Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1074 Double Line

The train with 12 carriages is moving forward along the railway line "clang bang bang".The scenery along the way is monotonous and repetitive. The dusty sky, yellow weeds, dirty cattle and sheep, and shepherds staggering in the wind constitute a typical pastoral landscape in the Southern Cone.

Sometimes the train gets closer to the Xingnan River. Chen Ke can see through the window that there are a lot of trees planted along the river. The others stood up stubbornly, just like the tens of thousands of residents living along the railway line.

The banks of the Xingnan River were originally the most important agricultural areas in the South Railway subsidiary, and most of the small grain production in the Santa Cruz Province of Argentina came from here.However, when Chen Ke looked around at this time, there were low alfalfa fields everywhere in his eyes, and he rarely saw anyone planting grains. This may have something to do with the local climate - but radishes, onions, ginger, cabbage, beets, beans There are a lot of melons, fruits and vegetables planted.

Since Xingnan Port adopted dam-building and flood irrigation technology to improve the soil (there were too many coarse gravels in the original soil, which was not conducive to crop growth), many gravels along the river were covered with a thin layer of fine soil that can be planted. The local agriculture has been developed with difficulty, and the cultivation of vegetables and potatoes has become popular, occasionally mixed with the cultivation of some rye and barley.But in any case, most of the grains in the South Railway affiliated area still need to be imported from Peru, and the 25 South Railway residents spend nearly [-] yuan a year to import grain, which indeed feeds a large number of planters in Peru. garden.

Of course, the Southern Railway Company did not suffer a loss in this kind of commodity exchange, because they also sold a large number of industrial products to Peru, and what they got back was nothing more than some grains, tallow, sulfur, ore, giant logs, sugar, tobacco, and cocoa. It’s nothing more than agricultural and mining primary products. These primary consumer goods can bring great satisfaction and happiness to the people on the east coast, and the Southern Railway Company can also make a lot of money from them-don’t forget that the Southern Railway Company imports and exports from this Earned 72 yuan a year in trade.

The train stopped when it arrived at Newcastle Station because they had not received a notice from the station.After the accompanying officials went down to inquire, they ran back sweating profusely to report to Liu Ang that there was a train full of building materials parked on the road in front of them. At the next stop (that is, Sandcastle Railway Station), Sandcastle has dispatched a spare locomotive and maintenance personnel to overhaul it.Traffic should be able to resume within six hours, officials added.

Chen Ke had already got down from the compartment at this time. It was too stuffy inside the car, so it was better to go outside—although the weather was colder.He has long been accustomed to the train lying down from time to time, because this kind of thing is not only common on the Southern Railway, but also not uncommon on the more mature Rome Railway.There are many reasons for this, but the most important are two points: one is that the quality of the train itself (including steam locomotives and trains) has problems and its reliability is not high; With frequent trains, the rails will be damaged when they are overwhelmed, and frequent repairs and replacements will naturally affect the running of the train.

But this time, according to Chen Ke's inquiry, the reason for the lying down train in front was that the steam locomotive had broken down. At this time, the train conductor, driver and others should have gathered around the steaming locomotive to start maintenance, but they can actually do a lot. Limited, if you want to completely move the train, it is estimated that you have to wait for the professionals sent by Sandcastle to arrive.

"The locomotive should be the steam locomotive 'La Plata Star-1' newly developed by the South Vehicle Factory. It is said that the powerful steam engine 'Barbarian-7 C' is used, and it also parked in the locomotive. In the middle of the railway, it seems that the reliability is still not good after all, at least compared with the previous locomotives, the improvement is limited." Chen Ke was wearing a bearskin coat and soft moccasin boots, thinking to himself.Although he is a member of the Ministry of Agriculture, he has also heard more or less about the "Star of La Plata" series of locomotives officially launched by the Southern Vehicle Factory after a year and a half of verification, making a trip to the East The total load of shore trains (generally 12 carriages, 1 tender car, 1 passenger carriage, and 10 freight carriages) has been greatly increased, reaching the highest level in history of 150 tons, and the average speed has also increased from 35 kilometers per hour to 39.5 kilometers - but now it seems that this locomotive is still not very mature, or the reliability is not very high, as evidenced by frequent train failures.

However, the railway sector is not without progress. The problem of severe deformation of the rails under the extreme low temperature in winter, which has plagued the South Railway Company for a long time, has been alleviated to a certain extent after years of research by Tieling Special Steel Works.After a lot of experiments, they spent more than [-] yuan in research and development funds, improved the iron smelting formula, and specially produced a batch of anti-frost heave rails for the Southern Railway Company. There has indeed been improvement, so now the Liangyang Railway has gradually replaced this new rail since last year. There are old railroad tracks.

"If the car is so old and broken, it is estimated that the re-tracking of the two-ocean railway will start immediately. The poor company just turned a profit last year. It originally planned to pay a large dividend this year, but it is estimated that it will be yellow." Some officials accompanied him. The car smoked, and chatted by the way: "As long as there is one train lying down, all other cars can only wait at the station, and the transportation from east to west will be greatly affected, and people can't stand it."

"The key is that the transportation task is still very heavy now! Coal, timber, grain, and building materials are so heavy that people can't breathe. I can't wait to send more than a dozen trains a day, but how is this possible? In addition A large number of Peruvian specialties, livestock, seafood, and local industrial products have to be transshipped by railroad, oh, and there are immigrants, and the railroad has long been overwhelmed." Some people began to echo, only to hear him say: "It costs 2 yuan to repair a standard house. Yuan bricks, multiple beams, and some tiles will take up less than half the capacity of the train, which is terrible. Last time, in order to free up capacity for the train, the company decided to transfer materials such as coal and grain to As a result, a grain carrier sank in the Strait of Magellan and two coal carriers sank in the Cape Horn for more than half a year. The South China Sea Transportation Company jumped in a hurry and threatened to let their ships pass through Magellan again in the winter and spring. Strait or Cape Horn, they'll refuse to ship, and it's going to be, well..."

"The South China Sea Transportation Company has been righteous enough. They have sunk many ships in the South Cone over the past few years. Although most of them are sailing ships, it is heartbreaking enough. The sailors must have opinions on this. The South Sea Company can do It’s really not easy to get to this level, and we can’t keep cheating people.” The smoking official frowned and said, “It seems that the double-tracking of the two-ocean railway is imperative, and I actually support it. Last year, the company made a profit of 3.5 yuan in passenger and freight transportation (the Liangyang Railway was completed in the second half of 1654, so the income was not very high), which was greatly affected by factors such as vehicle failures, otherwise the freight would definitely be high. It’s going to go up a lot, and it’s really affecting the movement of a lot of goods.”

"Do you have money?" After a long silence, someone asked.

"Crowding is always necessary, even if a section of tens of kilometers is built first, with the existing line and the Xingnan Highway, the construction cost of this double track will definitely be lower than before." Another person replied, "Last year Logistics income (including railway and wharf income), trade income (including Peruvian smuggling trade), fishing and hunting income (including income from fishing and hunting sea animals), logging income, plus a small amount of tax collection, no less than 130 million yuan, this money It is enough to do a lot of things. Of course, I also know that our company still spends a lot of money, infrastructure is the big one, and there are education investment, medical investment, cultural construction investment, etc., a lot of money is spent, but what if If the company is willing, it will naturally be able to shift the focus of investment. You can invest in places that are not busy, and focus on other places first, right? Money, how can there be money if it is not crowded, money is never enough..."

"What you say makes some sense." The smoking official was probably older, so he said with a smile: "After the completion of the railway in the second half of last year, the road construction team was not disbanded, but was taken away by all. After arriving at Qingniwa Township, they began to level the foundation collectively to the south, and the people from the engineering department were also surveying the route. President Liu meant that the team could not be idle anyway, so let them continue to build a road from Qingniwa to Magellan Intelligence The branch line of the station, it is said that in the future, this large area will be a pastoral area, and it will be used for wool processing. This branch line may eventually extend to the mouth of the Strait of Magellan. Hehe, they have leveled a considerable section of the roadbed right now, but this I'm not in a hurry to build a branch line. If it doesn't work, just pull the road construction team back together, and build a double line next to the original line. First, solve the trouble that affects the company's transportation bottleneck. Others are not available for the time being urgent……"

"This is also the reason." Someone said, "Now the mainland is also overhauling the railway, and it is said every day that there is a shortage of manpower. Once our team is idle, it may be drawn by the mainland. Why? This road construction Most of the people in the team are the Krandi people that our road guard officers and soldiers went out to capture, as well as the Polish prisoners of war and Congolese slaves that were bought with money. The mainland didn’t pay a penny, so why let them go back and repair it for others? Road? We are operating as a company now, and we have to be responsible to the shareholders. Old Chen, I think what you said is reliable. Let’s make a suggestion to President Liu. We will prepare for the double-tracking of the Liangyang Railway in the near future. It’s really not possible. Any more delays..."

"Medium!" Lao Chen put down his pipe and said, "Let's talk to President Liu later."

(End of this chapter)