Since learning that Guangzhou Machinery Company has developed a practical commercial train, the Ministry of Transportation has attached great importance to it. Its railway management office has contacted Guangzhou Machinery Company as soon as possible. After discussion, the two parties prepared to conduct a Train operation test.
Not just that, they are also planning to let Luo Zhixue watch the first running test of the train!
These officials knew very well how much Luo Zhixue attached great importance to trains. They had often inquired about the development progress of high-pressure steam engines before, and they were also very concerned about railway construction matters.
The Railway Management Office was established under Luo Zhixue's personal instructions.
Now that the train was finally built, they naturally wanted to let Luo Zhixue see it as soon as possible.
It is obviously impossible for Luo Zhixue to go to Guangzhou to watch the train test, so the test site can only be conducted in Yingtianfu.
Anyway, there is a railway here in Yingtianfu... There is a railway of more than eight kilometers between the port area of Jinling and the city. In addition, the Dangtu Industrial Zone in the west also has a railway of more than ten kilometers connecting the port and the industrial zone. railway network.
There are actually railways in many large docks and industrial areas in the Dachu Empire. They are just horse-drawn railways. At the same time, most of them are small railways with average load-bearing capacity.
Considering that the weight of the train itself is several tons, and it can also pull dozens or even hundreds of tons of cargo, some pig iron railways built in the early days could not bear this kind of weight. Therefore, the railway management office also plans to The city's port railway will be upgraded and renovated, using new wrought iron standard rails to replace the old pig iron rails that have been in service for a long time.
At the same time, the standard one-meter-five gauge gauge will be adopted to facilitate the subsequent expansion of the railway, especially connecting Dangtu to the west and Zhenjiang to the east.
The Guangzhou Machinery Company and the Railway Management Office hit it off immediately, and relevant actions were quickly launched.
Guangzhou Machinery Company further optimized the design based on the prototype, and then worked overtime to produce the first locomotive of the Type 21 train. At the same time, it also urgently designed and produced multiple carriages, some of which were passenger carriages and some of which were freight carriages. .
When designing and producing carriages, although they referred to horse-drawn carriages, they had not done this before, so they used their own understanding to design and build carriages.
So there are some differences... For example, the train cars produced by Guangzhou Machinery Company have separate brakes for each car.
Why specifically talk about brakes? Because it is not easy to apply unified brakes in multiple carriages.
The early trains in the original time and space had no brakes... When they were about to reach the station, they would slow down and then coast. After the speed slowed down, the male passengers on the train would jump off and help pull the train together, so that the train finally stopped. Come down... pure manual braking!
Then it gradually progressed to the point where the front of the car had brakes, but the car still had no brakes. The braking efficiency was very poor, and emergency braking was even impossible.
Later, brakes were installed in each carriage and personnel were assigned to brake under the unified command of the driver.
In 1868, vehicle brakes that could be controlled individually by the driver appeared, namely air brakes.
Nowadays, the Guangzhou Machinery Company naturally does not install any air brakes. What they install in each carriage is to install brake brakes and then have unified control by personnel to avoid accidents caused by failure to brake the car.
After all, we were going to Jinling to demonstrate in front of the emperor, so we couldn't have the embarrassing situation of being unable to stop the car.
At the same time, the wheels of the carriages do not have the big wheels on the original carriages. Instead, they use small iron wheels and are equipped with a reliable spring suspension system, which can make the train run more smoothly and safely.
The train they built has a strong industrial feel, and you can tell at a glance that it was created by mechanical engineers.
After the two locomotives and more than 20 carriages were manufactured, they were first tested on the experimental railway inside their factory. After passing the test, they were shipped to Jinling City.
At the same time, the Railway Management Office also upgraded and renovated the port railway in Jinling City, using standard 1.5-meter new wrought iron I-shaped rails, and also expanded the route by several kilometers, making the port railway more The length reaches about ten kilometers.
As the reconstruction of the railway line was gradually completed, the locomotive of the Guangzhou Machinery Company was successfully transported to Jinling City in the spring and February of the 22nd year of Chengshun.
When everything was ready, February 16th was the day scheduled for testing.
Early in the morning on this day, the palace of the Da Chu Empire was filled with cheerful voices. Dozens of harem concubines who were allowed to leave the palace with Luo Zhixue to watch the train test, together with the beautiful ladies who followed them, were ordinary The palace ladies all walked briskly and were full of anticipation for leaving the palace.
Queen Rao Shi Wang was no exception, dressing up and getting ready early in the morning.
In addition to the concubines in the harem, there are more than 20 younger princes and princesses who are still living in the palace and are also preparing to follow.
Outside the palace, several princes who had reached the age to be crowned kings and moved to live outside the palace, as well as two married princesses, also entered the palace early with their family members and waited.
Today, Luo Zhixue not only went to watch the first public test of the train, but also took his whole family out for an outing to relax and let them watch the excitement and happiness.
How should I put it? Today is the first train test in human history. Well, at least it is a public test. Guangzhou Machinery Company’s own test in the factory does not count...
During this important historical moment, the weather has also been very good these days. The sun is shining, the spring breeze is blowing, and the temperature is suitable. It is also suitable for taking the whole family out for an outing in the city.
The daily lives of these concubines in the harem, as well as the princesses who have not yet married, or the underage princes who have not been crowned kings and moved out of the palace, are actually very boring.
The main reason is that the scope of daily activities is basically limited to the palace, and there is no opportunity to go out. Even in the past few years, Luo Zhixue directly expanded the back garden of the palace to the back, all the way to the edge of Xuanwu Lake, in order to expand the number of members of the royal family. their scope of activities.
However, the palace is a prison after all!
So whenever he had the chance, Luo Zhixue would take his children and concubines out.
In the past, when he went to Jiangnan, Zhejiang, Anlu and other places for inspections, he also took some of his family members with him.
He went to inspect the work, and his family followed him on a trip to relax, so there was no delay in the two.
This time too watch the train open trial!
After all, this is not a very formal political activity. To a certain extent, it is more like watching the fun and novelty...
It wasn't just Luo Zhixue who brought his whole family to watch the fun, in fact many of the accompanying imperial ministers also brought their families along with them.
How can I put it, Luo Zhixue has gone out with his wife and children. After arriving at the place, men and women have different reasons. The concubines and princesses in the royal family will definitely not meet with the ministers. At this time, there must be some people around When people speak and serve, it’s not...
Especially this time, Queen Wang also came with her.
She is the mother of a country when she goes out. Isn't there a royal wife around to follow her?
Therefore, this time when watching the train test, these official husbands followed Luo Zhixue and a group of princes in front.
The official's female relatives, mainly Mrs. Haoming and her unmarried daughter, followed behind Queen Wang.
To put it simply, men have one wave and women have one wave.
It is worth mentioning that this time almost all the dignitaries in Jinling City came out en masse, and many families came with their unmarried children, so many people took the opportunity to find themselves a daughter-in-law or son-in-law.
Once the gentlemen at the front think about it, it is definitely beneficial to marry the other party, then the ladies at the back will go to find out the information, and then the elders will take a look at the marriage partner on the other side, and they can make a decision if they think it is good.
As for the opinions of the parties involved in the marriage... Alas, although the Civil Marriage Law of the Chu Empire currently stipulates freedom of marriage, it is still popular among the people that parents order matchmakers.
Few young men and women can even adapt to the opposite sex, so how can we talk about freedom of love...
On April 16, a large number of dignitaries traveled together, and there were also many ordinary officials and even ordinary citizens who came to watch the excitement, so that there were people on both sides of the short ten-kilometer railway line...
According to inaccurate estimates, on this day, at least 100,000 people gathered along the railway line to watch the excitement...
Fortunately, these people were scattered on both sides of the railway line ten kilometers away and did not get together. Otherwise, various crowding and trampling accidents would have occurred.
However, even if this is the case, it also makes Yingtian Mansion Office, Patrol Department and even the military panic.
In order to ensure safety, the governor of Yingtian Mansion did not even have time to go to the imperial court, and deployed a large number of patrol police and ordinary grassroots personnel to maintain order in various places. .
On the military side, well, to be precise, the Guards directly dispatched an entire Guards Division and a Guards Cavalry Regiment.
These Guards officers will be stationed in various places to suppress unrest at any time, to control the safety of the Holy Emperor, and to protect the dignitaries.
In order to avoid accidents, there were more than 5,000 patrol policemen, tax policemen deployed for support, and ordinary civil servants from other departments to maintain public order that day.
And the Guards dispatched more than 10,000 people...
With such strong vigilance, the spectators were allowed to follow the planned route and go to the planned area for viewing experiments.
Luo Zhixue and his family also left the palace smoothly, and then left the city with a group of officials and their families, totaling several thousand people.
Sitting on the chariot drawn by six white horses, Luo Zhixue looked to both sides from time to time!
On the inside of both sides are dozens of imperial guards who accompany them for personal protection, and on the outside are more than a hundred ordinary imperial guards.
Farther away and in front and behind is the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment of the Guards. This cavalry regiment is the only independent cavalry regiment in the Guards and the only heavy cavalry regiment.
He became famous in the Battle of Dongji, and became almost synonymous with elite heavy cavalry, and was a model for the Chu army to establish heavy cavalry.
In the future, the heavy cavalry regiment will not only send troops to the front line to perform military tasks in rotation, but other troops will stay in Jinling City to perform defense tasks.
This is also a major feature of the Guards, that is, through rotational dispatch, part of the troops are regularly transferred to form a mixed force to fight in a certain hotspot area to maintain combat effectiveness. At the same time, it is also to gain military exploits for the soldiers of the Guards. Qualifications.
Most of the Guards troops who have not yet arrived for rotation are staying in Gyeonggi and are responsible for the defense of Yingtian Mansion and even the surrounding areas.
The same is true for the Fourth Cuirassier Regiment. They have a full strength of more than 1,600 cavalry (including heavy cavalry and auxiliary cavalry), but only a thousand cavalry are present here today, and the other more than 600 cavalry are currently in The northwest frontline performs rotational combat missions.
The cavalrymen of the 4th Cuirassier Regiment of the Guards rode their horses to guard Luo Zhixue's vehicle as it drove forward. On the outer perimeter, including on the roofs of some buildings, at some intersections, and on both sides of the road along the way, those performing tasks were They are soldiers of the 2nd Guards Division.
Behind the imperial chariot were a group of carriages belonging to the royal family, and then came a group of carriages belonging to dignitaries.
Many carriages, under the protection of the Guards, rolled out of the Guanghua Gate of the inner city, continued walking west, crossed the Qinhuai River, and now arrived in the outer city area.
When we walked further to the southwest side of Yuhuatai, more than 2,000 points, we arrived at the place where we watched the train test.
The port area railway previously expanded and improved by the Ministry of Transport extends from the Yangtze River pier to the southeast to three kilometers southwest of Yuhuatai, with a total length of about ten kilometers.
According to the plan, the test train will be visited and inspected by Luo Zhixue here, and then the formal test will be started. It will go from the southwest platform of Yuhuatai to the dock on the edge of the Yangtze River, complete a U-turn here, and then return.
The total journey is a little over twenty kilometers and is expected to take about two hours!
In fact, the power of the Type 21 train is quite sufficient, with more than 100 horsepower. If it does not transport too many goods, it can actually reach a speed of 30 to 40 kilometers or even higher.
When they conducted tests before, the top speed once exceeded 50 kilometers...
However, this speed is too scary these days. If you are not careful, the car will crash and people will be killed. Therefore, in current public tests and even subsequent actual operations, you cannot drive at such a fast speed, otherwise accidents will easily occur.
In addition, the speed of running an empty truck is naturally fast, but this time the public test requires pulling goods and some voluntary participation. Well, in fact, it is the employees of Guangzhou Machinery Company and officials of the Ministry of Transportation... an outside volunteer There are no personnel.
The total of the people and goods is no more or less, just one hundred tons!
This does not include the weight of the carriage and body itself.
With so many carriages, cargo and people, the current power of the Type 21 train is actually a huge burden. It is estimated that the actual speed may not reach 20 kilometers per hour.
For the sake of safety and to reflect the cargo capacity, the scheduled speed for this public test of the train is 20 kilometers per hour.
In addition to the U-turn at the dock, a series of acceleration, deceleration, etc., it takes about two hours.
The convoy arrived at Yuhuatai Station one after another. At this time, a temporary stand had been set up here, and there were many tents behind it.
But the most eye-catching thing is a train parked in the station!
Luo Zhixue waited for the carriage to stop, got off the carriage, and walked towards the train ahead.
This is the main inspection target of his trip, the Type 21 train.
Although they were still hundreds of meters apart, Luo Zhixue could already clearly see the whole train.
The front of the locomotive is the locomotive, which is also the core of the train. Luo Zhixue thinks that the front of the locomotive is very simple and has a style of the primitive industrial era. However, Luo Zhixue will not be disappointed by this. On the contrary, he was very excited after seeing it.
Compared with those low-pressure steam engines that were stupid, thick, and not very powerful, this thing was the steam engine he wanted. It was very compact overall and could produce more than a hundred horsepower in a limited volume and weight.
The locomotive is not a lonely steam engine. In fact, the entire locomotive is composed of two parts. The steam engine is at the front, and the coal carriage is at the back. The two are combined to form a complete locomotive.
After all, trains rely on burning coal to obtain power, and a steam engine alone cannot help.
Behind the locomotive are hung a total of eighteen carriages of the same size, the first eight of which are freight carriages, already loaded with goods for the normal school.
Behind the eight freight carriages, ten passenger carriages were hung, carrying a total of more than 400 passengers.
In Luo Zhixue's eyes, these carriages are relatively simpler than later train carriages, and they are also shorter in size.
In addition to the iron structure for the load-bearing structure of the carriage, more wood is used, especially the sides and top of the carriage are basically made of wood, all for the purpose of reducing weight.
After all, the Type 21 locomotive has limited power. In order to pull more goods and transport more passengers, the weight of the carriage naturally needs to be controlled.
In addition, it is also related to cost... Iron materials are still relatively expensive these days, and as for wood, except for the precious wood used to build battleships, ordinary wood is actually very cheap.
These days, the Chu Empire also has a lot of forest resources, and there are large areas of barren mountains and wild forests with ordinary trees that can be cut down and used.
Therefore, in the current Dachu Empire, although the production capacity of steel has increased significantly, it is still far from replacing wood in industrial applications.
All kinds of wood are still indispensable and widely used materials in the industrial production of the Chu Empire.
Trains and even railways are no exception.
Train carriages use a lot of wood, and railways also have a lot of sleepers.
As he walked over and looked at the train ahead, Luo Zhixue had a smile on his face.
This is not easy. It took more than twenty years of hard work with this empire to build the train.
So when he saw the train, Luo Zhixue had a happy feeling that his hard work had been rewarded.
Even though the train hasn't started yet, and it hasn't been tested yet, Luo Zhixue couldn't help but yelled: "Okay!"
"This is what I want to see!"
When Luo Zhixue said this, many of the courtiers who followed him breathed a sigh of relief and had joy on their faces.
On the contrary, the heads of the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology looked a little embarrassed!
As we all know, the Royal Institute of Technology is the top teaching and research institution in the Chu Empire, and the Royal Institute of Technology Steam Engine Research Institute is the top steam engine research institution in the Chu Empire.
However, they have been working hard for so many years and have not been able to develop a mature and usable high-pressure steam engine. Instead, the Guangzhou Machinery Company under the Ministry of Industry was the first to achieve a breakthrough and develop a high-pressure steam engine.
This incident caused a great shock to the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology, and even had a very bad impact.
When the news that the Guangzhou Machinery Company had developed a high-pressure steam engine reached Jinling City, several senior officials at the Royal Institute of Technology were very dissatisfied with the people at the Steam Engine Research Institute.
They say they need people, money, and cooperation, and there are countless domestic manufacturers who can cooperate.
However, in the research and development of high-pressure steam engines, it is still inferior to a mere company.
It's almost as if they were scolded directly for not being enterprising and just waiting to die by resting on their laurels of low-pressure steam engines.
Because of this incident, the senior management of the Royal Institute of Technology has been thinking about the path to change.
They believe that the many teaching and research staff in the school have little pressure and do not communicate much with the outside world. They all work hard. More importantly, there is no pressure and no indicators, which makes them feel relaxed.
At the same time, R&D investment in many basic fields is also very huge, and the Royal Institute of Technology alone can no longer support it.
Although they also have patent income from patent licensing and a lot of funding from their superiors, they also have many research projects, and many of them are basic theoretical research with little profit.
Just burning money doesn’t make money!
In recent years, the funding of the Royal Institute of Technology has also been very tight, and the pressure has been even greater.
Now, they want to introduce corporate funds to jointly conduct research and development.
To this end, they are thinking about how to work with companies to combine industries, where companies provide funds, Royal Institute of Technology provides talents, and the results are shared to promote the research of many projects.
As for the first project, they wanted to cooperate with Guangzhou Machinery Company, and they wanted everyone to work together on the subsequent improvement and research and development of high-pressure steam engines.
After all, in terms of the number and capabilities of high-end talents, the Royal Institute of Technology is still very powerful. Guangzhou Machinery Company is far from being comparable to them. With them joining, the subsequent improvements in high-pressure steam engines will be faster.
And the Guangzhou Machinery Company was not short of money. It would be easier to establish its own technical advantage and extend its huge advantage in high-pressure steam engines by bringing together the Royal Institute of Technology.
Therefore, Guangzhou Machinery Company is also very interested in this.
Regarding the cooperative research and development, several people in charge of the Steam Engine Research Institute were very unhappy, but they had no choice but to do so.
So in today's public train test, everyone else was in high spirits, except for a few heads of the Royal Institute of Technology's Steam Engine Research Institute who had a straight face, as if someone owed them eighteen million.
On this occasion today, some people are bound to laugh and some cry.
However, these things outside could not affect the mood of a group of female relatives.
Queen Wang, along with a group of concubines from the harem, the royal daughter, the royal family members of the imperial family, Madam Haoming, the legitimate daughter, and other female family members, had also got off the car one after another at this time, and were staying in the special area for women family members surrounded by curtains on the side.
Queen Wang, who was nearly forty years old but still looked very young, looked at the train connection in front of her and let out a sound of exclamation. The other concubines and Mrs. Haoming who were waiting nearby were also dumbfounded.
They were amazed and even more curious.
"Can such a big car really run?" Queen Wang looked at the train in front of her carefully and couldn't believe it.
On the side, Ji Chen, the wife of Erpin Haoming, the co-organizing minister and the wife of Ji Dehua, the Minister of Industry, bowed slightly and responded: "Queen, this car can really run. I heard my husband say, It has been tested in Guangzhou and it runs fast and steadily."
After hearing this, Queen Wang nodded slightly with a smile on her face: "It's really an ingenious thing. It can pull so many cars with only a meager amount of coal!"
Madam Haoming came forward and said: "The Queen's eyes are like a torch, the train is really exquisite. Only we, the great Chu, can make such exquisite things. All of this depends on your majesty and the emperor." The queen’s grace!”
…
When the female relatives at the back began to flatter Queen Wang, Luo Zhixue had already continued to step forward, preparing to get closer or even wait for the car to take a look.
Now that I'm here, I naturally want to get in the car and take a look.
After walking in, he walked around the locomotive. The wheels of this locomotive were a bit big... two on each side, and a total of four driving wheels on both sides. Just looking at the wheels, you could tell that this thing was a product of the early industrial era.
Because the train had not yet started and the boiler had not started burning, Luo Zhixue reached out and touched the car body, feeling that although this machine still looked very simple, it was still full of the atmosphere of the industrial era!
Just like what he said before, this kind of mechanical equipment that is full of industrial atmosphere, made of iron men, and looks violent at first glance, is what he is looking forward to!
After a brief walk around, Luo Zhixue went directly to the door of the cab and stepped up.
Because the cab was relatively small, only a few personal guards followed him. Luo Zhixue looked left and right, and then realized that he couldn't understand how the train was operated...
Nothing but a few poles and some dials... very primitive.
Otherwise, Young Master Luo Zhixue would have to drive a train on the spot to enjoy himself, but since he couldn't drive a train, he would have to take a ride on the train later.
He wanted to be one of the passengers on the first official train of the Chu Empire.
As for the danger in the eyes of many ministers!
This wretched train can only travel at a speed of more than ten miles per hour. If you don't ride a horse, it's dangerous to run fast.
Besides, it's not like he was hit by a train, but walked away in a car...
(End of chapter)
