Steel steam and flame

After Puno left, after the air in the room was basically replaced, Cassia closed the window and began to sit on the bed and read a book. I rested for a long time on the train, and I still don’t feel tired.

The surroundings were quiet, and the sound from Puno came over at this moment, as if it was the sound of cooking. With his muscular build, a bag of biscuits really wasn't enough to fill his stomach.

When the time passed around ten o'clock, there was completely no sound at the station, and Puno fell asleep very early.

Cassia turned off the light in time, lying on the bed and looking at the ceiling, thinking about those locomotives.

Of course, I won't be prepared to stay here for a long time, waiting for the troops from the other side of the battle line to arrive, or for the rearrangement to come. In Cassia's view, it all depends on luck. He doesn't have much time to go to the front line, so he can't rely entirely on these uncertain things. I still hope that the communication equipment will suddenly get better tomorrow morning, and a lot of troubles will be saved in the future. But one still has to make other plans.

Those locomotives may be used. This is a station. Basic maintenance tools are available, and the most important thing is to have a complete set of power facilities to run the station. It shows that high-pressure and high-temperature steam can be replenished. If you are lucky, maybe collecting several locomotive parts can make one of them move again.

The empire's industrial products, especially military equipment, have always been the empire's standard in terms of quality and are also a reflection of high quality. When Avalon's technology flowed into the empire, the first place it came into contact with was the military's factory.

"The problem shouldn't be big." Cassia could only pray in her heart, then closed her eyes and started to rest.

The next day, the winter morning came much earlier here than in the areas of the empire near the Endless Sea. He got up before dawn in Puno, and the sound of breakfast making reached Cassia's ears from the side.

He got up just in time before Puno came to call him. Breakfast was also simple fried eggs and the like. Cassia expressed her thanks and then asked about the communication equipment.

"Unfortunately, there is still no response. Maybe it will be better in the afternoon." Puno said while eating twice as much food as a normal person. "Don't worry, don't look at the weeds all around. In fact, it's good to stand at a high place and enjoy the scenery. You can try it later."

Cassia nodded and did not continue.

After breakfast, Puno began to conduct routine inspections of various parts of the station. This is a habit developed over more than ten years, and it is not easy to break it. And there's not much to do in a day here, and hunting in the winter isn't really feasible.

Even if Puno asked Cassia to go around the station, he didn't have anything to help him with.

Straight through the small vegetable garden, Cassia walked to the abandoned locomotives.

It's not very clear at night, but now I can only observe it from the outside. It's much better preserved than Cassia imagined. It is larger than an ordinary locomotive because of the thick steel plates welded to the body. A total of two layers of steel plates were welded on top. From some cracked gaps, you could see that there was a layer of hard ceramic sheets that had been broken into pieces sandwiched in between.

It is a very simple bulletproof structure. After all, it is a locomotive entering and exiting the battle line. The armor layer on the body is not thick. Ordinary caliber platinum bullets may be able to beat it into pieces in a very short time.

If some rapid-fire machine guns have good heat dissipation technology in the barrel, or have a specially designed cooling system, and are equipped with a special bullet box, they can pour out thousands of rounds of bullets in one minute, and can last for a long period of time. time. Without such a solid defense, the enemy would make a big detour and ambush beside the railway. The train that could not change its course of action would really be just a living target that could not be avoided.

Red rust has fallen to the ground, all sticky like blood after thirsty, and has even buried the rails under Cassia's feet. There is a "crunching" sound when you step on it.

Cassia picked up a stone and knocked it hard on the iron sheets. Large pieces of stuck rust fell down, and the sound of "dong dong" spread far in the desolate wilderness, and then was slowly heard by the steady stream of wilderness. Absorbs cleanly.

Puno said that these locomotives have been here for several years, but the rust layer has not yet corroded the first layer of bronze steel plates, leaving only countless pitted and mottled marks on them. There is really nothing to fault about the quality.

All the doors on the side were broken, and several of them had fallen off the train due to rust damage at the hinges, and fell into the overgrown weeds beside the railway foundation.

The control room was empty, and Cassia discovered that the situation on the train was not as good as it seemed. It was good news that the rust had not corroded the armor layer, but in his plan, those things were meant to be dismantled. The important thing still has to be to see whether the structure hidden under the iron sheet of the train can still be used adequately.

Inside was a chaotic scene of destruction, with traces of welding and cutting everywhere, although the copper pipes and high-pressure steam tanks were still there. Because these are bulky things, their size and weight almost make up half a locomotive. When the people on the military side abandoned these locomotives, they probably didn't think about taking them away. After all, the workload of removing these parts is equivalent to dismantling a complete locomotive.

What was taken away were some technical components, including the various valve combinations used for control, the steam hose transfer system, and the most important zero-type differential machine. The steam turbine as the main power mechanism seems to have been partially dismantled, and the remaining structures can be counted with the eyes. This is the core structure of condensation technology, and such a result should have been imagined a long time ago.

But listening to what Puno said last night, Cassia originally expected that most of the locomotives left here were relatively well preserved. The Zero Difference Engine didn't think about it. It wouldn't be a big deal if that thing was gone. It is completely possible to control input and output by hardware. The difference is only in the degree of accuracy and complexity.

"Troublesome thing." Cassia sighed looking at the front of the car that was almost reduced to scrap metal. I also thought that the Imperial Military was directly under the supervision of the Imperial Parliament and would not care so much about money and equipment. I thought there were still a few complete locomotives still here. But for this one in front of him, he no longer had any hope in his heart. There are only some common types of copper pipes and valve joints that may be disassembled and can continue to be used for a short period of time after a little processing. Other things can only be allowed to turn into a pile of rust. After all, it is far away from the place where steel can be smelted, and its value is not comparable to the freight.