In mid-September, the original Rhence Railway Company personnel arrived in East Africa, and their company name was changed to East African Railway Company, and there was no major change in other directions.

Chief Engineer Nordin, was hired as a technical advisor to the East African Railways Department.

In October, East African Railways personnel conducted a study of the topographic data provided by the East African Government, and finally Notting Engineers and his team were invited to participate in the East African Government Working Meeting on the construction of the railway.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this meeting will determine the fate of the future East African Railway, it can be said that once it is established, the future East African Railway can only go down this road, so everyone speaks freely, summarizes the actual situation in East Africa, and selects the most suitable railway standard for East Africa. Prince Konstantin set the tone for the meeting.

Engineer Nordin nodded to the crowd, then got up and started to educate everyone about the railway, which is necessary because there are a lot of top students with primary school education in the East African government.

“…… The above are some of the key points of railway construction, but the topic finally returns to how much is appropriate for the selection of railway gauge, there is no unified standard for all countries in the world in this regard, after all, the national conditions are different, you can say what you think, don't worry about any layman. Engineer Nordin said.

As Ernst's confidant, Witt was explained before the meeting and was the first to give his opinion, so he was the first to speak: "There is no fixed standard for broad gauge and narrow gauge (the International Union of Railways formulated 1435 mm as the standard gauge in 1937), according to my idea, it is better to take a middle number directly, directly 1500mm." ”

With the first speaker, everyone is relatively active.

Yarman said: "I think it's better to build a bigger one, I have taken the train, in the past in the army are many people crowded in a small carriage, very crowded, the comfort type is very bad, at that time I was thinking that this train car if it was a little bigger, it would be better, the experience must be better, so I proposed two meters directly, of course, this is my personal opinion, don't be surprised if you say something wrong." ”

Yarman's statement was echoed by some officials from the former Prussian army.

"I think it's not bad to use 1435mm directly, after all, there are many countries that use it."

"1435mm sounds awkward, it was originally 4 feet 8.5 inches in the United Kingdom, the British love to do this, it is just the same as the conversion of pounds to complicate the problem, we use the metric system in East Africa, so it is better to take the whole number according to the metric system, and it is also convenient to calculate."

"I don't agree with 1435mm, overseas, we Germans belong to the weaker side, now Britain and France are colonial powers, we Germans can develop East Africa, and in the future, Britain and France can also develop Africa, and France is now in North Africa and West Africa, and Britain is in Somaliland and Cape Town, so I propose that we should learn from the Russians for national defense considerations, and not make a unified railway standard with them."

"I also agree with this point, we in East Africa do not need to think about the future integration with the world, Africa is not Russia, connecting Europe and Asia, we are still connected with the rest of the world by sea. The junction between land and Eurasia is a small area of Egypt, and now Egypt is still building the Suez Canal, which is a wrestling field between Britain and France, and I don't think outsiders will intervene. ”

"Broad gauge, the advantage is that the load is large, the technical requirements are low, the disadvantage is that the load is large and heavy, and the horsepower cannot go up.

However, we don't pursue speed, and the bulk of East Africa's exports are grain and timber, and we don't have enough of the rest, so I tend to use broad gauge. ”

"In my opinion, the railway is big or good, as for the land problem, East Africa is more sparsely populated than Tsarist Russia, and it doesn't matter if you occupy more land, the most important thing is that Europe has dense arable land, and the railway will affect farmland, so we don't have to worry about this in East Africa, so many grasslands and forests don't have to be used in vain, this is a completely small problem."

"Generally speaking, there is no problem, because the broad gauge is also the width of a seat, and the railway line is not only the rails, but the 10-30 meters on both sides of the general railway is the railway range, and the increase in the track area is negligible. "In terms of safety, the broad gauge can run more smoothly under the current technical conditions, but the turning is solved by the special design of the outer diameter of the wheels!" So the gauge can't be too wide. ”

"Mr. Nordin, this can't be too broad, how do you say it exactly?"

"My advice is not to exceed three meters, because there has never been a practical operating railway of this width at the moment.

In 1835, the British built more than 300 miles of 2140mm gauge railways, and also operated for a period of time, I did not have in-depth research on locomotives, but after so many years of technological development, I estimate that it is more safe to be less than three meters.

Moreover, if East Africa adopts a railway gauge of more than two meters, it should be considered unique in the world, and this should be called ultra-wide gauge.

However, personally, I think that the future of ultra-wide gauge has more potential, and in terms of the current volume of goods in Europe, it has been increasing, and the development of railways is nothing more than the pursuit of speed and heavy loads.

If technical problems such as power can be solved in the future, none of this is a problem, and I think the possibility is very high according to the current development of science and technology. ”

Hearing this, Felix, the commander-in-chief of the new army, said: "Then I think it's better to use 2500mm as our own standard in East Africa, so that the technology is guaranteed, and it also meets the needs of our East Africa, our climate in East Africa is just the opposite of the climate of Tsarist Russia, but I know that Tsarist Russia is also dominated by grasslands and forests, and they have the same destination, so we East Africa is more similar to Tsarist Russia in this regard, so there is no problem with broad gauge." ”

Felix's words are also supported by most people, Tsarist Russia does have similarities with East Africa in terms of geography, forests, grasslands, and permafrost are not in East Africa, but there are many swamps in East Africa.

After the final estimation of the East African government and the confirmation of Nording engineers, East Africa finally chose a maverick number - 2500mm.

Originally, Ernst preferred the figure of 1500mm, but the last statement of the meeting also intrigued Ernst.

It doesn't matter if you spend a little more money, the most important thing in building a railway is the labor cost, which is not necessary for East Africans to do it themselves anyway, so it is good to do it boldly.

The first railway in East Africa was officially established, because this railway ended in the first town, and it was the first railway in East Africa, so the name was also directly called "First Railway", but later generations would add the qualifier East Africa in front.

The first railway, with a total length of fifty-nine kilometers, and the station location was a short distance from the first town and Dar es Salaam, which was the result of taking into account the defensive works, and of course, the noise of the steam locomotives was quite loud, and Ernst did not care, but it was not good to disturb the rest of Prince Constantine.

Because the first railway was an experimental railway, Ernst was not afraid of making mistakes, and if it really didn't work, it would be better to stop, and it would not be too late.

At the same time, this meeting also gave Ernst a sense of urgency, ultra-wide gauge, the concept proposed by Notting engineers is bold and avant-garde, but the relevant technical reserves must be valued.

The standard railway gauge was actually a path dependence problem in the previous life, the British were the first to come up with it, exported it to the world, and then became the standard of many countries, and once they wanted to change, they would give up because they wanted to change the entire railway system, so the cost of change was too great.

In the previous life, some people proposed that the ultra-wide gauge of more than two meters should be used, which can increase the number of containers, but it can only be a flash in the pan.

In this time and space, Ernst has not been developing railways for many years, and for many countries in the world, they have never even seen it, and East Africa is certainly not comparable to other countries in terms of steam power.

The first-mover advantage of the standard gauge has been determined, and East Africa must have its own technological breakthrough if it wants to be independent.

Ernst has a trump card in his hand that has not yet been used, and that is the Berlin Energie Power Company, now the world's top company in the field of internal combustion engines, and next year, in 1870, the practical four-stroke internal combustion engine of Berlin Energie Power will be launched according to the schedule of that year.

Now the company is relatively idle, to increase their workload, the establishment of a new department to concentrate on internal combustion engine locomotives, automobiles and other internal combustion engine applications to increase research.

(End of chapter)