Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 391 Magic Power Train (Part )
The days when the snow melts and the rivers thaw are often more freezing than the snowy midwinter.

Harvey spent half a day preparing himself mentally before he finally walked out of the warm and comfortable lord's castle and led a group of senior officials from the pioneering army to the site of the newly completed new construction project.

This building facility, named "train station" by Harvey, was built outside the territory's city wall. Two rails shaped like mine cart tracks passed through one side of the building, one leading to the territory's mine and the other leading to a mountain tunnel at the foot of Jackdaw Ridge.

Apart from the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Industry, officials from other administrative departments had no idea what the lord was up to. The expatriate officials from Grizzly Castle were especially surprised, standing there in a daze. The steel tracks, lined up in a row with gravel roadbed and sleepers as the base, looked incredibly neat and uniform. Even if they didn't know the lord was going to build the mine car tracks outside the territory, they would still be impressed by this magnanimous move.

"Steel rails! Good heavens! What a luxury!"

"Your Excellency is truly... No, our pioneering territory is truly financially strong!"

A murmur of discussion arose among the crowd, mixed with a few barely suppressed exclamations.

Only Harvey himself knew how difficult it was to complete the task of laying the railway line from the mining area through the territory and then to the tunnel at the foot of the mountain in just one and a half months...

Due to the overestimation of the Ministry of Industry's rail production efficiency and the Ministry of Construction's unfamiliarity with track laying technology, the only section of the entire railway that can truly carry trains is the less than ten-mile section from the mining area to the territory. As for the section from the territory to the tunnel at the foot of Jackdaw Ridge, only part of the roadbed and sleepers have been laid, and the tracks have not been laid at all.

As a liberal arts time traveler who "knows a little bit about everything", Harvey has no idea of the difference in load data between wide-gauge and narrow-gauge railways. He can only roughly and directly set the standard track gauge as 1.2 meters based on the principle of saving as much as possible.

The gravel used for the roadbed basically comes from the stone debris produced in the mining area. This stuff has accumulated into several small hills in the mining area's yard and has no other use except paving the road. The sleepers are directly cut from the logging site and then transported. Judging from the appearance and size, they are exactly the same as the old railway sleepers Harvey saw in his previous life.

Of course, Harvey gathered everyone here today in the severe cold not just to let them visit the fine steel tracks - the epoch-making steel tracks were just the "appetizer", and the highlight was naturally the things that could run on these tracks!
At Harvey's signal, the technicians from the Ministry of Industry directly dismantled the huge tarpaulin shed at the end of the track, revealing a black steel wheelbarrow lying on the rails.

"My lord, this... isn't this a war beast vehicle?" Earl Feigen was a little unsure, but from the appearance, this iron thing was indeed very similar to the magical vehicle that could cross mountains and rivers that he rode every time he came to the wasteland.

"This is not a war beast! Look, it has no legs, and the lower part is completely replaced by a row of wheels. I guess it can only move on flat ground." Durt, the vice president of the Spellcaster Academy, shook his head and denied it. The difference between the two is obvious.

Arturo, the president of the Academy of Sciences, interrupted the two men's argument. "I think this is a giant alchemical beast transformed from a macrophagous worm. Look at its head. Isn't it as sharp as a living tunnel boring machine? I think it's a new type of excavation equipment!"

Harvey listened to everyone's discussion for a while, then shook his head with a helpless smile. It was no wonder that everyone had all kinds of speculations - the design and manufacture of the front of the train in front of him were completely in accordance with Harvey's instructions. The sharp front of the train was entirely to meet his personal preference for streamlined design, not to reduce wind resistance. After all, this "train" powered by magic core could not travel at high speeds. From the perspective of track laying quality and body power design, it was even worse than the green train he had ridden in his previous life.

The fact that these high-ranking officials casually speculated on the practicality of alchemical beasts and magical devices was excellent feedback for Harvey. It meant that both ordinary people and spellcasters had gradually become accustomed to the widespread development of magical technology and recognized the role that alchemical creations and magic power could play in boosting productivity. This was a shift from passively accepting Harvey's indoctrination to actively improving and innovating.

"This is a groundbreaking transportation device," Harvey said, interrupting the debate. "I've named it the 'Magic Power Train.' It's currently in the experimental testing phase."

After all, it is the product of scientific and technological development that he brought from his previous life. Although the power source has been "magically modified" from coal, fuel oil and electricity to a magic power core that needs to be infused with liquid magic energy, Harvey still stubbornly believes that the classic name of "train" should be retained.

"Train?" Chris muttered to himself in confusion. "Sir, this thing is completely powered by the power core. It can't catch fire at all."

The chief alchemist under Harvey is a master of "playing with fire". He uses a special fuel prepared from dragon flame powder and liquid magic energy, which is widely used to enhance the power of various magic weapons.

Harvey didn't bother explaining and said directly, "Anyway, let's call it a train. It will be the key to solving our transportation problems in the future!"

Reiner, who had been silent the entire time, suddenly raised his hand and slapped his head. The friction between his mechanical palm and the metal head sent up a string of sparks. "I know! You plan to build a railway like this between your territory and the soon-to-be-developed Eastern Basin, and then use fire...trains to quickly transport manpower and supplies between the two places!"

Police Chief Yurio scratched his head in confusion and asked, "Then why do we have to build a railway? It looks like a bicycle or a moped, and they have wheels anyway. Can't we just drive on the dirt road?"

At Harvey's beckoning, the Minister of Industry, who was in charge of casting the locomotive, stepped forward and explained, "It's a weight issue, Mr. Superintendent. Do you know how heavy this thing is? Even if you dispatched all the mechanically modified police officers in the police department, they wouldn't be able to lift this steel locomotive, which weighs several tons."

The main reason why trains cannot travel freely on ordinary roads like other vehicles is their huge size and terrifying weight, which far exceeds the carrying capacity of any road surface.

Not to mention dirt roads, even on solid concrete roads, it will directly cause serious damage to the road surface and even cause safety problems such as vehicle rollover.

The design of the rails not only disperses the pressure of the train's weight on the ground, but also allows it to travel at high speeds as if on flat ground. Once the Ministry of Industry's production and manufacturing technology matures, there will be room for speed improvements - after all, only one power core is installed now, which can only be regarded as a simple "single-cylinder" version.

"Alright! Instead of talking endlessly here, why don't you all come with me to the front of the train and experience it for yourself?"

Harvey clapped his hands and climbed onto the front of the car first.

(End of this chapter)