite the sight at 15 foot high and 10 foot wide, with 2 leading wheels on a swivelling bogie, or truck, six 6ft 8” driving wheels, and, a first for this railway, 2 trailing wheels. These were attached directly to the frame via something called a Cartazzi truck, which allowed side-to-side and up-and-down movement, but no swivelling motions, this gave a much smoother ride and helped to eliminate fishtailing caused by the cylinders. I had taken heed of the drawbacks of its basis, the LNER A4, for instance, the side valances covering the wheels were hinged to allow easy access to the valve gear for lubrication. The arraignment of valve motion had been a problem as well, so this engine followed the example of later classes by having three independent sets of valve gear, and there was an air vent built into the lower casing at the front that directed air towards the inside cylinder.

The Streamlined casing itself was similar to that of the A4, but not identical. Given the difference in design practices and safety standards I eventually had to concede and as such there was no buffer and chain system, simply a buckeye coupler as used in America. Nevertheless, this also gave me an opportunity, instead of being totally slab-sided the front was more rounded like one would find on American streamliners and extended down to rail level, rather than stopping at the buffer beam. The vent leading to the cylinder could be seen in the form of a grill that blended into the casing. The Cab was slightly wider, giving a better view of the line ahead, with it blending seamlessly into the design. The tender was like a cross between British and American designs, with the profile following the original 4000-gallon corridor tender design, but to American practice; 25 tons of coal, 25,000 gallons of water, mounted on swivelling trucks, this was built to go fast and go far.

At the front of the loco, in front of the chimney, were two shiny brass whistles, the bell was mounted in the frames out of sight, but I had been told it was still loud enough to hear, so it was fine. One feature that was totally unique were the four, large headlights built into the casing on the front to the locomotive, one up top with three in line just above the coupler, making an upside down T-shape, these would be used to not only light the track ahead but also indicate the train being pulled to the signal ponies.

On the side of the Tender the words “Reite Usserrigeonal Reilenbehn” or “Equestrian National Railway” in the native language, painted in a plain font, with the number 651 painted on the cab side. The nameplates were a somewhat less Spartan affair; they were mounted on the smokebox area, with the word “Falcor”, the Equestrian word for falcon, embossed on it, cast into the nameplate above the word Falco was a casting depicting a Falcon in flight pointing towards the smokebox as if flying alongside the locomotive. Originally the locomotive was going to be named Falcon in English, but Emerald and the RUR management had advised otherwise, and so it was named in Equestrian. Naming discrepancies aside, it gave an impression of speed despite the fact the entire locomotive was currently painted in a dull grey colour.

“Well” Said an all-to familiar voice “theur certainly proved 'un thin’” Autumn Skies trotted up next to us, a smirk on her face

“And what would that be?” I asked, not knowing whether to expect a compliment or an insult.

“'a ta rip t' locomoti' design buk t' shreds.” she said, before laughing.

“You’re a natural comedian” I deadpanned.

“Bur seriously” she said “It’s eur fine lookin engine, t' wheels are eur bit gurt lookin, though”

“you may laugh” I said, walking towards the engine “but one of these will manage 400 tones easily whilst averaging 90 miles per hour” this time it was Autumn’s turn to deadpan

“Dooant be rediculous.” She said.

“Isn’t that somewhat overstating this engines capabilities?” Emerald asked.

“If anything” I said, grunting in no small amount of discomfort as I climbed into the cab of the engine, only to nod in thanks to Emerald when I felt her supporting me with her magic. “I’m understating its capabilities, there were non-streamlined developments of this design that could pull 500 tons and go 150,000 miles between overhauls”

“Get out” Autumn said in amazement, taking flight ad landing in the cab, she looked around and nodded in approval “Spacious”.

“Enough room to swing a cat” I said. the ponies just stared at me.

“Why would you want to swing a cat around?” Emerald asked.

“It’s a saying” I said, sighing in frustration “Anyway, there is a preference on crew comfort, all driving controls are within easy reach, and you get racing bucket seats as standard” Autumn gave off a low whistle before walking over to the drivers seat and climbing up to sit in the seat.

“Its rather high up” she noted.

“It’s adjustable” I said, before pointing to a foot operated paddle below the seat. “You use that to adjust the height” Suddenly we all heard a pony call over.

“Oi, Autumn!” they called, walking over “Yard manager says he wants this out of the works and on shed ready for tomorrow”

“Will do!” Autumn called “Looks like you’ll get to see it move after all”

“As you were, then” I said siting down in the fireman’s seat, Autumn gave a quick toot on the chime whistle, before opening the cylinder cocks, dropping it into full forward, releasing the brakes and slowly easing the regulator back. A cloud of steam billowed out in front with a hiss as the 120-ton leviathan of a loco eased forward. As we slowly puffed out into the yard Autumn gave a long hard blast on the chime whistle before pulling back on the regulator and quickly accelerating to the yard limit of 15 mph. the rapid acceleration practically launched Emerald into the tender Bulkhead.

“Sorry” Autumn said absentmindedly.

“No you’re not” Emerald retorted, picking herself up.

“I need you to switch those points up ahead” Autumn said, bringing the loco to a stop.

“Me?” Emerald asked in surprise.

“Well luke can’t exactly do it, now can he?” the pegasus retorted, and I snorted at that “Number six road, if you please” Emerald climbed down and I soon heard a succession of clangs and she quickly made her way back up. Autumn quickly drove the loco into the shed, amongst awestruck workers, and put the brakes on to full before applying the handbrake.

“So” she said, climbing down to join us beside the loco “who wants to join me for a pint before I head out on my next trip?”