#preserved steam engines

[redwryvernwrites]

Hey! I was wondering if you, as an Aussie, knew any good books or websites that compile info on Australian locomotives and railways. I'm kinda out of my depth as a Brit but I wanna know more about 3801 and other preserved Aussie locomotives.

Before you get into our engines or our railways, you need to understand how batshit our railway gauges are.

There is a database that catalogues all current preserved engines and it's a good place to start before you narrow down to what you want to specifically research. 3801 is a part of NSWGR. It gives you the basics of every engine we have preserved and you can go form there if you pick a certain engine.

[choc-ice-on-wheels]

DUCK IN THE CORNISH MYSTERY

[mrtheengie]

Do you ever get lost on your way to McDonald’s and end up in West Yorkshire?

[trainmaniac]

J17 BR 65567 at Doncaster Works being cosmetically restored for preservation in the National Collection 04-06-1963 by Paul Kearley Via Flickr: The photographer is unknown. A digitally restored image from an original negative in my collection.

[aneverydaything]

Day 1849, 16 July 2023

[opelman]

But if I should become a stranger you know that it would make me more than sad... by Treflyn Lloyd-Roberts Via Flickr: Caledonian Railway pair 419 and 828 steam south over Avon Viaduct on the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway under gloomy skies at the end of an "In Search of Steam"/Scottish Railway Preservation Society photo charter. Locomotives: Caledonian Railway 439 Class 0-4-4T 419 and 812 Class 0-6-0 828. Location: Avon Viaduct, Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway, Falkirk, Scotland.

[guerrerense]

Vordernberg Styria Austria 14th July 2024 por loose_grip_99 Por Flickr: Vordernberg was a hub of the Erzbergbahn steam operations with the standard gauge rack railway to Eizenerz and the Iron Mountain starting here. ÖBB class 97 0-6-2T 97.217 was built in 1908 by the Floridsdorf Locomotive Works. It was withdrawn from service on 25th May 1978 at the end of steam working and mounted here as a reminder of the intensive iron ore trains in 1980.

[mrtheengie]

And here's a photo I took of the same engine a short while ago at East Lancs' Autumn Steam Gala. Preservation has been very kind to this little beast.

They converted her back to her as-built in 1863 appearance, hence why she once again has a tender, which you can't see.

Came across this image today of Furness Railway no.20 being used as a playground

[catenary-chad]

Why Greaseball is a Really Great train villain: a looong post (4.8k words) on all the historical train context behind replica Greaseball 

For all my issues with the other main engines, I think (replica) Greaseball is FANTASTIC. He just works on so many fundamental levels and gets so much better/worse with historical context.  If we make him an EMD E9 locomotive (a common headcanon) things get even more interesting, and there’s even a convenient irl engine to base him on! 

Note: if you’re into real US trains this info probably won’t be as new to you as my Nez Cassé post, since E and F units are so well preserved and documented in English.      A lot of the topics I go on are pretty widely discussed in US railfan circles and not terribly obscure.  Also this is just about replica, Elvis-style Greaseball vs Wembleyball… her being more modern and European changes a lot and I would take a very different approach.

Also CW for non-graphic discussion of abuse in the very last section. I have a separate warning before it comes up so you can leave before then.  

DIESEL TRACTION IN THE US

First of all, to clear up a common misconception: 99% of all diesel locomotives are diesel-electric.  The diesel engine is used to generate electricity to power electric motors to turn the wheels.  This is why dual-mode engines that can switch between drawing third rail/overhead wire electricity and making their own with a diesel engine are so common.  Besides the power source, they work similarly, so it’s not hard to incorporate.  This is NOT how hybrid cars work, though diesel-electric setups have been used on very heavy trucks for purposes like mining.  Diesel-mechanical is more in line with how automobiles work but is basically unheard of outside of very small switchers in the US (mostly in museums now) and 50s-era shunters and that one weird Fell diesel in the UK. The technical reasons of why isn’t really important here, but has to do with the difficult of making an appropriate gearbox for road locomotives and appealing qualities of electric motors for train use (high starting torque). 

Internal combustion-based locomotives are actually much more recent than pure electric ones.  Electric engines achieved practical use around the 1890s and were well-established in urban and mountainous areas by the 20s-30s…. which is when diesel boxcab switchers first started production in substantial numbers and lightweight diesel trainsets like the Zephyrs, M10000, and Flying Hamburger started to pop up.  The earliest diesels were either slow (switchers) or fast but very weak (lightweight trainsets and railbusses). There were major tech limits to maximum horsepower in diesel locomotives until the second half of the 20th century, which is why several of them were often needed to replace one steam or electric engine, and why you had some weird turbine designs in the 50s-70s as an alternative. 

Early diesel locomotives in the US actually had a lot in common with their early implementation in the UK.  They’re often perceived differently because Thomas the Tank Engine had so many characters based on unsuccessful early British diesel models, while most of the failed earlier US diesels are obscure compared to the successful and widespread ones (that often have the strongest museum presence). There were some notably good early switcher models (some still being used today) that were among the first to replace steam engines because it was one of the tasks that they had the biggest advantage over them in, and limited size wasn’t an issue.  Road diesel implementation was messy and due to the early state of the technology, some railroads like the Pennsylvania Railroad had a strategy more akin to early British Rail in that they planned to just slowly phase out steam as they electrified.  Higher wages and stronger unions were also a factor in both countries dieselizing, due to the vastly lower labor needed for diesel locomotives vs steam and generally safer, more pleasant working conditions on them.  There was also a need to shed a reputation for being outdated to draw in customers again with both.  There was also a desperate early demand for diesel power that led to a lot of questionable builders and designs being picked up early on and later dumped for being nonstandard.  

The main difference is that dieselization’s serious pursuit in the US started around the Great Depression and really picked up in the late 30s, almost two decades before the Modernization Plan of 1955.  So it was a far more mature and well-established technology by the 50s and Greaseball is very much based on this dominant position vs the messy early experiments of the Thomas diesels.  

Greaseball’s helmet heavily resembles the fronts of the E and F unit carbody locomotives made by EMD from the 30s-50s.  I’ll go into those specific models later, but the manufacturer alone is really interesting and has a lot of great symbolism that works with Greaseball. 

Earlier diesel manufacturers included steam builders like Alco and Baldwin, outside companies getting into the diesel locomotive market like Fairbanks-Morse, and EMD, which started as an independent company but quickly became part of General Motors.  One of the major advantages EMD would acquire is mass-production in assembly lines, the way cars were made, as opposed to building one engine at a time like steam shops did.  So Greaseball has some quiet ties to the auto industry (and boy did GM hurt trains in other avenues).  They also used common parts between models, making them relatively easy to repair and rebuild.  You had all kind of mods and changes done to their engines over the decades, which is a fun tie-in to the bodybuilder AND greaser aspect of Greaseball.  I’ll go into how I think he’d specifically be modified/rebuilt later though.  

Another major factor of EMD is… they often weren’t the best in a lot of ways and very much an example of “survival of the good enough”.  Until very recently they all used relatively dirty and inefficient two-stroke engines and other manufacturers often had stronger or technically superior competing models… but it was the ease of working on them and relative reliability vs their competitors that contributed to their success and helped make EMD the dominant manufacturer.  

Bonus fun fact: EMD (and later General Electric) had a lot of success in the export model market due to their early reliability, especially vs British diesel engines.  One of the funnier instances being several colonial African railways holding onto steam into the 70s because they were forced to buy crappy British diesel engines otherwise, and promptly dieselizing as soon as they could buy American ones.  EMD made huge inroads into the British freight market with the Class 59 and 66 (the latter also used in continental Europe).  These came too late to have had any affect on the development of the show early on, but it’s an interesting instance of American encroachment that could be thematically relevant.  The sheer ubiquity of EMD diesels worldwide makes Greaseball weirdly relevant in a lot of countries if you basis swap him a little.  I haven’t figured out quite how I’d approach Girlball but I’d definitely make her one of these export models since it fits.  

Anyways, back to the general history timeline because it’s important for the other reason EMD was so successful.  By the late 30s, diesel switchers were widespread and road models were starting to come out in limited numbers.  Widespread dieselization would have happened nearly a decade earlier if not for World War II.  When the US entered the war, copper, oil, and diesel engines became critical to the war effort.  Coal was not and steam engines don’t use much copper, so the existing steam manufacturers were forced into building them.  EMD’s FT series had proven itself prewar and the company was among the few to be able to develop their locomotive lines during the war.  This gave the company a huge advantage post-war and their E and F units dominated the road locomotive market afterwards (switchers remained more competitive since they had more development before and during the war). 

 If you’re European and know little about American trains, you may wonder when things started getting electrified after that.  They didn’t.  Outside of one stretch of the Northeast Corridor, a recent project by Caltrain, and some isolated freight lines… the US didn’t electrify anything after WWII, and if anything de-electrified much that had existed.  The oil crises of the 70s almost led to something, but the subsequent drop in prices in the 80s made that dry up too.  Leading to the modern day status of having only 1% electrified rail mileage.  The rest is all diesel domain.  They were never a stopgap here.  Due to railroads remaining private businesses post-WWII and facing almost unwinnable economic and political conditions vs roads and air travel, the cost of electrification was out of the question and the much smaller up front cost of diesel engines made them take permanent hold over most of the country post-steam.  To this day, railroads avoid paying up front for things vs just paying more in yearly maintenance for diesel locomotives, and the price of fuel has never gotten high enough to incentivize electrification.  There’s also a whole carrot vs stick situation with state governments raising emissions standards without providing assistance to electrify that leads to a crappy state of limbo that just gives automobiles even more of an unfair advantage, but that’s another tangent that’s not relevant enough to go into.  

This is all a long way to say that Greaseball as the conservative, oppressive establishment is spot-on to the status of diesel traction in the US.  It really can’t be overstated how dominant and inescapable it is.  It’s kind of hilarious hearing people from the UK or Europe talk about how gross and stinky and backwards they are and how much more disliked they are there.  This is why the Greaseball vs Electra feud is so appealing to me- the US is one of the few places where they would be considered remotely competitive and where that matchup is politically relevant.  There’s this compelling thread of Greaseball being a “pragmatic compromise” that’s held on so long it’s become status quo, but would be viewed as a regressive relic elsewhere in the world, akin to how the US’s economic politics are seen in much of the rest of the world.  Greaseball is the majority who very much has capitalism and inertia on his side, Electra is the more qualified but long-sidelined minority who wishes things were even a little more like Europe economically and politically.  They’re so rural vs urban, right vs left wing coded it hurts. Diesel power mainly thrives where frequencies are low and distances are long and rail is a private business that often can’t afford to electrify.  Urban trains are almost exclusively electric due to their inherent frequency and pollution requirements, and are almost synonymous with being state-owned. 

Him being particularly nasty to steam engines also checks out, he’s the era of diesel locomotive that often directly replaced them and I’ve seen claims EMD did deceptive things if not outright cheated on tests vs steam engines.  At the very least they had fairly aggressive marketing.  There’s a reason why I object to the idea that Electra would cheat against a steam engine (even in the early days electric ones trounced them so thoroughly it routinely exceeded railroads’ expectations), but think Greaseball doing it makes sense.  Him playing dirty against Electra also makes sense because they’d have similar top speeds (and that’s being very conservative with Electra’s abilities and keeping them a relatively old model) but Electra benefits far more from a clean setting and would be relatively vulnerable to attack. There’s been decades of cultural downplaying of the advantages of electric vs diesel trains due to the latter’s sheer dominance in the US too. Further tying into the political aspect, electric trains are one of those things whose status only goes up the more you actually learn about them… and it really knocks combustion engines down several pegs, paralleling how right wing politicians in the US tend to be actively anti-education because they quietly rely on voters being low-information and uneducated about how negative the effects of their policies often are.  

Greaseball as a macho jock is also reflective of the perceived strength of diesel vs electric engines.  Because the US is infamous for its large heavy freight trains that are almost entirely diesel-hauled (besides a single power plant out west), electric freight is an almost alien concept and people associate electric traction with high speed trains, subways, maybe lighter, faster European freight trains at most.  People often act like they’re weak because of this.  This is patently untrue, just look at IORE or the Virginian Railway.  Also see my earlier discussion of how weak diesel engines were early on.  Electric locomotives still have vastly higher horsepower per single unit and the only reason there aren’t ones as strong as diesel engines in the US is lack of demand.  It wouldn’t be that hard to build one for that niche.  But diesel has strong associations with being the “strong and manly” blue-collar option because of its use by every large freight railroad and almost every shortline for all the tough, gritty jobs, unlike those darn city slicker commuter trains. Let’s just conveniently forget that the Milwaukee Road existed and that mines are full of weird little battery-powered “lokies”.  People will even crow about the Big Boy all day and rarely acknowledge the multiple electric engine models of that era with comparable abilities.  

EMD E and F UNITS

Finally, we can discuss Greaseball’s more specific basis.  Greaseball’s helmet doesn’t have a single explicit one like Electra’s, but its styling is very typical of 30s-50s era carbody diesel locomotives, specifically the “bulldog nose” E and F-Units.  These models were and still remain some of the most popular toy and model diesel engines, and are some of the most recognizable American trains in general.  Which they totally deserve, they came in a lot of fun colors and were VERY widely used from the 30s to early 80s irl and were still used in limited numbers for decades after that and are extremely common in museums today.  It’s probably harder to find a railroad museum in the US that doesn’t have one.  They are probably THE symbol of diesel trains in the US, especially circa the 50s.  Even highway signs for train stations resemble them.  

Carbody locomotives like these made the streamlined body a structural element of the engine to save weight and required indoor walkways for maintenance access vs being able to open external panels.  Alco and Baldwin also made far less successful carbody locomotives as competitors but they looked very different. Funny enough, a number of electric locomotives of the era also were built this way, but with cabs at both ends, some of them looking a LOT like Greaseball’s helmet.  

The E-units were EMD’s first line of road diesel locomotives, mainly designed for passenger service.  Since the 30s there were several different models of the line, the first few being built in smaller numbers, and the later ones being much more widely produced post-WWII.   They were relatively long and large for a diesel engine of the time, with atypical A1A -A1A (powered/unpowered/powered x2) wheel arrangements and two seperate prime movers (the actual diesel engine) to produce more horsepower due to the limited abilities of individual engines.  While successful compared to their competitors (which were… generally a mess) there’s a sense that they were designed for a time that would never come.  

They were very much optimized for being smooth at speed for passenger use and while not useless for freight service, weren’t ideal for it due to their limited strength and not having all powered wheels for traction.  Which was a terrible market to be in with the massive decline in passenger rail post-WWII.  The E-units still generally had long and successful lives, but were never as successful as their younger, smaller sibling, the F-unit.

F-units visually resemble shorter E-units, but with single prime movers and Bo-Bo wheel arrangements (four powered axles).  By modern standards they’re small and not terribly powerful, but for their time they were solid and VERY successful in freight service, and often took the place of E-units in passenger service since they worked for that too, and were more versatile overall.  There are a bunch of F-units running in museums because they look good and are easy to find parts for due to the sheer quantity produced (also some, but far fewer E-units). You could totally make Greaseball an F-unit and it would fit with how there’s been some infamously short Greaseball actors.  

There’s a lot of fun commonalities between both models that are relevant to Greaseball.  Both were explicitly designed to be used in multi-engine sets due to their limited individual strength, which perfectly fits Greaseball having his Gang follow him around.  Working in packs that large is a VERY midcentury diesel thing.  Both had the massive drawback of having no rear visibility and basically no ability to go backwards for switching.  That was one of the main traits that led to this style of engine falling out of favor, roadswitchers that actually had rear visibility were more versatile than having separate road and switch engines.  In a race going backwards, Rusty would clean his clock even if he was SUPER crappy and could only go walking pace, because Greaseball would be flying totally blind and crash.  It’s also a hassle to perform maintenance and get inside that body style and the noses were reportedly harder to manufacture.  

As a cursed side note, ATSF solved these problems with their old F-units by roadswitcherfying them into CF-7s.  Hey, they were old and past their prime but still useful and worked GREAT as ugly utilitarian roadswitchers and ran for decades afterwards.  There’s several of these things running in museums.  I’ve actually worked on one and I approve of roadswitcherfication because they really are way less of a pain to maintain this way.  

Speaking of rebuilds, the highest horsepower Greaseball would have as an E-unit would as-built is only 2,400 if he was an E9, but because early EMDs got modified so much and routinely re-engined, we can play around with this.  It fits the character and the Railways Series routinely did this kind of thing.  We’ll suppose Greaseball was re-engined or otherwise modified to get up to 2,700 horsepower… but then there’s the reported issue that the unpowered axles might make him too slippery to actually apply full force, so we’ll get a bit more out there and say he got more substantially rebuilt into a Co-Co (six powered axle) arrangement.  Now you have something that would be vaguely comparable with one of Amtrak’s dysfunctional SDP40F diesels of the late 70s-early 80s, if still a bit weaker but probably more physically stable.  It’s hard to avoid that Greaseball is kind of statistically wimpy no matter how you slice it.  They’d need to tweak the numbers in the song a little, but again, swapping out engines in early EMDs was super common and suits him so it’s not too much of a stretch to bump him to 3700 or something.  You still have issue that he’s not large by UP standards specifically (they are INFAMOUS for large single-unit engines) but he’d still be fairly large vs more typical passenger diesels of the time.  

Anyways, another VERY fun fact about E and F units is that they were regularly used on corporate trains after most of them were withdrawn from regular mainline service in the 70s-80s.  People often complain that Greaseball is barely relevant circa the 80s, which isn’t really true since a lot of E and F units were used on commuter lines for years afterward (if often in cab car form, which are terrifying in any talking train verse).  But there’s another huge loophole that gives a perfect excuse for his existence well into the modern day.  Union Pacific itself used a set of three E9s on their corporate specials until 2019!  They only got pulled due to wheel issues… got no lovers if you got no wheels I guess.  But now you have a perfect excuse for why Greaseball is a 50s-era engine with UP colors pulling passenger trains well after the railroad axed those services in the early 70s.  He’s a corporate pawn!  He’s one of the faces of their company, chauffeuring executives around. Which leads into another fascinating topic with him.

UNION PACIFIC, FREIGHT RAILROADS, AND PASSENGER RAIL

All of the modern big Class I railroads in the US suck in similar ways, but Union Pacific has a stronger identity and seems to have the largest cultural presence abroad, making it the most visible and appealing of them to the public.  It tends to be THE American railroad to many, which goes well with Greaseball’s basis being THE American diesel engine.  Yes, they do have some cool heritage fleet stuff and really cool heritage unit paint jobs, but you’ll never see me depict them in a terribly positive way (if at all) because they’re a PR campaign like the Budweiser Clydesdales for an infamously awful company.  Make no mistake, this is a company that’s been voted “worst place to work” on multiple occasions (and its cohorts aren’t much better).  That’s the ironic thing about Electra being made a crappy boss, Amtrak is notably much better to its workers (and steam engines are the most competitive where labor is cheapest and least organized).  The main thing is unreasonable on-call hours, lack of sick leave, vacation, and break days in general, and working conditions.  Look into the blocked 2022 railroad strike for more on this.  Greaseball could be SO nasty to the freight to reflect this if you made him a symbol of railroad leadership.  You’d have any railroaders in the audience booing him if they did this in the US, it’s a very relevant political issue.  Ironically, things weren’t nearly as bad labor-wise in the 80s, ALW just really bet on the right horse in terms of railroads to align a train villain with.  But there’s a more prominant and existing aspect of canon that also fits the crappy things UP and other class Is do.

Passenger rail has never been as profitable as freight in the US. To give a modern ballpark estimate, I’ve heard $30,000 revenue on a fully loaded longer passenger train vs $500,000 revenue on a train of oil tankers.  And that’s not even including the higher maintenance standards that passenger rail requires, which adds millions to its cost and makes it almost impossible for it to turn a profit.  There is a reason why almost all countries with widespread passenger rail today have nationalized rail systems and even US passenger service is all government-run outside Brightline and museums.  

This situation was particularly bad in the 50s-60s before Amtrak took over passenger service.  Passenger trains absolutely bled money overall, and many of them were required to keep running even at massive losses per government regulation because they were an essential service.  This contributed to the financial ruin of many railroads, and most of them dropped passenger service or sold it to the government as soon as it was offered.  UP in particular was more financially stable, but also happily got rid of their passenger trains when offered.

Since then, the giant merged Class I railroads have become almost exclusively freight-oriented and hostile towards Amtrak-run passenger services.  They’re almost all terrible, but UP is one of the more visible offenders, holding up commuter services in Chicago, and contributing to the massive delays in long-distance western trains.  “Coach sexism” in the form of widespread hostility towards passenger rail by the likes of UP is one of the few canon social metaphors that WORKS.  The other engines would not be that way considering the systems they’re aligned with, but Greaseball could be made so, so much worse.    

There is a weird element of “I hate my wife” boomer humor when people describe passenger trains.  There’s “keeping freight trains in line” schedule-wise due to their time sensitivity.  There’s being seen as needlessly spendy for PR reasons (often true in the older days) paralleling “my wife wastes money on stupid things”.  There’s being seen as more delicate and refined due to needing better track conditions and gentler handling because you know, humans have standards that grain hoppers and sand don’t.  There’s the way that passenger rail isn’t as profitable as freight and basically requires government subsidies… not unakin to caring jobs and “women’s work” in general vs blue collar industrial jobs (Caveat: passenger rail employees were almost all male until Amtrak).  In short, yeah the freight railroads’ treatment of passenger trains in the US does have parallels to sexism, if slightly different from how canon does it. Abruptly dumping them in the 70s also fits Greaseball ditching Dinah mid-show. 

Even if you go the comparatively mild route of mirroring modern railroads, you still have him treating the coaches as second class vs freight (despite them being legally prioritized).  This is a major issue and why Amtrak has so many delays on long distance trains.  To summarize a complicated issue: due to the relatively unique economics of railroads, they are incentivized to run fewer, longer, irregular freight trains that have become so large they don’t fit in sidings and can’t physically let prioritized passenger trains through.  They then get delayed for hours, especially if the freight train breaks down (bonus: freight trains have a staff of two, engineer and conductor.  The conductor may have to walk up to THREE MILES to check out a possible defect on a car, delaying even more).  The Class Is have a broadly hostile relationship with Amtrak in general for various reasons related to insurance and minimal investment in track maintenance, and it even affects non-Amtrak passenger services like steam excursions.  UP has its personal steam fleet for publicity reasons,  but all of the Class Is are various shades of hostile to running steam excursions with passengers now due to those same reasons.  Even UP barely sells public tickets for theirs.  

Bonus: the reason Mexico has basically no passenger rail now is due to the nationalized railroads being taken over by companies heavily aligned with US freight railroads and with many similar attitudes towards passenger service.  They ditched virtually all of it en masse when they took over. Turbo works perfectly as just Greaseball but in Mexico because the same thing happened there… only a few years before the Mexican Stex production happened.  Electra might be an even more pathetic and unthreatening character there though, because the single, long-delayed electrified mainline built by NdeM was ripped out after only a few years of service by the  private freight railroads.  

WARNING: Leave now if you do not want to read about how abusive Greaseball could be made based to US railroads’ treatment of passenger trains pre-70s.  It’s not graphic, but it is blunt and dark.  I put this at the end for a reason, there is nothing beyond this last section.  

Basically, canon even at its worst arguably undersells how awful Greaseball could be to Dinah and the coaches if you make them symbols of UP and other major railroads vs passenger service pre-Amtrak.  They could be even MORE toxic.  You have a situation now where he outright hates her and wants her gone for above reasons, but is forced to stay in the relationship due to outside requirements and is fundamentally built for that kind of setup as an E-unit.  Railroads forced to keep passenger services usually didn’t have mandated quality standards for them.  They just had to have something.  This led to pathetically short trains (one or two cars), understaffing, and poor maintenance because they just had to have SOME passenger train on that line.  Track conditions reached terrible standards in the 70s on railroads that were near bankruptcy and delaying maintenance.  I absolute do not blame canon for not going this dark in a kids show, but basically there is no limit to how miserable Greaseball could make her life, short of actually killing her. I can’t understate how much she symbolizes something he’d want to rid himself of at any cost but can’t and will take that out on.  It’s BLEAK.  I don’t think I’d even write them this dark myself.

Well… now you see why I do not redeem and revise Greaseball the way I do Electra.  While the latter is wrongly demonized in an impressive number of ways, Greaseball is awful for all the right ones, to extents deeper than the creators probably ever imagined.  He is so versatile and nearly timeless in his awfulness.  If Greaseball were portrayed as remotely good I’d be ripping him to greater shreds than I do Rusty, but he’s great as a hateable bad guy who’s entertaining and globally recognizable even by much of the general public.  Despite all this, I’m fine with him just being a cartoon bully because it’s more palatable and not wrong.  But you could also make him so much nastier than even the workshop if you wanted to go darker.  

[ltwilliammowett]

Half time with our calendar and this is the perfect moment to introduce you to a lady who shows the interface of Age of Sail and Age of Steam. She is generally regarded as the start of the Age of Steam and yet she still has both elements. But who am I talking about ? - The HMS Warrior

More about her history here:

HMS WARRIOR was built as part of Britain’s response to concerns over France’s maritime ambitions which included the building of LA GLOIRE, a powerful ironclad which was the most advanced warship of its day.  WARRIOR was commissioned on 1 August 1861 and at that time unquestionably ruled the seas. Her main guns, engines and boilers were contained within an armoured wrought iron hull and she could be driven by both steam and sail. This combination meant that she could outrun and outgun any ship afloat and she never fired a shot in anger – the classic deterrent.

During the first commission her main role was to lead the Channel Squadron. On 22 November 1864 she paid off for her first major refit at Portsmouth Dockyard during which the ship was comprehensively refurbished. She was also completely re-armed with 7” and 8” muzzle loaded rifled guns. However, in the American Civil War the success of the Monitor was to have a dramatic effect on naval thinking and WARRIOR’s role as ‘Monarch of the Seas’ was to be very short-lived.

She re-commissioned in July 1867 and re-joined the Channel Fleet. The second commission was rather less interesting than the first as she was no longer regarded as the most powerful warship afloat and faded from the limelight. The second commission ended in 1871 and she then spent four years in refit at Portsmouth being fitted with improved boilers, steam power for the forward capstan and a new poop deck to accommodate an Admiral.  On completion in 1875 she became part of the First Reserve Fleet where she was to remain until paying at Portsmouth on 31 May 1883.

After periods as a depot ship and part of HMS VERNON she was paid off in 1924. She was then converted for use as a floating oil jetty and in 1929 was towed to Pembroke Dock where she was to remain for the next 50 years. In 1967 the campaign to restore WARRIOR started and prominent in this was Sir John Smith who formed the Manifold Trust. A committee chaired by the Duke of Edinburgh met in 1968 to discuss her future and from this emerged the Maritime Trust. When Pembroke Dock closed in 1978 the Manifold Trust agreed to underwrite the cost of restoration and the ship was handed over to the Maritime Trust in 1979.

In 1983 ownership was transferred to the Ship’s Preservation Trust which became the Warrior Preservation Trust in 1983. Although the hull was very sound the rest of the ship was in a poor state. The task which was part restoration and part re-building needed vast resources not only of money (£8M) but also of skill, patience and endurance. The 8 year restoration programme at Hartlepool transformed her into one of the world’s most important historic warships and in 1987 she returned to Portsmouth where she is now moored in the Historic Dockyard.

A planned preservation programme is in place for the ship and over the years she has been dry-docked twice, and the upper deck, (£725K provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund), all three fighting tops and half moons and the stern gallery have been replaced.

[mrtheengie]

Adventures at Woburn Waterworks. The best two days of my life.

Photo 1: Brass and Iron. Notice the modular construction of the steps. The main steam valve is in the top left. It has two wheels, one upstairs, and one at ground level.

Photo 2: Flywheel. The flywheel carries the momentum of the engine.

Photo 3: Low Pressure Side. The engine at Woburn is a compound, meaning it uses steam twice. The high pressure cylinder receives steam from the boiler. It exhausts into a receiver, i.e. a large tank between the cylinders, and the larger, low pressure cylinder uses this steam. A very efficient setup indeed.

Photo 4: Eccentrics. Unlike a locomotive or a ship's engine, a waterworks engine cannot reverse. It doesn't need to. So, why does each cylinder have two eccentrics? This engine is Corliss engine, or a four valve engine if you want to be more general. Each cylinder has four valves: two inlet, and two exhaust. It has two of each because most steam engines are double acting, meaning steam acts on both sides of the piston. These two sets of valves are each controlled by their own eccentric, allowing the engineers to make very precise adjustments to the valve timing should it become necessary. Also visible here is the belt which turns the fly-ball governor, yet another ingenious appliance from the steam age.

Photo 5: Down the Shaft. A view of the crankshaft, showing some of the gauges on the board. Since the engine was made a secret during the war, it has, very happily, retained ALL of its original gauges. Notice how the second on from the right reads "STEAM." Also notice the fact that the needle is not at zero...

[avocado-writing]

if you’re open to writing for karlach, maybe something where she and tav come up with creative ways to be close without tav being burned? or just go nuts and crawl over to shadowheart for healing lol

notes: karlach is so fucking hot (literal and sexual) i am insane over her. i'd love to write for her more

rating: E

pairing: karlach x gn!reader (background shadowheart x lae'zel)

You met Karlach about a month ago, and you’ve never wanted a woman more in your life. 

Every part of her is perfection. Her toned stomach; her gorgeous eyes, her wild hair. You want to touch her so badly. Want to run your hand up the plain of her back and feel her shoulders shift under you when she wraps you in her embrace. Want to feel the crush of her lips against yours, the soft wetness when you press between her legs.

But she is on fucking fire, so there lies the issue.

You know she feels the same. When the rest of the camp is asleep you steal into her tent, the two of you whispering the filthy things you want to do to each other while pleasuring yourselves because you can’t physically fucking touch. It’s maddening. You want to be able to actually do them, not just promise that you will. 

You’ve seen her fingers disappear into her cunt as she moans your name, you’ve come against your palm while telling her how badly you want to taste her.

Gods. you are going to lose your mind over this tiefling.

Stripped off and with a fresh outfit slung over your shoulder, you stomp down to the pond just outside of camp in order to wash up that morning. Your mind is on other matters - tadpoles, mostly, and how on earth you’re going to save yourselves - but you are totally snapped out of your brooding when you see you’re actually not alone.

“Soldier. Didn’t think you’d be awake for another couple of hours yet, the way you tired yourself out last night,” says Karlach cheekily, grinning up from the water. She’s chest-deep, infernal engine running so hot that steam is churning up around her, leaving a clinging mist all over her shoulders and face. She dunks her head under to wet her hair and makes a beautiful arc as she resurfaces, shiny and dripping.

You stare. Your mouth has gone completely fucking dry. Your head has emptied of all thoughts save for two words: wet Karlach wet Karlach wet Karlach–

She raises an eyebrow. “Babe?”

You drop your clothes.

“Fuck it,” you say, and dive into the pond.

Her lips burn with a kiss long since needed, the pain being bearable for the pleasure of knowing her. Her cunt is almost excruciating to run your fingers across and yet you find yourself gritting your teeth and pressing your tongue inside, the magma of her orgasm deliciously burning your face. It’s so worth it. It’s so, so worth it for knowing you can make her come, and what your name sounds like from her lips when you’re the one bringing her there. She lets you fuck her thigh like a dog in heat and it feels like your sex is aflame. 

You have zero regrets, lying in the muddy pond bank, naked body covered in burns. You hear Karlach reapproaching with someone in tow, chattering nervously.

“Yeah, aha, we just er… got carried away. Sorry. I really do appreciate you helping us out, though!”

Shadowheart peers down at you, her mouth a tight line of disapproval. 

“Lady of Sorrows preserve us, look at the state of you,” she sighs. Despite the rawness of your injuries you manage a grin.

“Come on, don’t act as if this is the first time you’ll have used Cure Wounds after sex. I’ve heard the noises you and Lae’zel make.”

Her face goes a bright enough red to match the tiefling next to her, and Karlach throws her head back in uproarious laughter.

Every moment of pain is worth it, for her.

taglist: @ghosti02art @sadandanxiouswtf @yeethaw13 @trappedinlimbo15 @infinitely-kate @dhampling

[stories-of-the-nrm]

Save The Memphis Trolleys

Please sign, reblog or both to help save a piece of Memphis history. Tag list under the cut.

Tagging: @jayde-jots, @thefedoragirl, @nelllia, @postmodernpre-grouping, @ihatewoodpeckers,

@gold-dust599, @klein-sodor-bahn, @supermariojack, @ilovebfdi123, @gordonhighlander49,

@be-kind-and-rewind-again, @sophiaenginehuman, @slowlykawaiidreamland, @etherealcaprifandoms, @colaxcoco,

@asktheoriginalorder, @tornadoyoungiron, @gordon208, @shadowthebou, @engineer-gunzelpunk,

@baldwin-10-12-d, @lnwrcauli, @mintydeluxes-blog, @thefluffyrailway-official, @bladexjester,

@lorainedoesthings, @moonlightcrystal12, @skylarthethompson, @viktuurishipper96, @avaford2009,

@6220coronation, @wisetalekid, @brainstorms-briefcase, @sketalya, @brendambois,

@gatatodapoderosa, @edward2289, @gronkgal, @frendmvl456, @dickheadgirl,

@freakann, @steam-beasts, and @mean-scarlet-deceiver.

[whirligig-girl]

Eaurp Guz's roughly 1:30 scale live-steam model of Slaibsgloth Coal Railroad No.32, a ~1.6 meter gauge 2-8-8-2 garratt steam locomotive built on planet Mellanus in (earth-)year 2346 and retired in 2379 (two years ago) for service bringing coal carriages from the coal pits up to the interchange at the Glooiw & North Eastern. It is unusual for a coal burning steam engine to remain in revenue service--the majority that remained in use after the development of Diesel-Hydraulics were decommissioned with nuclear-powered railway electrification in the 2360s, and the ones that remained were mostly converted to oil burning. The Slaibsgloth steam engines meanwhile persisted right up until the closure of the coal mine. Glooiw & North Eastern has acquired the 40 locomotives. Their fates are uncertain but railway preservation groups remain optimistic.

When Guz first came aboard the Cerritos she was overworking herself constantly, which lead to her being so tired that she was leaving residues on the consoles and generally doing sloppier work. It turned out that Guz had been working double shifts, and when Billups found out he put a stop to that. That's when Guz turned to a hobby she'd done a lot of before joining starfleet--model rocketry. Armed with far more advanced tools than she'd had on Mellanus, she made accurate working model replicas of real historical prewarp spacecraft from a variety of planets and would fly them in real space whenever possible.

Eventually, she also found a new appreciation for her childhood love of trains, and her model-making skills and tools translated well to model railroading as well. She has a little shelf layout in storage that she occasionally tinkers with, and she runs large scale model trains on the holodeck. She could run full-scale holographic trains on the holodeck too of course, but it wouldn't be nearly as satisfying. And then there's the 1:5600 scale BM-gauge railroad she's building on a microscope slide! (Bµ gauge is "Byte micrometer" gauge or a track spacing of 256 µm)

Guz eventually wants to build a roughly 1:80 scale modular layout of the Slaibsgloth Coal Mine, with smaller scale electric-powered models of the Slaibsgloth coal-burning steam engines and enough track to wrap around a room and give them a good run, but unless she can rally support for a Cerritos chapter of the Starfleet Rail Transport Modelling Club or she can get her own crew quarters, it's a pipe dream--or maybe something for her retirement.

Replicators and advanced computer aided design tools reduce the amount of time it takes to get modelling projects done by whatever factor is desired. Technically Guz could probably replicate fully assembled working models as long as they fit in the replicator bed, but where's the fun in that? But she's still only got so much time in an off-shift, and doing it 'properly,' scratch-built using machine tools like 'real' modellers on Mellanus, or manually defining all of the geometry in a CAD program like modellers on Earth, would take too much time.

see also: alt versions of the locomotive.

[traintrainingmontage]

Let There be Light

This is my piece for Sodor Lightshow this year! I decided to focus it on Hannukah, as I am Jewish myself (but please note that I am VERY much anti-IOF/Israeli settlers/the Israeli government) and wanted to lean into the theme of light in dark places. Please enjoy.

Summary: On Christmas Day of 1946, Skarloey is left behind as Rheneas works. However, he soon discovers that a miracle has, perhaps, still found him.

Characters: Skarloey, OC, the Thin Controller, Mr. Ivo Hugh, Rheneas

Rating: T

Word Count: ~2,800 words

(Also on Ao3!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christmas Day of 1946 saw the snow raining down in fat, heavy flakes, a far cry from the delicate snowfalls often depicted in the films and advertisements. It blanketed the rails in pristine, paper-white coverlets, soft yet deceptive in its pristine purity. Evening had fallen, the bleak blackness of the Sudrian winter all-encompassing, void-like in its reach. Not even the stars were out tonight, it seemed, the clouds too thick and quilt-like for such a delicate glow to pierce through. 

Despite the pervasive dim, however, there was still a certain brightness to be found, all across Sodor. As far as the eye could see, streetlights and lamps lit up the night, pushing back the darkness like a river of light, winding its way through Crovan’s Gate like an ephemeral twin to the Hawin Dooiey as, unimpeded by the winter weather, it continued its rush toward the sea. This picture postcard of a landscape was truly a sight to behold, especially as families dressed in their festive best made their way to church for the evening prayers, braving the snows to embrace the warmth of the soul’s salvation. It was a return to normalcy after many a difficult year, and the entirety of Crovan’s Gate—as well as the Skarloey Valley as a whole—was determined to do so.

For the Skarloey Railway’s No. 1 engine, however, a return to normalcy this was not.

“I’m sorry, Skarloey, but Rheneas will be solely responsible for pulling the Christmas train this year.” 

For a long moment, Skarloey thought that he’d misheard. He stared for several seconds at the Thin Controller, who was dressed in his best suit (an elegant navy blue) and overcoat, trying desperately to stand away from the blowing steam in his best attempt at preserving their color. Perhaps the longer Skarloey looked, the greater the possibility that the shrill creaking noise brought on by his hyperventilating might magically stop.

“Wha—what do you mean, sir?” Skarloey finally replied, trying desperately and failing miserably to keep his voice from warbling.

“I mean what I said, old boy. Ivo’s looked you over, and said that you should only be run in emergencies,” Mr. Peter Sam sighed, sharing a glance with Mr. Ivo Hugh, who was already standing at Rheneas’ footplate. The engineer looked on gravely, sorrow clouding his eyes even as his lips pressed shut in a firm, stern line. “The Christmas train is important, yes, but we can’t risk you damaging yourself in this snow.”

“But… I… Rheneas, please! Tell them that—”

But the protests died in Skarloey’s tubes at the sight of his brother, who was giving him the same sad expression as their engineer. “I’m sorry too, Skarloey, but our Controller is right. You’re already in dire condition; what if something happens to you? And if it did, what would we do about the passengers?”

“...”

Skarloey truly, deeply wished that he could come up with a retort, a rebuttal, or even a reply, but he had nothing. The resulting silence spoke for itself. 

“...Alright. I understand,” Skarloey managed at last, forcing himself to calm. “It’s for the best, really. With all this snow, it would just be an uphill climb, even downhill. Heh. I’ll just… wait here.”

“Thank you, Skarloey,” Mr. Peter Sam smiled gently, delivering a light pat to his bufferbeam. “Now, if you’re ready, Rheneas, we’d best be off. Let’s go!”

“...Right, sir,” the No. 2 engine replied somberly as Mr. Hugh eased off the brake and he began to inch forward, headlamp shining as he pushed his way forward into the storm. “I’ll be back soon, Skarloey! I promise,” Rheneas called, and his brother forced his lips to lift into a wan smile. 

“Please give everyone my best regards!” 

“I will!” With that last shout, Rheneas, bearing the last of the shed’s light with him, was soon out of sight, heading off to gather the coaches. The Thin Controller watched him go, then gave Skarloey one last pat. 

“You’re a good sport. Wait here, and we’ll be back soon. Merry Christmas.” Without another word, he quickly headed off, bustling toward the platform.

In his haste, he didn’t even hear Skarloey’s mechanical refrain.

~~~

Now alone in the shed, Skarloey had nothing to do but wait. More and more lights appeared, illusory stars dancing on the water until the ripples hurried them along. The warm golden lamplight, however, didn’t quite reach the shed, and so, the once-golden engine of the line had only the company of the long shadows carpeting the wooden walls. Outside, the storm had picked up in its intensity, howling in its triumph. Slowly, Skarloey allowed his eyelids to flutter shut, trying to push the tide of unrest at bay and perhaps indulge in a nap. 

Crunch crunch crunch. The sound of footsteps in the snow caused Skarloey’s eyes to snap open, darting all around as he struggled to pinpoint the source of the noise. Who in the world would be visiting now, at this time of night? Especially on Christmas, no less!

For a moment, his mind conjured the image of a burglar, coming to take advantage of the fact that the entire valley and a great majority of the town would be holed up in church. What could he do? He hadn’t the steam to whistle, and without his fire burning and air rushing through his tubes, his voice wouldn’t carry. His brake was securely set, meaning he had no hopes of moving anywhere either. Did he really have no recourse beyond bluffing his way through?

Steeling himself, Skarloey attempted to put on a brave face in the hopes that he might intimidate whoever was coming, but the sudden brightness of a lantern in his face caused him to flinch instead.

“Gah!” he winced, eyes reflexively closing in response, but at the thought of a possible burglary, forced them open once more, and tried to adopt the sort of voice that the Owner used when speaking with insolent Sodor Island Council members. “I don’t know who you are, but you are trespassing—”

“Easy! Easy, Skarloey! It’s me!”

The sharp lamplight finally freed Skarloey of its piercing glint as the visitor (likely no longer a vandal, in Skarloey’s estimation) set the lamp on the floor of the shed. As his vision cleared, the engine was left meeting the eyes of Jakob, one of the cleaners. Jakob was still in his work uniform and overcoat, despite the late hour, and his thick, bushy beard was rather unkempt, proof of a hard day’s work polishing both the engines and the coaches until they gleamed. “Oh, Jakob! I’m so sorry; I thought you were a burglar!”

The cleaner laughed, the sound light as it seemed to carry through the entire shed. “No harm done! I was planning on heading home a while ago, but this storm isn’t one I’d like to travel in.”

“Head home?” Skarloey questioned, eyes wide. “I’m shocked that you’re not at church already!”

“Ah, well,” Jakob chuckled, although this time, his laughter was slightly less bright. “I, uh, don’t actually celebrate Christmas. I was supposed to finish my work and be home by sundown, but given the weather, that wasn’t happening. I’ve already phoned my family, and I figured that while I wait for the storm to die down, I’ll just… wait here with you, if that’s alright.”

“Oh, yes! Of course!” Skarloey blurted out, looking around frantically for a chair or some other equivalent, until his eyes settled on a sturdy crate sitting in a corner of the shed. “Erm, there’s a crate over there that you can use. Please, you’re more than welcome to stay! For however long you’d like.”

The cleaner paused, then gave a quiet, grateful smile. He bent over, picked up his lantern, and hung it up on a hook halfway up one of the support beams, better illuminating the sheds before pulling over the crate to sit beside the old engine. “Well, thank you, Skarloey. Better to have company on a night like tonight than none at all, right?”

If Skarloey could nod, he would have. Instead, he did his best to channel the less-than-physical warmth sparking in his firebox into his smile. “I couldn’t agree more.” 

After a moment of comfortable silence, though, curiosity got the better of him. 

“So, Jakob, I will apologize in advance if this ends up being an awkward subject, but…” Skarloey took a quick breath, trying to think of how to word his thoughts. Beside him, the 40-something looked on, a slight tilt to his head as his eyes widened, waiting for the engine to continue. “If you don’t celebrate Christmas, then… do you celebrate anything at all? I mean, the Owner always talks about how the whole valley’s ‘Methodist,’ which I think is the same as ‘Christian,’ and I’ve also been told that ‘all good Christians go to church on Christmas.’ But you’re not going to church, so… I mean…” 

Skarloey decided that he really should have stopped talking a thought or two ago, so he let the words die off there. Jakob, however, didn’t look particularly offended, although he wasn’t quite in good humor, either; rather, his expression was one akin to thinking through how to explain something that people generally considered to be common knowledge. It was a face that Skarloey in particular was quite familiar with.

“Well, erm… I’m not a Methodist, or a Christian, for that matter. I’m Jewish, so my family and I celebrate Hannukah. Are you familiar with that at all?”

“Jewish… Jewish…” Skarloey chewed on the word a moment, trying to place it. He’d heard it recently, he was sure, but where? Suddenly, it dawned on him, and his eyes widened in grim horror as he stared at the cleaner, who was meeting his gaze with a guarded, yet resigned expression. “Oh, Jakob! The war! You… oh… I’m… so, so sorry. I—” 

“Hush! None of that now,” Jakob retorted sternly, cutting Skarloey off before he could say another word. The silence that followed was no longer companionable, but fragile, glassy. The lamplight loomed, the shadows lengthening.

Still, Jakob forced himself on. “It’s true that I lost family during the war. My parents came here when I was very young, and we left much of our family behind. But I still live. My daughters still live. We are here. And on this night, we are celebrating that fact the way my ancestors did during their war, by rebuilding and living and proving that life, and light, continue, even in the darkest of places.”

Skarloey wasn’t familiar with which historic war Jakob was speaking of, but he could hear the emotion thick in his voice, tears clogging his throat. The engine couldn’t possibly begin to relate to Jakob’s particular situation, but the desire to live, to celebrate living, all while mourning those who had passed—appreciating that he was still here, and still had family, amidst tragedy—that much he could empathize with. It made his own loneliness feel somewhat less overwhelming. “...I’m glad you’re here, Jakob,” the old engine murmured softly, and the cleaner, his shoulders shaking, gave Skarloey a wide smile as the lamplight glinted off the rivulets running down his cheeks. 

“Me too, Skarloey,” Jakob managed, reaching out a hand to pat Skarloey’s bufferbeam while wiping his face with the other. “Working on this railway is one of the best things to have ever happened to me.”

Once again, a breath of silence fell, not quite as easy as the first or fragile as the second, and Skarloey took the opportunity to change the subject, perhaps toward something a little happier. “Jakob, you mentioned that you celebrate something called Hannukah earlier. I don’t know much about it, but why don’t we… I don’t know, do something? To celebrate?” The engine’s eyes lifted to where the storm was still roaring away outside, seemingly unlikely to lift anytime soon.

With his tears finally stalling, the cleaner blinked the last of them away, his brow furrowing in thought. “That’s not a bad idea, but I’m not sure how.” Suddenly, Jakob gave a quick gasp and leapt to his feet, looking eagerly at Skarloey. “How about this? Let’s light some lights, hmmm?”

“Lights?” Skarloey echoed, a questioning lilt to his voice. “Whatever for?”

“Hannukah is also called the Festival of Lights,” Jakob answered, walking away from the crate and starting to search the shelves. “We’ll need nine of them for this, as tonight is, in fact, the last night of Hannukah!”

“Oh!” Skarloey exclaimed, his interest piqued as he watched Jakob bustle around.

With a triumphant grin, the cleaner finally found what he was looking for. The shed was well-stocked, and as part of its provisions, spare lanterns and a box of candles all stood ready, as if waiting for this very moment. “A-ha! Here they are! Although…” Jakob’s lips pinched together in frustration as he counted up the lanterns. “There’s only six of them here! And worse, we don’t even have a table to put these on!”

The cleaner’s disappointment was clear, and Skarloey felt a pang of anxiousness shoot through him. No! They were so close! The engine cast his gaze down, trying to think, when suddenly, the obvious solution presented itself. 

“Jakob!” Skarloey cried. “We can arrange them on my bufferbeam!”

Jakob’s head whipped around to stare askance at the engine, who was staring back at him with fiery determination. “Look! We can attach my headlamps alongside the ones you’ve found. That makes eight. And there’s also the one you brought in! That’s nine!” 

At the realization, Jakob’s eyes seemed to sparkle. “That’s brilliant! But… what if they topple over?”

“I couldn’t move a meter, even if I wanted to!” Skarloey replied, his voice brighter than it had been all day, his tongue almost tripping over his words in his excitement. “A-and, there’s no wind here! So long as you’re mindful of your elbows, I think we’ll be quite alright!”

Once again, Jakob’s lips lifted up into a blinding smile. “Well thought! Give me just a moment!” Quickly, the lamps were arranged on Skarloey’s bufferbeam, spaced as well as they could so that they’d all fit. Once that was done, Jakob took the lantern he’d initially brought off of its hook, bringing it over to the others as Skarloey watched on, absolutely entranced and, fortunately, quite unable to shiver with the anticipation he so keenly felt.

“I’ve never had the honor of seeing such a large menorah before. That’s what we call the candle holder that we use for Hannukah. But then again, I’ve never done anything like this before, so this is quite the honor either way!” A slight tremor had made its way into Jakob’s voice, nervousness warring with eagerness, but he forced himself to breathe. This too could not be rushed.

With all the solemnity of performing a rite, Jakob opened his lantern and pulled out the candle within. “This is our shammash,” the cleaner explained reverently. “It’s known as the attendant, and I’ll be using this to light the others, from the lantern representing the first day to the one representing the last.” His explanation concluded, Jakob then began to light the lanterns, from right to left. With each one lit, another flame sparking to life, the darkness fled a little farther until the entire shed was awash in light, brilliant and beautiful, just short of blinding.

Once he’d finished, Jakob returned the initial candle to its lantern, and set it in the middle of the beam, right in front of Skarloey’s face. Slowly, Jakob brought his hands to his own face, covering his eyes, and Skarloey closed his as well. 

“Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik ner Hanukkah.”

Skarloey didn’t know what the words meant, but he could hear the reverence, the gratitude, the sheer joy in Jakob’s voice. Skarloey knew that joy; it was the same joy that he could hear on church days when the parishioners sang loud enough that, as the pastor claimed, their very voices could reach Heaven. “My goodness,” Skarloey breathed. “What was that?”

“It’s a prayer of thanks,” Jakob replied simply. “A prayer of thanks for the miracle that is these lights.”

“Thanks for a miracle…” Skarloey mused, thinking that it was fitting indeed, given the events of tonight. “Is ‘amen’ used by Jewish people as well?”

“It is.” 

“Then… amen,” Skarloey replied, his voice delicate and reverent. Jakob simply smiled in response, both engine’s and cleaner’s expressions bright. 

The shadows would be back soon enough, of course; but by this small miracle, at least for tonight, their hearts were light, another flame on the river.