Racing an Iron Horse
In the last century Equestria grew rapidly with the invention of the steam engine and the railways. Towns and cities were connected like never before by a network of iron rails that allowed trains to ferry passengers and freight between them at ever increasing speeds. By the turn of the last century and Princess Celestia’s one thousandth year on the throne, Equestria’s rail network had grown to the point that it connected almost the entire country and beyond.
While Equestria’s rail network grew, numerous companies were established that governed various areas of the network. Eventually the number of companies numbered into the hundreds and became a headache for customers and the government to keep track of. So eventually her royal highness stepped in to simplify the railways and this gave birth to what became known as “The Big Four”.
The CNER (Canterlot Northern Eastern Railway) was the largest of The Big Four and governed the eastern and north eastern routes in Equestria and Crystal Empire.
The CMC (Canterlot Midland Crystal Railway) the second largest and direct competitor to the CNER governed the midland and north western routes.
The GWR (Great Western Railway) governed the western and west coastal routes.
The SR (Southern Railway) governed the southern routes and even had a link to Klugetown.
Each company boasted a large fleet of steam engines ranging in size and speed and each region had distinctly unique looking engines. The companies and their vast variety of engines and rolling stock developed new hobbies and pastimes between the populace. One such hobby became known as “Trainspotting” where ponies and other like minded creatures would gather at the railside or on bridges or at stations to see trains and record the locomotives that they had seen. A popular hobby mostly between the citizens of Equestria that could fly was “Train Racing”, flying between bridges or landmarks to see if they could beat the train to those areas.
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Sky Hotrod or Roddy to his friends, a reddish orange pegasus colt with a fiery yellow windswept mane, sighed as he scribbled notes into his school notebook. The teacher was droning on and on about something from ancient Equestrian history that didn’t really bother him, so he wasn’t exactly paying attention.
“C’mon teach, hurry it up,” One of his friends by the name of Hobnob or more commonly known as Hob or Ginge by his friends grumbled. He’s an orange earth pony colt with a messy mop of a light brown mane.
“Yeah, we’re gonna miss that new train.” Another of his friends, a light purple unicorn colt wearing thick rimmed glasses with a straight cut purple and blue mane agreed. His name is Dexter but everypony calls him Dex.
“What new train?” The pegasus found himself asking. He didn’t share his friends enthusiasm for Trainspotting but he still liked watching them thunder down the tracks, especially at high speed.
“C’mon Roddy, if you didn’t have your head in the clouds you would know we’ve been talking about it all day,”
Robby blushed in embarrassment. “Heh, sorry guys. I guess my mind’s been occupied by the Wonderbolts tour coming to Ponyville lately,”
“Yeah, you buzz like a hummingbird when anypony mentions them,” His unicorn friend teased.
“I do not!” Roddy squeaked.
“Hehe, c’mon Dex, you know how he gets,” His earth pony friend remarked with a smirk.
“Heh, always fun to make him squeak,” Dex chuckled good naturedly. “But Ginge is right, you’ve been fairly distracted today,”
Suddenly the teacher sneezed. The sudden loud noise had the colts duck their heads slightly as they thought that they had been caught talking during class. Thankfully for them they hadn't, as the teacher blinked a few times in bewilderment before he returned to his senses and looked up at the big clock above the chalkboard.
“That time already, crap!” He quietly muttered to himself but the round of chuckles that could be heard around the class told him he wasn’t quiet enough. With a sigh he opened his mouth to address the class before getting interrupted by the bell.
There was a round of cheers as the class began to grab their things in preparation to leave. The teacher called over the noise of activity and scraping chairs, trying to inform his class to read the chapter on history he had been talking about but nopony cared at that moment as it was finally home time.
Roddy, Dex and Hob hurried out of class and went with the flow of students as they headed out the building and through the front gates.
“C’mon guys, if we run we might get to the bridge in time.” Dex urged as he began to run. Hob quickly joined him while Roddy took to the air.
“Race ya!” He declared before he buzzed his wings and shot off ahead.
“Cheat!” Hob laughed as he sped up.
A few minutes later the three friends met up on the newly built bridge that crossed the mainline that passed through Ponyville. There was a small gathering of other colts and fillies along with some adults eagerly watching the tracks.
“Too slow guys,” Roddy laughed.
“Yeah, wait until the Running of the Leaves, then we’ll see who’s slow.” replied Hob with a smirk.
“Heh, yeah. No wings allowed in that fly boy,” Dex added.
“Alright, alright.” Roddy giggled as he and his friends propped themself up on the guard rail so they could see over the bridge wall.
The mainline consisted of three sets of rail lines running parallel in a gentle left curve through the middle of Ponyville. From the bridge the school friends were on, they could see several more bridges going over the tracks along the way. There was at least a mile or two between the bridge the colts were on and the next one. A distance Roddy has flown before a few times when he attempted to race a train before.
“So, what’s this new train again?” The pegasus colt sheepishly asked his friends.
“Um, I think my dad said it's called the “Queen Celestia” and it's one of the new CMC’s Princess Coronation Class,” Dex answered.
“Yeah, I’ve heard those Coronations are bigger and more powerful than the Princess Royals and will give the CNER’s A3s a run for their money.” Hob added with enthusiasm.
“Eww, Ginge, don’t mention the CNER,” said Dex while he pulled a face.
“Such a CMC fanboy.” Roddy giggled while Hob chuckled in agreement.
Dex opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by a loud high pitched whistle in the distance. The three friends immediately looked to the distant plume of white smoke that could be seen which was quickly approaching them.
“Here it comes!” Announced one of the Trainspotting adults while he pulled out a pair of binoculars.
Dex hurriedly dug into his backpack while Hob pulled out a small notepad from his school coat pocket.
“Bollocks, need to make a new category for this,” Dex sighed as he opened his own notepad. “Sod it! I’ll do it when I get home.” He said to himself as he then flipped to the back and got a pencil ready.
Soon Roddy began to feel the growing vibrations in the bridge as the train neared. As the new passenger train passed under the bridge ahead, he began to see what it looked like. It was a large maroon coloured thing. The smoke box was black and flanked on either side by two sloping smoke deflectors. He could see the front of the cab and how it was angled towards the boiler rather than at a right angle like the cab of a Princess Royal.
“6221… yep, that’s the ‘Queen Celestia’ alight,” Dex said as he scribbled its name and number into his book.
“It looks fast,” Roddy commented excitedly before their view was obscured by the thick plume of steam being blasted out of the engine’s chimney as it thundered under the bridge they were on.
There was a round of coughs as practically everypony on the bridge got a face full of steam. When it cleared the trainspotters saw the last of its long train of matching maroon coloured coaches.
“Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen… wow,” Hob counted off in amazement.
Dex nodded. “Had to be going around seventy five to eighty miles an hour there,”
“That’s fast,” Roddy agreed, his wings buzzing with excitement as he thought about racing such a train between the bridges.
“Yeah, it didn’t even sound like it was even trying,”
“I bet it could pull that train up to a hundred miles an hour easy.”
As the three friends got into a discussion about the new train’s speed and power while they began to walk home. Roddy was thinking about what to do to prepare for racing such a train. If it was indeed capable of a hundred miles per hour then he would need to build up his wing power a bit first.
XXXXX
“Alright son, I know your Mum rather doesn’t want you to race trains, especially after what happened last year when you crashed and broke your foreleg. But we both understand your desire to join the Wonderbolts and we want you to succeed, so I’m going to help you.” Roddy’s father said as he carried a bunch of brightly coloured poles with red and white flags at the ends.
Roddy’s father is an earth pony called Golden Nail. He is a fairly big and strong pony that works as a builder for Ponyville Council. He is very supportive of his son’s dream because he wants his son to fulfill his dreams instead of getting stuck doing something he doesn’t or won’t enjoy and wants him to do better than he did when grew up as a colt.
“Thanks for agreeing to help me, Dad, but what are we doing out here?”
“Well son, you crashed into that tree the last time you raced a train because you lacked the necessary control to maneuver at high speeds. So, we need to work on your flight control. Now, I’m no expert on flight as I ain’t a pegasus but I’m going to set up these poles to make a chicane for you to practice turning with.” He dropped the poles and then picked up one with a red flag at the end and stuck it into the ground. “The red flags will be the ones you fly through.” He then picked up another pole, this one having a white flag on the end. “And the white flags are the ones you will have to fly around.” He then walked a fair distance from the red flagged pole and stuck it into the ground too. When he returned to his son he picked up another. “When you feel you can turn better at speed, we’ll move the white flags closer to the red which will mean you will need to do tighter turns. Think you can handle it?”
“This is great, thanks Dad and yeah. I can handle it,” The young pegasus said confidently.
His father smiled at his son’s enthusiasm. “Good! Right, you get yourself warmed up and I’ll set the rest of these up.”
Roddy nodded as he took to the air and began going through a series of exercises while his dad began planting the rest of the flags. After ten minutes the chicane was set up and his father stood at the ready with a stopwatch.
“Ok son, are you ready?”
“Ready!” Roddy yelled back as he was hovering quite high in the air.
“Go!” His father yelled as he clicked the stop watch.
The young pegasus dove down to gather his speed quickly before he leveled out close to the ground and headed for the first white flag. As he passed the white flag he banked to the right. Unfortunayely he wobbled with instability which forced him to lessen his banking angle to stablise himself which in turn forced him to take a much wider arc.
Roddy completed the course and set a decent enough time but it was just the benchmark. Now he had to improve upon it and as his father told him after he finished his first run.
“Once you get used to the air pressures at high speed you’ll be able to tighten those turns.”
And he was right. As he grew more accustomed to the changes in the air as he flew as quickly as he could. He was beginning to shave time off each run and his turns grew tighter and tighter.
By the end of his first day he managed to improve his control enough that his Dad thought he could lessen the distance from the red and white flags by a metre or two.
This then became Roddy’s routine for the next couple of months along with his school work. After the first month he could comfortably fly through the chicane at a good time even as his Dad forced his turns to get sharper and sharper until he deemed it unsuitable to lessen any further. From there he decided to work on his wingpower for more speed. He had felt ready to race the train after his first month, but that was until his more enthusiastic friend informed him of a development between the CMC and the CNER.
Dex had informed him that the CNER had recently unveiled a new pacific class that they had called an A4. The significance of this was that the A4 Class had been purposely designed for speed and sported a wing shaped aerodynamic body and its first run had it easily surpassing a hundred miles per hour. It was said that Neighgel Gresley, the chief engineer of the CNER who was also on board the train at the time, had to tell the driver to slow down simply because the pegasi reporters were being left behind as they tried to keep up and fly alongside it. This then prompted a competition to attract customers by the CMC and CNER by offering the fastest services and it was encouraged for drivers to push their engines as fast as they could safely go along their routes.
Roddy certainly felt like he needed some more time when he witnessed a Princess Coronation practically fly down the mainline one day. Its wheels and valve gear were moving so fast it was practically a blur to him.
His dad continued to help him while he kept training. As he got the hang of high speed maneuverability it was then all about getting as fast as he could get. His dad managed to rent a big portable industrial fan from Pinkie Pie. How or why she had an industrial fan nopony knew and nopony wanted to know either. Some say trying to understand that mare leads to insanity. Sometimes things were better left not said in regards to that mare. The fan was used to generate a strong headwind that Roddy had to fly through and against.
As each week passed during his second month of training, the power of the fan was turned up. Roddy knew he had improved but he wouldn’t know just by how much until he raced the train. So in preparation for that he paid more attention to his friends in school when they talked about trains. He even asked his unicorn friend about the time tables as he wanted to know the times a service being pulled by a Coronation would run through Ponyville.
He learned that there was always an afternoon express from Canterlot that would pass through town around four in the afternoon and another express passing through up to Canterlot around five. He decided to race the later train as it would give him time after school to fly home and get out of his uniform, get a quick shower and a bite to eat before going out to the bridge to wait for the train.
So after two months of training Roddy felt like he was finally up to the challenge of racing the train. He planned to do it on a Friday afternoon after school. His friends said they’d watch and support him from the midtown bridge that would be the finish line.
XXXXX
The bell rang and the colts and fillies all rushed out of school, eager to start their weekend. Roddy, Hob and Dex hurried out the gates as they had a time limit before the pegasus of the group went to race a steam train.
“Ok Roddy, it looks like you’ll be racing the ‘Duchess of Canterhorn’. Dad says it's a brand new engine,”
“Thanks Dex,”
“Oh and don’t worry. We’ll be ready to call an ambulance if you crash into another tree,”
“Oh har har, very funny Ginge.” Roddy groaned while Hob snickered.
Soon the three friends parted ways so they could each head home. Roddy took to the air to reach his home to save some time. As he landed at his doorstep a few minutes later he was greeted by his pegasus mother, Feather Duster, at the door when he opened it.
“Oh, hi mum,” He greeted his mother with a warm smile.
“Welcome home Sky, did you have a good day?” She asked with a smile as she closed the door behind her son.
“Meh, school was boring,”
The custard yellow pegasus mare sighed. “Honey, school will be some of the best years of your life,”
“Nah Mum, Wonderbolt Flight Academy will,”
“Only if you do well in school first,”
“She’s right son,” His dad chirped up from in the living room.
Roddy groaned. “I know,”
“Anyway, go get cleaned up. We’re having tea early today. I’ve been called in to help get town hall cleaned up for tonight’s festival,”
“I can’t Mum. I’m racing that train today,”
She sighed as they entered the living room. “You know I don’t like you doing that,”
“I know Mum but it’s something I really wanna do,”
She let out a defeated sigh. “Alright, I can’t stop you. But promise me you’ll be careful and stop if you feel something is wrong,”
The colt looked up into his mother’s pleading eyes. “I promise Mum. If I feel like something’s wrong I’ll pull away,”
After a moment of staring at each other his mother smiled and gently wrapped her son in a gentle hug. “Alright honey, good luck,”
Roddy smiled and leaned into his mother’s warm embrace. “Thanks Mum.”
When the mother and son released themselves from their hug, Roddy rushed up to his room and dumped his school bag and uniform onto his bed and then jumped into the shower. He took only a few minutes to clean himself up. Once he showered and dried himself he went back downstairs and found a cheese salad butty on the dining room table waiting for him.
“Thanks Mum!” He called out to the mare in the kitchen. He smiled as he sat down at the table and tucked into his sandwich. He made sure to keep an eye on the time while he ate his butty. Just five minutes later he had eaten his sandwich and was ready to head out. He said goodbye to his mother and was about to say it to his Dad until he found him waiting for him by the front door.
“I’m coming along. I helped train you for this so I’m partly responsible if something happens to you…” He then leaned in close to his colt’s ear. “...and your mother would kill me if you got hurt.” He whispered.
The colt nodded his agreement. His mother may look like a kind and gentle mare who wouldn’t hurt a soul but when gets mad, she’s scary.
Roddy checked the time one last time before he and grabbed his flight goggles and he and his father left the house. He had a good half an hour to get to the hoofbridge that he and his mates often watch the trains from closest to their school. If he flew he’d be there in a couple of minutes but since his Dad is tagging along he was walking. He knew the way and he figured if there were no interruptions on the way he’d make it in time.
“So, how are you going to do it?” His father asked as the two broke into a brisk trot.
“Well, um, I was thinking of flying up a bit so I can dive and build up some speed. I intent to reach the bridge just as the train does,”
His dad nodded. “Alright. I’ll try to follow along. I want to be close just in case anything happens.”
By the time father and son reached the bridge they had a few minutes before the train was due to pass under the bridge so Roddy decided to get himself warmed up. While he was doing some stretches there was a blast of sound from a distant steam whistle.
“Here it comes son. Get ready!”
Roddy, wings buzzing with excitement, nodded to his Dad and shot up into the air. As he looked down he could see his Dad getting ready to bolt and the fast approaching train down the rail line.
“Ok, this is it. Wings, don’t fail me now.” He said to himself as he dove for the bridge. He tmed it just right as he passed the railing just as the front of the locomotive burst out from under it in a cloud of steam. Roddy leveled out and was in line with the black smoke box of the engine. It’s chimney blasting out great clouds of steam with every pump of its four cylinders.
The colt looked back behind him to see his Dad. The stallion had broken into a sprint to follow his son as he flew alongside the big train. By the time the young pegasus looked forward again he noticed that the locomotive was pulling ahead. He could see out of the corner of his eye the tapered boiler moving into view. The large maroon boiler also held the locomotive’s nameplate directly above the middle drive wheel’s wheel arch. The nameplate was black in colour and rimmed in gold with gold lettering. He could also the locomotives two metre drive wheels spinning so quickly the spokes were a mere blur.
Before long the young colt found himself level with the cab. He could see the driver and firepony through the two windows. The driver soon noticed him and gave the colt a wave.
“Hey Asheap, we got another foal wanting to race us,” the driver said as he pushed against the regulator a little to slow his engine down a little.
“Oh yeah?” The firepony asked as he paused in his duties to look out the window on the left side of the cab. “Go easy on him, he’s just a foal,”
“Don’t worry I will.”
The driver pulled on the regulator a little more until he saw the colt beginning to slowly pull ahead. He smiled as he leaned out the unglazed window at the back to get a better look at what was ahead.
He saw the colt weave around trees in his path and that he was pumping his wing hard and fast. The driver squinted against the rush of wind against his eyes as he watched the colt begin to pull ahead of the engine.
“How fast are we going?”
“We just dropped below eighty,”
“Huh, fast kid. I’ll give him a minute and then open her back up.”
They were quickly approaching a bridge and there was a small crowd on it, possibly watching the young pegasus racing his train. The driver smiled again as he reached up to the cord above his head and pulled it to blast the whistle.
“Hey kid, not bad, you got some good wings on ya,” the driver yelled in compliment. The colt looked back looking utterly exhausted. “Good luck next time though kid, but we’ve got a schedule to keep.” And with that he opened up the regulator and his train began to accelerate and pull ahead.
Roddy huffed and puffed in exertion. He had managed to fly ahead of the engine before the driver blew the whistle and called out to him, and now he was losing ground. The large train was pulling away and fast.
Roddy tried to pump his wings harder but he had no energy left to keep up with the train. He watched as the locomotive passed under the bridge. Not long after he then flew up to land on the bridge. He landed on the railing and his friends rushed up to steady their exhausted friend and help him down to the deck.
“That was great, well done,” Hob praised.
“Yeah, you kept up with it right until the end.” Dex added.
Roddy sat with his back against the wall with his wings laying limp at his sides. He panted heavily as he tried to get the much needed oxygen into his system.
“H-how fast was it going?” He gasped out.
Dex looked a little sheepish as he didn’t want to upset his friend but he replied anyway, albeit quietly. “Roughtly eighty,”
“Eighty! No wonder it pulled away from me so easily,” he sighed but then after a quiet moment he smiled. “I can’t wait to race against it again,”
“You’ll be fast enough to rival Rainbow Dash if you keep this up,” Hob joked.
Roddy laughed. “As if. But I’ll definitely be fast if I keep to my training and race these trains.”
A few minutes later his Dad arrived at the bridge as his son and his friends descended the stairs down to the ground.
“Well done son, you did good to keep up with it as you did,” his Dad praised and then helped his tired son up onto his back. “What do you boys say to some ice cream at Sugarcube Corner?”
The young ponies all cheered and followed the stallion carrying his son to Sugarcube Corner to celebrate.
Author's Note
Thank you for reading this little short fic.
For a while I've been thinking of doing something involving another passion of mine which are steam trains and it was fairly easy to ponify the big four rail companies, especially the LMS as their engines classes and names would fit perfectly with MLP.
Locomotive Classes featured or mentioned in this story.
LMS Princess Royal Class
LMS Princess Coronation Class
LNER A3 Class
LNER A4 Class
I would love your feedback. Thank you again for reading and I may do more of these in the future :D
