Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 392 Magic Power Train (Part )
A group of territorial officials rushed to follow Harvey onto the train. Since the cockpit at the front of the train could only accommodate a few people, most people could only stand in an open carriage at the rear of the train, lying on the edge of the carriage with excited expressions waiting for the train to officially start.

Due to the "magic modification" of the power source, the front structure of this train is slightly different from the antique steam locomotive in Harvey's previous life - the front half of the front is a cab with a good view, and the back half is composed of the magic power core and transmission device. This means that in order to control this huge transport vehicle, at least two professionally trained "train drivers" are required to cooperate and participate.

At Harvey's suggestion, the honor of starting the magic power train for the first time was handed over to the two ministers of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Construction. This was also an encouragement for them to work together to accomplish this historic feat.

As the liquid magic energy storage tank was embedded into the power core, many officials and consultants who were spellcasters present immediately sensed a huge magical fluctuation that suddenly spread out from the rear of the car.

Construction Minister Haru, who was standing in the cab, received the message that the power core was activated, and immediately used his two strong arms to forcefully pull down the train's brake lock lever.

With a loud bang, the train body shook violently, and many people standing on it staggered and almost fell.

Haru then immediately pulled the second lever, releasing the train's deceleration device.

The harsh sound of iron wheels rubbing against steel rails was heard, and the train slowly started moving on the rails in full view of everyone.

For a moment, whether it was the lord standing in the driver's cab or the officials squeezed in the only open-top compartment behind the front of the car, they all felt the cold wind blowing in their faces and shivered.

After all, it is still in the experimental semi-finished stage, and there is not even a windshield installed in the cab, not to mention the poor convertible compartment at the back.

During the design process, Harvey simplified countless technical details that he was not familiar with. The train's cab only provides three basic functions: starting, deceleration, and braking. It also requires a co-pilot to keep an eye on the power core at all times and provide it with regular water cooling.

The entire transmission device is directly copied from the structure of an enlarged armored icebreaker, using a metal-cast crankshaft to drive the wheels to rotate rapidly. Once it starts running, it makes a constant clanging sound.

From the perspective of a modern time traveler, this "beggar version" of the magic train is really full of shortcomings - all the important parts are pieced together and welded together, and the braking even requires the "miracle-making" twisting of the winch to complete. The entire front cab and energy cabin are directly welded to the train chassis, without any "shock absorption" device to assist, so that the driver and passengers can fully experience the violent vibrations generated by the train operation.

In addition, the entire train is completely without any communication equipment. The two crew members in the front and rear have to rely on their hoarse voices to communicate over the huge roar of the train. There is no electrical equipment to provide lighting and heating. Once the train speed increases, the driver standing in the front has to rely solely on his eyes to observe the road conditions ahead. At the same time, in winter, he has to "tremble" at the same frequency as the train, and use his physical fitness to resist the cold wind.

Of course, now that the train is already running, the problem of building it from scratch has been solved first, and the existing defects and drawbacks will naturally be improved step by step in the future.

"Lord, how much cargo can this train carry at once?" Reiner and Harvey stood in the cab, feeling the metal parts of their bodies vibrate and rub against each other violently. "Compared to our armored icebreakers..." "That's a huge difference... Don't be fooled by the fact that it's only pulling one car behind the locomotive now. Once it's officially operational, it can connect to at least eight cars, and it can pull the amount of cargo that would take more than a dozen icebreakers at once."

Even though icebreakers do not need to be driven by sails, they still rely on power cores to provide energy. However, the hull itself is still limited by the cargo draft depth, which is much worse than a train running on solid ground.

As he spoke, he turned and directed everyone's gaze towards the energy compartment behind the cab. "We're still in the testing phase, and have only installed one energy core on the train. If all subsequent tests go smoothly, the train will have space for four energy cores."

The alchemical lifeform calculated the train's full cargo capacity in barely half a second, and said in disbelief, "It can pull the cargo of forty or fifty ironclad ships at once? This... this is simply unbelievable!"

The entire frontier territory currently has less than ten ironclad ships. Apart from two military ships that need to travel between the territory and the outpost, the rest are all anchored at the Grizzly Fort dock in the south. They are responsible for continuously transporting refugees affected by the war in the southern part of the principality from Sancha Town to the north day and night, but their efficiency is still not excellent.

As the chief administrator of Harvey's territory, Reiner immediately began to think about building the railway along the mountain tunnel of Jackdaw Ridge all the way to Jackdaw Town in the south... and then to Grizzlie Castle, or even more greedy... let the train run directly to Sancha Town, which has long been overcrowded with refugees.

Before he could continue his thoughts, Earl Fagan asked in a trembling voice, "Sir, what is the maximum speed of this... this train? Could it be faster than a sailless ironclad ship going downstream..."

The mayor of Sancha Town is currently Trevor, the nephew of the new Earl of Fagan. With Harvey's full support, he is working hard to plan and coordinate the reception and transportation of the population. Even though this young noble mayor is quite chivalrous and tries his best to be fair and kind to the refugees, the transportation efficiency of the ironclad ships still makes him feel overwhelmed. Sancha Town is almost full of refugees stranded there. If it were not for the continuous delivery of scarce food and medicine from the north, large-scale famine and epidemics would have broken out long ago.

Harvey pondered for a moment and replied cautiously, "We've only installed one power core so far, so the speed is about what you're seeing right now... When it's officially put into operation, I can only guarantee it will be at least twice as fast as a sailless ironclad ship."

In the eyes of these southern nobles, ironclad ships have become a groundbreaking high-speed means of transportation. You must know that before this, the world's land and water transportation was mainly based on sailboats and horse-drawn carriages. On uneven dirt roads, or relying on wind direction and human paddling, the low efficiency can be imagined.

Harvey looked at the stunned silence on everyone's faces and couldn't help but laugh secretly. This "magic modified" train, whose top speed probably couldn't even reach 30 kilometers per hour, was already the fastest transport vehicle in the world in their eyes. If he could upgrade the output power of the magic power core in the future and the train could reach speeds close to 50 or 60 kilometers per hour, it would probably make their jaws drop.

Of course, when relying solely on manual braking, he was not very brave to try to increase the speed of the car to the maximum. After all, it was easy to run, but it would be difficult to stop at any time.

(End of this chapter)