Railcarts are a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of a long, tubular vehicle riding over magnetic rails. Unlike motorcarts, which are operated by a single individual for anything from running to the store to hauling produce to market, railcarts are driven by a team of four to eight operators. These operators are highly trained professionals who propel the cart, manage navigation and traffic patterns, and much more. Along with the operators in the engine cart, carts for carrying passengers also employ a team of cooks, mechanics, cleaning crew and more.
Railcarts have been in existence in a variety of forms for nearly 40 years. However, only in the past 15 years have they taken on their familiar shape and use. Prior to the Atlan government’s national transportation initiative of 235EM, railcarts were nothing more than carnival rides. Today, the longest railcarts can stretch for nearly two kilometers and haul loads weighing in excess of 50,000 tons.
Despite initially being designed by and for the Atlan military, raillines today are most commonly used to transport bulk materials such as coal, grains, ores and even liquids, or passengers. Alpine City is currently considered the rail capital of the world, with more kilometers of track within the city limits than anywhere else on Velwythe.
HISTORY:
Magnetically driven devices have been popular in fairs, stores, schools and other seemingly unusual areas for decades. The railcart of today can trace its roots back to each of these inventions. However, there have been a few important moments in the history of magnetic transportation that were integral in creating the railcarts we now know.
Approximately 40 years ago, just after the turn of the 3rd century, the first magnetic levitation railcart was introduced to the world in Tru Dahn City. Tru Dahn is home to one of the nation’s largest amusement parks, Golden Carnival. This carnival has been in operation for 150 years and has some of the tallest, fastest and most extreme amusement rides anywhere on Velwythe. So it’s no wonder the first railline rides were unveiled at the opening of the 207EM season.
John Bishop, an engineer and lead ride researcher for the park, is credited with creating the first railline ride. Over the winter of 200EM, Bishop, a native of Gray Lake Haven, watched his child playing with a curious toy. During the winter, Bishop’s son found a long piece of metal wire and a metal ring that fit loosely over the wire, while rummaging through his father’s work shed. Bishop’s son later tied one end of the wire to a distant object such as the top of a doorway or bookshelf. He tied the other end of the wire to an object near the ground. Using metal pliers to help channel the magnetic field, Bishop’s son placed one of the pliers on the wire ahead of the ring, and one behind it. By channeling his energy he was able to create two opposing magnetic fields. As he did so the metal coil would leap from the wire and hover around it, propped up by the magnetic fields coursing through the wire. As his son moved the pliers, the metal coil followed along, silently floating around the wire. Though incredibly primitive, Bishop saw that what his son was doing could be more than just entertainment on a snowy day.
Bishop spent the next year designing and testing a magnetic cart that would, just like his son’s toy, hover over a set of rails, following any path the rails took. It took 3 more years of planning and another three years of construction to build what Bishop called the MagSlide.
The MagSlide was a three-cart ride that seated up to eight passengers and one operator. Everyone sat inside a tube shaped cart that looked strikingly similar to a grain silo laid on its side and cut in half horizontally. The operator of the MagSlide would control the charge of the cart and power the machine around a half-kilometer oval track at speeds of approximately 25 kilometers an hour. By changing the polarity of the magnetic field on the track immediately in front and behind the cart the operator was able to propel the vehicle rapidly. What was most significant was the relatively low energy requirement. While channeling the energy into the rails was taxing, because the rails did not need to be charged in their entirety. Instead, just as Bishop’s son discovered, only a tiny segment of the rails needed to be charged at any one time. This one discovery is perhaps the single most important in the history of the railline. Without it, the energy requirement would have necessitated hundreds of individuals at charging stations across every length of track, something so incredibly cost prohibitive the carnival ride would have bankrupted Golden Carnival.
From the moment it opened, the ride was a tremendous success, producing the longest lines ever seen in the park. On one occasion, it was noted by several park goers that the line was so long that most people spent the entire day, a full 12 hours, waiting to ride just once.
Over the next 20 years, the MagSlide developed and grew into a plethora of rides. From the highest to the fastest, whatever the park-goers asked for, they were given. Golden Carnival owned all the copyrights and patents for the device; however, so the spread was limited to the park itself. Despite the isolated nature of the rides, word spread across Atla and crowds steadily grew each year. By 225EM, hundreds of thousands of individuals had the pleasure of riding one of the many MagSlides in the park. Moreover, one of those individuals happened to be an Atlan army scientist who was at the park for his son’s tenth birthday.
Science-Sergeant Douglas Quincy was immediately captivated by the creative use of magnetic levitation. He, before anyone, saw the possibilities that this means of transportation held for the future of Atla. When he returned to duty later that year Quincy had already formulated the plans for a network of similar but larger MagSlides that could transport troops from Tru Dahn to the rest of Atla. Fort Jerrel was already producing more trained troops than anywhere else on Atla, and getting those troops as far north as Hesiod was challenging, expensive and time consuming. With the MagSlides traveling across the flat lands of Atla from Tru Dahn to Alpine to Hesiod, Quincy believed he could reduce the travel time for troops by half.
In one of the most controversial moves of the railline’s past, the Grand Provincial Councilor declared the copyrights and patents belonging to Golden Carnival were irrelevant to the Atlan military. With all the patents and copyrights locked up by Golden Carnival, the government was previously unable to build any of the raillines for troop transport. Under the banner of national security, the government seized all the information relating to the MagSlide and began producing its own carts and lines. Initially Golden Carnival attempted to sue the Grand Council for theft, vandalism, larceny and harassment. However, a jury of provincial representatives and citizens found the Grand Council not guilty, as the seizure of the copyrights and patents was a matter of national security and advancement. The lawsuit did have a positive result for Grand Carnival however. While the government bypassed the copyrights and began producing larger MagSlides that would become raillines, Grand Carnival was permitted to continue building and operating their own MagSlides. As long as they divulged none of the classified information regarding the railline’s creation, they could continue owning the copyrights and patents in the private sector. Despite working closely with the government for another ten years, Grand Carnival eventually sold their patents and copyrights to over a dozen individuals and corporations (with an estimated profit of 200 to 500 million mig).
The First railline connected Alpine City to Bedrin. It was only the first leg in a line that eventually went on to connect Camp Hesiod and Fort Jerrel. For five years the raillines continued to grow and spread across Atla, though the majority of them began in Alpine City and all owned by the military.
Just over 10 years ago, in 236EM, the Grand Council opened the first public railline. The need and desire for transcontinental travel was too great to keep isolated to the military. Shortly after, the first nationally owned line opened connecting Alpine City to Morrid. As revenue grew steadily each month, plans for more raillines grew as fast as the engineers could build them. Today, only about one third of the raillines are provincially owned. In addition, most of those are private military lines or dedicated lines linking capital cities or government offices. With the sale of Golden Carnival’s patents and the opening of the first public transport lines dozens of corporations are rushing to build their own network of lines.
DESIGN:
While there are dozens of different designs for railcarts, most of them vary only in construction materials and interior styling. In fact, the commercial transportation side of the railline industry is dominated by only three models of railcart, as there is little room for improvement given the limits of today’s Magi-Tech.
The standard passenger railcart is made up of 2 to 10 carts, each between 10 and 25 meters long. Leading the carts is one operator cart, or engine. Each cart, including the engine, is connected to the other carts by a series of metal couplings. Small platforms extend over the couplings to allow passengers to cross between cars safely. Safety regulations require that these walkways be enclosed to prevent passengers from falling off the narrow walkway between carts. Most carts seat 2 to 3 people on either side of a central walkway running the length of the carts. Many carts are two stories tall with narrow stairways leading up to the top level from either end of the cart. All of these carts are designed to be interchangeable, allowing as many or as few of any variety of cart to be coupled to any other cart.
Drive carts, or engines, are much different from the passenger carts. Engines house between 4 to 8 operators who work in varying positions to propel the cart. On the outside, the engines are designed to flow through the air with minimal resistance, and adhere to the general design of the carts they pull. However, the interior is designed entirely for utility. Like motorcarts, railcart engines have drive poles that the operators use to power the carts. Unlike a motorcart, there are several of these drive poles positioned near the front and rear of the cart. The operators’ energy is converted below the cart into a magnetic field. This field powers and switches the magnetic poles built onto the rail itself, pushing from behind with a repulsive polarity and pulling ahead with one that is attractive. This power is transferred through two pairs of hooked power couplings on each engine and cart. These couplings look like bird talons and float on a magnetic field over the raillines creating an incredibly comfortable ride.
Because the power needed to propel the mammoth creations is so great despite the revelation of limited rail energizing, it takes several skilled Magi operators to drive the cart. Shifts last usually no more than four hours. After four hours of operation fatigue becomes so great that passenger safety is jeopardized.
Railcarts designed specifically for hauling cargo, whether that be grain, coal, clothing or livestock, are built to suit the need. Again, while there are dozens of styles of cargo carts, most of them are based on either a flat platform for stacking, an enclosed, rectangular box for storing goods, cylindrical containers for liquids or extra long carts for large pieces of equipment. Their coupling mechanisms are identical to passenger carts.
The raillines the carts ride over are tall, metal tracks secured firmly into the ground. Looking head on at a section of rail they will appear in the shape of a large ‘Y’. The base beam is secured into the ground and is able to withstand the intense power and weight of the carts. The two angled beams support the power couplings on the carts themselves.
FUTURE:
Raillines will only spread in the near future. Every province has at least one major railline passing through it. Thousands of kilometers of railline stretch across Atla and are spreading throughout the rest of Velwythe. Presently there are more than 100 companies manufacturing, distributing or operating railcarts in Atla alone. Business is exploding almost uncontrollably and construction projects are scheduled through the next decade. Many fear however, that this explosive growth will have an adverse effect on the economy in the long term.
With so many companies forming around raillines, the nation’s infrastructure will eventually fill to bursting. When that happens many of these companies will likely go bankrupt. It is not clear how far the government is willing to let the raillines grow, but at some point they will cover most of Atla. When that happens, the market will no long be able to support the many companies in existence today. But there is still plenty of room across Atla, and for the time being the railline industry will continue to grow.
Posted in