Engines of a revolution

A couple of weeks had passed since I’d become Emerald’s Apprentice, surprisingly some of the management board had approved of my proposal, so now I was a genuine employee of the railway, I technically had two jobs, one as Emerald’s apprentice, which basically required me to show up once a week at the workshop and advise on the design process. My other job was as a trainee driver, which required me to help with shunting and occasionally going out on route learning runs, watching the line whilst an experienced driver handled things, occasionally warning me of nearby signals. The only problem was the driver on this particular run was the Pegasus from before. I discovered her name to be Autumn Skies, and she seemed to be trying to make things difficult for me, calling out signals when I could already see them and calling me out the moment I glanced away from the road ahead, I’m honestly surprised she didn’t draw a chalk line across the cab. Not to mention her southern Griffith isles accent was barely understandable to me.

We were on a mineral working (that’s any type of open wagon train that contains stone, coal or metal ores) heading for Dodge Junction, a good day’s journey away, and that’s on an express, I’d be lucky to see my house two days from now. Which was why I was thankful they’d let me bring Sam aboard, it’s a good thing Equestrian locos are so large so Sam could curl up in the corner of the tender, out of the way. I was leaning out of the window slightly, trying to catch what little wind was going past at all of 20 mph, we had recently passed Ponyville and were running along the border of the Everfree forest, I would catch the occasional glimpse of wildlife darting into the forest. I was just glancing into the forest briefly when I caught a glimpse of something that resembled an engine.

“Hey, Autumn” I called “Stop the train!”

“Ah swear ta Faust”  heard her mutter over the wheezing of the engine, it took some time for the train to stop. “Wha' is it!?”

“I saw what looked like an engine abandoned in the forest” I said. she raised an eyebrow

“You’ve getten fi' minutes” She said, standing up “then i’m leavin wiyaa' theur” I quickly climbed down and walked back, Sam following me, it was hard to locate the spot, but eventually I did and stopped in my tracks.

“A bit more than one locomotive” I said aloud. I hear Autumn flying over

“Ah swear if dis is just um owd junk i’ll buk thy noggin sa 'ard….” She trailed of “Wha' are those!?”

“I…I don’t [fucking] believe it” I breathed out, laying, abandoned and totally undiscovered, was a line of steam locomotives from my country under tarpaulins “These must have been headed for the scrapheap”

“Wha' does thee mean 'eaded fert scrapheap?” Autumn asked.

“I’ll explain later” I said “But now we need to head back to Ponyville and get a train of flatbeds and a crane down here”

“Stay 'eear” she said, flying back to the brake van and flying inside. I began looking over the engines, The front engine was the only one that wasn’t covered was one of the British rail Standards, a Class 9F by the looks of it. Autumn soon came back as I heard the train begin puffing back down the line towards Ponyville. “T' firepony is goan tek t' treeam intoa eur passin loop 'n i’m gonneur fly back ta ponyville ta orda eur breytdown treeam” I nodded and began to climb up onto the front loco whilst Autumn flew off once more. Once I could see the inside of the cab I froze, There were bodies in an…advanced state of decay.

“[Oh god]!” I exclaimed, jumping down before sitting down with my back against the locomotive “[why is there always dead bodies]!?” Sam merely let out a quick whine and tilted his head. Sometime later I heard the staccato bark of an engine echoing around and walked over to the line to see an early type of 2-8-0 freight locomotive puffing over with a brake down train, alongside another 2-8-0 drew some flatbed wagons next to the crane. Out of one of the engines, Emerald Nights climbed down and trotted over.

“Show me” she said, I showed her to the scrap train and she gazed wide eyed “how good a condition are the engines under the tarpaulin?”

“We won’t know until we properly examine them” I said “but hopefully they can be salvaged enough for your scientists to learn all they need to know”

“What’s your plan with them?” she asked as ponies got to work clearing a path for the trees.

“I’m thinking get them back to Canterlot works, asses their condition” I said “then if they are in good enough condition convert them to Equestrian gauge”

“And if they’re past it?” she asked

“Learn what we can” I said with a shrug “then we give them a visual restoration and send them off to Canterlot Museum, no way am I letting them get scrapped, I’ll claim the lot of them as mine if I have to” Eventually they cleared a path for the massive cranes to begin lifting the engines, there were quite a few, with some coaches and wagons thrown in, we started with the 9F and made our way down the line, most of them were the size of ordinary locomotives, but one was rather peculiar looking.

“Is that what I think it is?” I thought as I examined the last locomotive, still stuck in the undergrowth. “Hey, can you shift this tarpaulin?” some of the work ponies obliged and everyone let out a collective gasp once it was in plain view.

“What in the name of [Faust] is that!?” Emerald exclaimed.

“Something I never thought I’d see with my own two eyes” I said, actually rubbing my eyes to check I wasn’t seeing things. The engine was massive, over 80 foot long, the massive boiler was suspended between two power units. “No [fucking] way, it’s a [bloody Midland Garrett]!”

“A what?” Emerald asked.

“An attempt at eliminating the use of two locos on the same train” I said “let’s get it on the flatbed and up to Canterlot” the workponies slung cables underneath the power bogies and carefully hoisted it up onto one of the flatbeds, which visibly sagged slightly.

“We’ll have to be carefull” Emerald said, before calling to the work ponies “Tarp it back up! And cover that loco!” she pointed to the Standard 9F. Soon everything was secured and the low loader train had two engines coupled up, we were in the cab of the second loco.

“You referred to it as a 9F” Emerald said “what exactly do you mean by that?”

“It was an example of a locomotive employing Standardization” I said

“You mean like you intend to?” she asked in a hushed tone, I nodded.

“It was called a 9F because the railway used a power rating system from 1-9” I said “and it fell under the power rating of 9”

“We might just have to use that system” she said as we pulled away, the locos cave a jolt before slipping once, then slowly pulling away.

“A 9F could manage this single handedly” I whispered, giving her a pointed look.

By the time we reached Canterlot it was dark, we’d had to wait as more important trains passed. We snuck the train into one of the long sheds and set about getting the tarpaulins off. The first one came off and I smiled.

“Well” I said “What railway would this be without a [Jinty]…make that 5 [Jintys]” I corrected myself when I saw that four more covered locos shared the same silhouette under the tarps.

“What’s a [Jinty]?” Emerald asked

“A basic form of tank engine, no thrills, simply gets the job done” I said, before pointing to the other covered Jintys “Those are the same” most of the engines were as one would expect to find in 1960s Yorkshire: a couple of Black Fives, A J50, A B1, an O1, an O4, a V2, and a Standard 5. It’s the locos after that that were of special note

The next engine was large, with a large tender outlined under the tarp, we lifted the coverings, and I gasped.

“What is that doing here?” I asked aloud” the engine was a 4-6-2, or “Pacific” type, one of the Britannia class by the looks of it.

“You have got to be kidding me” on the wagon was a large express locomotive, another Pacific type, among the rust were flecks of its dark green paint, and on the smokebox I could still make out the numberplate: 60108. This was an A3, one of Flying Scotsman’s sisters

“Fillies & Gentlecolts” I said in a hushed tone “Allow me to introduce you to one of earth’s most famous class of steam locomotives, the L.N.E.R. A3.”

“What’s the name plate say?” I heard a pony ask, I looked over and my feelings of awe were immediately shattered.

“The name says…” I mentally prepared myself “Gay Crusader”

There was a pause.

“None of you have any problem with that name?” I asked

“Why would we?” A pony asked.

“Never mind” I said “Get the next sheet off!” the sheet fell away to reveal a large locomotive, another Pacific type, this one was very similar to the A3, except it was longer, with the cylinders further back between the front truck and the driving wheels in an ungainly position. On the Name plates were two words…‘Great Northern’.

“[Oh good god]” I said, scowling before muttering “[Damn you, Thompson, you really ruined her, didn’t you]”

“That does not look right” Emerald said “those cylinders are too far back”

“Such is Edward Thompson’s legacy” I said “He took one of Crusader’s Sisters and turned her into…that thing”

“So what do we do with it?” she asked.

“We unrebuild it and return it to original condition, this was the first ever A3” I said “I want this loco restored to it’s best form” we uncovered the next engine to reveal a sleek looking express Pacific with a streamlined casing, the Name “Falcon” was on the nameplates

“[Holy shit]!” I exclaimed.

“What?” Emerald asked, I climbed onto the wagon.

“This was the greatest express design ever made” I said “The L.N.E.R. A4”

“Is it fast?” I heard a pony ask, I chuckled

“The fastest” I said “They were nicknamed ‘streaks’ for a reason, let’s hope this one will live up to that nickname”

The next 3 engines were more Thompson Pacifics, one of each type, then we came to the last engine barring the Garratt, it was a plain looking engine, with 8 small driving wheels, two even smaller leading wheels, large cylinders, a simple boiler and clean, simple lines.

“What’s this one?” Emerald asked.

“This is a Riddle’s W.D.” I said “the result of a country at war, almost a thousand of these were built for military use and shipped to other countries, it was built as cheaply as possible, but it was powerful, this one should be the easiest to steam up again”

“Do you really think they can do it?” Emerald asked “I mean, you said it yourself, this is about 100 years more advanced than ours”

“Then you will learn a lot in the process” I said “I’ll have to postpone further route learning runs until these are all assessed and rebuilt where possible”

“Which locomotive should we convert first?” she asked, I thought for a moment

“I’m thinking the [Britannia]” I said “[Britannia] was the Human embodiment of my country, plus the name [morning Star] is rather appropriate”

“And what does that mean?” she asked, I translated and she smiled “Yeah, that is rather fitting”

“Then we take the 9F, [Great Northern] and [Falcon] and convert them” I said “Those 3 are our best bet at convincing the old lot that this is the way forward” Emerald nodded and began ordering the work ponies, moving the wagons about, Morning Star, the 9F, Falcon and Great Northern were shunted into the works, after the bodies had been taken out of the 9F of course.

“How long should it take to inspect each locomotive?” I asked as they lifted Morning star off of the flatbed and onto the hard floor, followed by its tender.

“Depends on what state the insides are in” Emerald said “But I imagine about a day for each engine, starting with old Morning Star, conversion will take longer”

“I’ll see if I can dig up some technical drawing when I get back home” I said.

“What’s all of this then?” I heard an older inspector ask, pointing at the valve motion, I walked over.

“That controls the direction of the cylinders”

“Why not use magic?” he asked.

“Because my world doesn’t have magic” I said “We had to make do without, hence all the complicated rods on the side”

“Keep hold of it” Emerald said “We can convert one of the Black Fives with our valves and use the other as a comparison, for now, we get this on a set of 6 hoof frames” I nodded in thanks. For the rest of the day they inspected Morning Star, whilst I gave them whatever information I could regarding what parts did what, eventually they gave it a general OK for conversion to go ahead and they’d lifted the boler for overhaul by the time I had to call it a night, promising to find technical drawings of the locomotive when I got home. That night on the train I looked forward to traveling back, and I was confident that the future would turn out brightly.

“We can do this, Sam” I said, Sam’s ears merely twitched and the train ratted towards Ponyville, and home.