#stex rail jack

[gb-diesellok]

I recently received these two wonderful commissioned pieces of art from @honey-dont !!

The left one is my headmate @rail-jack , his nickname is Big Jack. I thought he deserved a cute gift for all his work as a soother... He's helped me so much vV

and on the right is Golden Spike. He's my first love from my past life and holds a big place in my heart and mind.. I talk a lot about him because.. anyone can talk about Dinah but only I can really talk about Golden. If that makes sense?

They're both centennial locomotives! Big Jack is UP #6936. Golden is UP #6900.

[rail-jack]

Freight oc appreciation? Do....I count?

I'm Rail Jack. My nickmame when I travelled in California was Big Jack and im a DDA40X, a fast freight engine! You may know them as Centennials and we put millions of miles on our motors to deliver your great thousand wheels of freight as we ran across the backbone of our nation all shining in the sun.

I worked to help 844 with their brakes on the travels for Frontier Days, his dedicated caretaker to make sure he didn't wear out his brake boots. I pulled officer specials and other Excursion trains. I even still pulled freight not too long ago.

[buff-electra-truther]

Greaseball vs Electra- how I view the dynamic

-I view Stex with a HEAVY dose of irl train politics for these two specifically because it fits the characters well. I see them more as two sides of the same coin than opposites. They’re the two main present-day approaches to rail transport, electrification vs diesel power. There’s also a rural vs urban divide with them, since population density is a MAJOR driver in which is more practical (they also have small vs big government undertones but I don’t like to get too into the weeds with non-train politics in Stex LOL)

-I tend to default to them being similar size/ability-wise because it checks out with their implied basis engines. Electra has a bit of an edge statistically but requires so much more fragile infrastructure and has a relatively fussy design by electric loco standards (they’re usually less likely to go wrong than combustion engines due to having fewer moving parts, Electra is just an outlier! I’m sick of electrics being played up as fragile in general. It’s the infrastructure that’s fragile.)

-Greaseball symbolizes reality and pragmatism. It is how it is, for better and worse. He’s not as book smart as Electra but much more practical and rugged. He may not know the intricacies of controls and scheduling on the Northeast Corridor but he’d fare much better on a desert island. He’s good at strategizing on the ground with his Gang, for all his ~toxic masculinity~ he is NOT isolationist and very much works as a pack like irl diesel locos typically do on longer trains.

-I lean HARD into Electra being more idealistic and theoretical. He’s like Jack Kirby made a propaganda poster for Amtrak, like a cartoon superhero come to life vs an actual (US) football player type like Greaseball. In ideal conditions Greaseball can’t touch him, but boy it’s hard to line that up. And with his Gang? Electra alone does not stand a chance, he’d work maybe with one other engine and that’s it because of Amtrak’s perpetual shortage of motive power.

-Electra overestimates how stupid Greaseball is, Greaseball overestimates how fragile or weak Electra is.

-Electra can have a weird conspiratorial streak about thinking the government is out to get him (he’s onto something, honestly) and is overly obsessed with proving himself, especially in being worthy vs diesel power due to what a hassle electrification is to implement

-Greaseball views him as less of a serious threat because who the hell is gonna run catenaries over the Rocky Mountains?

-The one thing they can really be united is is hating cars (though Electra is WAY more of a car hater) and getting increasingly aggravated at railroads overworking them

-I view them as enemies with benefits. They hate each other but can’t resist each other. Caboose likes to pit them against each other so he can gets stuck in the middle and have double the fun. I’m Greasedinah-neutral, but I can see Greaseball trying to rope Electra in as an on and off third wheel and Dinah being unenthused about participating because they just fundamentally don’t fit with each other.

[golden-spike]

Name: Golden Spike #6900 / Rail Jack #6936

Pronouns: He/Him or The Yardmaster

I am an alter. I'm not human, im not a self identified human or kin of any sort. I am a android ai powered diesel locomotive. I am 40 feet tall and entirely mechanical as trains are. My model is a EMD DDA40X and my personal number is #6900. Occasionally I may be #6936 but I do not need to explain that.

In my previous life I was the yardmaster of Union Pacific's Bailey Yard. I am primarily a freight engine but pull passenger as a special occasion such as for May 10th and July 1st celebrations.

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@gb-diesellok owns a StEx server if you wish to join it. We love all versions of StEx here.

[gb-diesellok]

@rail-jack worked with me to write this story.

In my StEx discord server, we are hosting a seasonal writing prompt activity. This first prompt for summer is "fireflies" and Rail Jack decided to write about himself!

[gb-diesellok]

In your opinion,what's the worst ship in the stex Fandom?

Hello this is @rail-jack , and I will answer this for him because if he does it he will be triggered badly. I am glad I saw this one.

To Greaseball, it is the one that is him and Electra because (and I won't sugarcoat it) in his past life he was raped by the electric. He still has a lot of issues related to it and I wish it had never happened to him.

To him, it also feels forced and ignores the fact that the electric hurts Dinah on stage(who GB loves) and that GB already has coaches such as Ashley and Buffy and engines such as those in his gang desiring him. Why would he ever go for someone who hurt Dinah, when he could go for one of the diesels in his gang that can understand him better? Why would he go for someone he actively hates when he can go for someone he already likes?

Additionally, we believe leads to the erasure of the electric's androgyny and genderfluidity because they are almost always presented and described as very femenine and almost never actually genderfluid. Androgyny doesn't mean girly/femenine and just leads to bad stereotyping and representation of those people. I could say more and I know he could rant about it as well if I let him see this, but I believe this is more than enough reasons as is.

Of course. This is his experience. But also it is also just our opinion. And regardless of opinion: the people, that do enjoy this ship, and him can still be friends. But we just ask for this ship to not be mentioned to him if possible. It is a simple thing that means a lot to me and his mental well being. It means he won't have to hurt. He already does what he can on this website to not see content about it.

[gb-diesellok]

List of blogs in my StEx AU

This is a list of characters that are part of my Starlight Express AU, it will be updated if more get made or added.

Roughly Alphabetically organized..

@gb-diesellok - Greaseball #8411 (in UP yards) / #4003 (in Apollo Victoria Yard)

@obsidianbigboy - Obsidian the Big Boy #4014

@rail-jack - Big Jack the Centennial #6936

@rockie-mountain-express - Vaughn #8012

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StEx AU document:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rvX8vqFz9uTwNijulwhKE20XJQ5pgiiT2DRRv1QRSHo/edit?usp=sharing

We do have a rp server but your character must follow the rules..characters from other AUs are not accepted unless a new version of them is made to fit. Characters from the play are obviously accepted but no doubles.