Chapter 145: Standardized System
Chapter 143 Standard System
Before the big construction of the railroad, there was another problem before the Austrian government, the standard gauge of the railroad.
This standard can’t be set haphazardly, wide gauge railroad is good or narrow gauge railroad is good, it has to be determined according to the actual demand.
From the narrowest railroad gauge 610mm, to the widest railroad gauge 2141mm, all belong to the alternative. Of course, if the actual need, you can continue to narrow, or enlarge the gauge.
Wide railroad has the advantage that the stability of the train is improved, it is not easy to turn over, and it can improve the smoothness and comfort of the train operation. The disadvantage is that the turning radius is too large and the construction cost increases.
Of course, the track is wider, the carriages can also be wider, the load will be increased, the prerequisite is that the railroad can carry a larger load, which requires comprehensive consideration, not just the gauge can be decided.
In general, wide railroads have a larger cargo capacity, but due to other factors, the capacity may not increase.
In terms of passenger transportation, wide-gauge railroad is obviously more advantageous, with more spacious, more comfortable experience.
Variable gauge technology is not something that needs to be considered in this era, including the high-performance trains of later generations, which also cannot be produced in this era.
Perhaps the latter-day narrow-gauge railroads can also run trains more than three meters wide, in this era is obviously not done. If the plains are not much of a problem, once uphill and downhill, it’s a matter of minutes to turn over.
On top of that, there are political and military factors to consider. For the sake of national defense and security, the purpose of intentionally building railroads with different standards than those of neighboring countries was so that in times of war, the enemy would not be able to quickly make use of their railroads.
……
“Your Majesty, why must we standardize the gauge of all railroads? Can’t we just change trains at fixed stations?
This way, we can build railroads according to different needs and minimize construction costs.” Railroad Minister Stein asked suspiciously
Franz explained, “We have to have the efficiency problem, think about unloading the goods from one train and reloading them onto another, how long would that take and how much additional labor would it require?”
Stein thought for a moment and said, “Your Majesty, that amount of time is nothing, train transportation is already so much faster than traditional transportation.
The increased labor cost is even less worth mentioning compared to the cost of building the railroad. We have limited funds, there is no need to waste them.”
Franz rubbed his forehead, he finally knew what was going on with the railroad mess in various countries in this era.
Restricted by the era, this era was different from the later generations in terms of people’s thoughts and perceptions.
People hadn’t yet entered the era of fast-paced life, and people didn’t feel how valuable time was. The cost of labor is even lower than it should be, and the value of labor is not yet felt.
However, Franz still had to find a way to convince them. Don’t think that it’s just the Germans who are stubborn, in fact, the Austrians aren’t much worse, especially this kind of engineers with low emotional intelligence.
As high-level talents in this era, they had their own insistence. If he couldn’t convince them, Franz would have to force them to carry it out.
Obviously, this was not what he wanted. If he couldn’t get these people to do their job, the slightest bit of negativity in railroad design caused tens of millions of dollars in damage.
In order to avoid being pitched, the core designers of the Austrian railroads are a group of national technical geeks, even if the external technical staff are from the German region, the idea of all are “three views of the right” of the Lord.
Franz replied: “the future needs of the country’s development, this is related to the country’s next strategy, any questions?”
“No, Your Majesty.” Stein replied.
Differences in ideological perceptions cannot be explained in a moment, Franz didn’t bother to explain, and just found a reason to muddle through.
Anyway, it was much easier to fool this kind of headstrong technicians than politicians, he also had to take the design basis given by the Ministry of Railways and use it to convince the government, it was a headache to think about.
There was no way, here in the Austrian Empire. Although the imperial power is high above, but the ministers underneath also have a very high status, the emperor if you do too much, so they are not happy, people directly hang up the seal and go.
Is it easy to change?
Indeed easy, want to be an official people everywhere.
It’s just that it’s harder to find ministers who are both capable and loyal enough, and who have enough prestige.
If you do what you want, it won’t take long to keep a group of assholes around you, the emperor’s order is the holy will, unconditional support.
Whether or not they will be carried out, no one knows. Franz knows that 80% of the world’s good policy, to the bottom of the flavor.
Without strong government oversight, bureaucrats interpreted them in their own interests and ended up making a mess of things.
No one likes a subordinate who sticks to his or her principles; such people often hurt the leader’s face, and since the emperor took the lead, they naturally followed suit, and in the end all that was left in the government were smooth talkers.
What will be the consequences, Franz dare not think. Anyway, in a country, as long as the upper level is rotten, the lower level will fall faster than anyone can imagine.
To avoid this, then one can only make a set of rules, and as the maker of the rules, one must likewise be bound by them.
“Taking Austria’s actual situation, you calculate at an annual economic growth rate of five percent, consider our transportation needs in fifty years, and design a standard system suitable for Austria, is there a problem?” Franz asked
“No!” Stein replied
Technically things he was still confident, as for the issue of the economic growth rate, that one was the government’s problem, whether it could reach five percent or not, it was none of his business.
Franz seemed to have thought of something and added, “Wait a minute, there’s also the connectivity to the Holy Roman League and the Balkans to consider, in the future we’ll promote this set of standards to them, and eventually everyone’s railroad networks will be connected.”
The ultimate goal of establishing the Holy Roman Alliance was to realize economic integration, and the unification of railroad standards was naturally an essential part.
Other areas of the Balkan Peninsula can be avoided, but Belgrade must be taken, this is the gateway to the Balkan Peninsula, mastering this place is controlling the lifeblood of the Balkan Peninsula.
The two duchies of the Danube River Basin must also be in the hands of the two duchies, which is related to Hungary’s food exports, but also here is an important import and export trade corridor for Austria. (Principality of Wallachia, Principality of Moldavia)
Before the railroad was opened, Hungary’s grain was transported through the Danube River Basin to the Black Sea for sale in European countries, and Hungary’s import and export trade also relied heavily on the Danube River.
This is why Austria strongly opposed Russia’s occupation of the Black Sea Straits, which threatened Austria’s national security.
Professional things are still left to the professionals to do good, Austria’s big railroad plan, on the horse is still a bit hasty.
Who made Franz underestimate the aristocrats’ enthusiasm for investment?
Perhaps in many sources, the nobles are corrupt and backward, but in fact they are conservative, but also have a progressive side.
Aristocrats received the best education from childhood, received information that ordinary people could not be exposed to, and broadened their horizons.
Under such circumstances, how could the next generation that was nurtured be all stupid idiots?
Their conservative opposition to political change was determined by their own self-interests, so how could they let vested interests oppose their own interests?
The real idiots have long since seen God. The Austrian Revolution of 1848 also saw a major reshuffle within the aristocratic group, and many nobles who had made errors in judgment and were blinded by greed had been removed.
The concept of the nobles also changed at this time, or rather the reality forced them to change.
In order to quell the rebellion as soon as possible, Franz pushed for the emancipation of serfs and land redemption, which were actually concessions made by the aristocracy.
The example of the French showed them that if they did not give in to the spread of the revolution, they would end up with even greater losses, so they made concessions on the one hand and helped the government to suppress the rebellion on the other.
Some of the unlucky ones who were in the vortex of the revolution chose to run away from this change, with the result that by the time the general situation had been settled, the land had already been forcibly redeemed.
Having lost the land as a pillar of their livelihood, these people were the first to look for new projects to transform themselves. The railroad came along and many people saw the potential of this new form of transportation.
They needed a new industry to keep the family business afloat, and the railroad was the choice of many, and with the efforts of so many, the construction of the railroad was artificially accelerated.
Only then did this happen, the front line was already starting to make preparations for construction, and the standards for the railroad tracks were not yet out.
The basic information on transportation requirements has been provided by the government. It is not difficult for the railroad designers to calculate the transportation requirements, and then it is even easier to determine the railroad standards from the transportation requirements.
Soon the design standards were in front of Franz, various other parameters he, a layman, could not understand, the only thing that caught his attention was the gauge.
The Ministry of Railways proposed four programs, namely: 1524mm standard system, 1600mm standard system, 1676mm standard system, and 1712mm standard system.
The main road of the previous construction, are all commercial and prosperous areas. Both passenger transportation, and freight demand is the highest.
In the establishment of the railroad standard system, naturally focuses on the requirements of this area, coupled with the consideration of fifty years, this standard naturally rises a lot.
There is no narrow-gauge railroad, this era is limited by the train manufacturing technology, narrow-gauge railroad transportation capacity is limited, due to the lack of stability, prone to safety accidents, rarely used in the construction of the main road railroad.
The final choice came back to the hands of the Austrian government, theoretically speaking, the above several options are now feasible, which one to choose has become a difficult problem.
(End of chapter)