Wang Defa's family is not idle, he is busy building the world's first railway.

In fact, as early as the time of the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, this nation had a history of using "railways".

Of course, the "railway" of the Qin Shi Huang period was not cast in iron, but laid with wood.

At that time, the wood used to make the track was hard and antiseptic, and it is still well preserved today.

However, the sleepers have rotted, apparently not been treated with antiseptic, and the material is not as hard as the track, but its general appearance can still be seen.

The roadbed of this "railway" is very strong, and the sleepers are laid on the roadbed.

The material of the sleepers is relatively soft, not only to reduce the amount of work, but also not to open up a wide range of wood sources, but also to consciously choose.

The softer sleepers can be closely combined with the rammed very hard roadbed, so that the track is smooth, and the car can travel quickly and smoothly on it.

Anyone who has walked on the sleepers of modern railways understands that the distance between the two sleepers and people's steps are very inappropriate, and the steps of crossing one at a time seem too small, and the steps of crossing two are too large, and walking on the sleepers is both slow and unaccustomed.

This is mainly due to the fact that its earlier distance was meant to fit the horse's footsteps.

This was reflected in the appearance of horse-drawn railroad tracks in England in 1825.

In fact, Qin Shi Huang's "railway", the distance between the sleepers is exactly in line with the steps of the horse!

Everything is not a coincidence, but because of common sense.

Once the horse pulls the cart onto the track, it involuntarily "self-oscillates" and cannot but run so fast that it is almost impossible to stop.

It can be seen that the Qin Dynasty will not inexplicably engage in some "car on the same track" ISO certification, it must have its common sense needs.

Maybe this is the real gallop road, the car is on the same track, and it is convenient for the Qin army to quickly reach all places.

There are also certain standard requirements for the Liuqiu four-wheeled carriage, from the construction of the first carriage, the wheelbase and wheel size of the carriage have been specified------ and if it is not up to size, it is impossible to use the Liuqiu accessories.

Wang Defa's family used the now very mature pot camel machine technology to specially design a railway steam locomotive, and its boiler steam pressure reached a record 1 megapascal!

At the bottom of the boiler there was a flat-lying cylinder, and the locomotive had two pairs of moving wheels, which were geared and axilized 0-2-0.

The locomotive is also equipped with a large flywheel, which can keep the cylinder piston in a smooth reciprocating motion with the help of its rotational inertial power.

The locomotive weighs eight tons, travels at 30 kilometers per hour, and can tow 100 tons of cargo, or ten carriages, and can carry 500 passengers.

This kind of locomotive has a simple structure, and it is easy to maintain and repair. For locomotive drivers, as long as they can read the pressure gauge, know when to add coal, and use the hand brake to brake or slow down!

This kind of locomotive is very safe, and it also has automatic over-gas protection------- even if you deliberately want to let the boiler pressure over-gas, it will automatically discharge the pressure.

On the issue of track gauge, Wang Defa uses a standard gauge of 1435 mm.

The reason is simple, in case there is a special need in the future, you can also put the horse-drawn carriage on the track

For Wang Defa's family, the production of rails is a small test.

He directly used cast iron rails with an I-shaped cross-section, 15 kilograms per meter, and directly with eyelets.

In order to improve efficiency, Wang Defa's family adopted the processing technology of continuous casting, which opened the eyes of the craftsmen of the Great Song Dynasty and soon let other manufacturers learn it.

Wang Defa's family didn't care, it just so happened that he also ordered it from other manufacturers.

The first railway was divided into two sections, from the south bank of the Seven Dao River to the north bank of the Badao River, and between the south bank of the Badao River and the bank of the Nine Dao River------.

The sleepers are soaked in coal tar and will not rot within a few years.

Most of the lots were made of stones for the sleepers, and only a few special lots were re-laid with reinforced concrete.

The total weight of the train set is only one or two hundred tons, in fact, it is the level of the mining locomotives of later generations------ as long as you pay a little attention, there will be basically no accidents.

About half a year before and after, the first section of the 15-kilometer railway was repaired------ the first time it was built, everything needed the guidance of Wang Defa's family, because it had to play a teaching and demonstration role, so the repair was slower.

The first test run was a crisp autumn day.

Zhang Island, the quiet owner's family and Luo Niang came to watch Wang Defa's family drive it himself, and also left a group photo of the four people in front of the locomotive.

Maybe the person who took the photo was a little nervous at the time, but later it looked like the photo was a little ghostly.

Zhang inspected the rivets on the boiler, and he said in surprise: "Technology has advanced, no wonder you dare to launch a 1 megapascal boiler!" ”

Wang Defa smiled bitterly and said, "If Song Ziqiang sees it, he will definitely laugh at my lack of skills------

There is really no way to compare this, the two have different majors.

Zhang said: "No matter how many people come to see this locomotive now!" ”

There were a lot of people on both sides of the railway, all looking at this big iron guy with curiosity------ it was amazing that it could drag such a long carriage on those two rails.

The layman looks at the excitement, and the insider looks at the interests.

There were many four-wheeled coachmen gathered together, and they watched with their shoulders crossed.

"This thing can really walk, can it really drag so many carriages?!"

They weren't fools, and that one wagon would be able to top a few of their four-wheeled carriages.

"It looks like you can------ but it seems that you can only walk on the railroad tracks, and it's not as convenient as me!"

"Exactly, exactly, I don't know how fast it is, what if it's as slow as that camel machine?"

However, the hearts of each and every one of them were still heavy, and they thought that there was no place in this world except for the sea and the mountains, where they could never leave the use of the four-wheeled carriage, and that the four-wheeled coachman would probably always be an important profession.

But ------ the scene in front of them made them uncomfortable.

They were originally the kings of the road from Seven Rivers to Eight Rivers, what else didn't they need to transport back and forth?!

Who would have thought that this object would appear on the side of the road------

The coachmen saw that Zhang Daozhu and his wife, as well as Wang Defa's family and his wife were all sitting in the carriage one after another, and a large number of people who were talking and laughing went up.

A coachman said, "Go! I'll wait for the carriage to have it and try it to see who is faster! ”

The coachmen dispersed with a bang------ they really went to drive.

When Wang Defa's family saw so many people coming up, it was not easy to stop them, so he got out of the car again and went to drive in person.

His assistant watched from the sidelines.

The steam locomotive started, it spewed white steam, it roared, and the iron wheels collided with the rails, making a clanging, clanging sound.

Oh!

The people in the car shouted for joy, they were not satisfied with sitting on the soft back benches, and they all poked their heads out of the car to look outside, they were really walking!

Zhang knocked on the celluloid glass installed on the window with his finger and said, "The size is wrong, or the shock absorption is not good, and the vibration is chaotic." ”

The quiet lord said, "Look at those carriages outside the window------ what's wrong with them?!" ”

Zhang looked at it, and it turned out that dozens of four-wheeled carriages were lined up, quickly overtaking their train, and let out a challenging laugh.

Now they are significantly faster than trains.

PS: Thank you for the tips from book friend Wang Xuanbin and Australian book friend Lao Wu.