Chapter 63: Driving

Riding my beloved bicycle,♪
The boss no longer needs to worry about me being stuck in traffic,♪
....
Li Aiguo hummed a little tune, pedaling the bicycle like a pair of fiery wheels.
A tandem bicycle, in an era where it hardly belonged, sped along the wide concrete road.
In the blink of an eye, Li Aiguo arrived at the locomotive depot.
Changing into oil-stained work clothes in the dormitory, he attended the morning meeting, participated in ideological education, shouted slogans, and confirmed the travel route.
In the blink of an eye, it was nine o'clock in the morning, and the morning mist gradually dissipated.
Li Aiguo followed his mentor Cao Wenzhi and the operation crew to begin pre-departure preparations.
In the rail yard.
Above rows of steam locomotives, billows of white smoke rose into the air.
It looked just like someone's steamer pot for buns had been opened, the lid lifted, yet no snowy white buns were to be seen.
Locomotive No. 131 had completed its coal and water replenishment, standing quietly and majestically on the tracks.
As a train driver, one should look the part of a train driver.
Without waiting for Cao Wenzhi's instructions, Li Aiguo climbed into the cab and conducted a safety inspection.
After making sure the oil pump, fuel tank, water pump, generator, and everything else were in order,
he pushed open the cab door and shouted loudly, "Master Cao, Master Zheng, you can board now."
Cao Wenzhi looked at his watch. "This kid took a full ten minutes to inspect. That's quite slow."
Master Zheng, the taciturn fireman, remained as silent as ever.
"Slow is good. Trains need to be fast, but we need to be slow; if you're fast, trouble will happen sooner or later," said assistant driver Liu Qingquan.
Cao Wenzhi stopped in his tracks. "Old Liu, do you think this kid has what it takes?"
"A mule or a horse, you just take it out for a spin to find out. After this run, we'll know for sure," Liu Qingquan said.
Behind them,
Master Zheng puffed on his tobacco pipe, exhaling a cloud of white smoke. "I don't get it. What's so great about that train to Moscow? Old Cao, why are you so set on running that route?"
"You, you don't understand. Being able to drive our own big train and take a trip abroad is my dream as a train driver."
Cao Wenzhi put his hands behind his back and looked into the distance, his dark pupils reflecting one locomotive after another.
....
Last year,
the Big Brother nation transferred a thousand large FD-class steam locomotives to the domestic front at a low price.
Domestically, it was named the 【Friendly】 steam locomotive (later renamed the 【Anti-Revisionist】 class).
Because the 【Friendly】 steam locomotives possessed advantages such as high horsepower and strong reliability, they were assigned to the crucial Beijing-Tianjin line.

The 【Friendly】 steam locomotive shared a common characteristic with other Soviet-built equipment: it was rugged and crudely built.
Inside the locomotive, everywhere the eye could see was forged from metal, and even the seats were no exception.
The seats were welded from a few steel tubes, save for the thick sheepskin cushions placed on top by someone.
It was currently midsummer, and the locomotive cab was steaming hot.
The moment Li Aiguo sat down, it felt a bit like burning his backside.
Yet he no longer had the luxury to care about such things.
Because the clock on the dashboard began to tick loudly.
He pressed the stop button on the clock.
Li Aiguo roared at the top of his lungs, "Master Zheng, stoke the fire!"
"Stoking the fire!"
Master Zheng, who had been standing by the furnace shovel in hand, called out.
He kicked open the furnace door with one foot, shoveled a load of coal into it, and the flames inside the combustion chamber flared up.
The interior of the locomotive head instantly filled with smoke, taking on the appearance of an immortal's secluded realm.
The air pressure began to rise bit by bit.
After inspecting the entire dashboard, Li Aiguo kept his eyes locked on the pressure gauge.
If this thing exceeded the critical value and the safety valve wasn't opened in time, the boiler would explode.
It could be said that the lives of everyone in the driver's cab were held entirely in the hands of the lead driver.
Seeing the needle on the pressure gauge approaching the critical value, Li Aiguo turned his head to look at assistant driver Liu Qingquan.
"Assistant driver comrade, keep a lookout!"
"Received!"
Liu Qingquan leaned out of the side window to keep watch.
Because the cab of a steam locomotive was located at the back of the engine,
sitting in the lead driver's seat made it impossible to see the situation ahead.
They were basically in a "blind driving" state.
The lead driver needed the assistant driver to lean out and keep watch, reporting outside conditions at any moment in order to operate the steam locomotive.
"Report to lead driver, everything is normal outside!"
Sound the whistle, release the brakes, push the handle forward, loosen the small brake, pull the throttle.
The whistle exhaust port mounted on top of the boiler forced high-pressure airflow through the tubular whistle chamber, generating intense vibrations and producing a deafening whistle.
The steam locomotive, like a giant dragon, slowly began to move, rolling out of the depot siding and coming to a steady stop on track four.
A dispatcher who had been waiting by the tracks ran over and handed up a dispatch order.
"Locomotive 131, move from track 3 to track 16 for a single-coupling freight formation operation."
Li Aiguo took the dispatch order, checked it carefully, signed his name on it, and handed it back.
Then, guided by the dispatcher, he drove out to track 4, braked four or five meters before switch No. 2, and waited for the switchman to finish his work.
Trains do not have steering wheels and lack the ability to turn.
To change a train's direction of travel, one must rely on switchmen to change the rail switches.
Once the dispatcher directed the switchman to clear switches No. 2 and No. 6,
assistant driver Liu Qingquan gave the signal once more, and Li Aiguo drove the steam locomotive to track 16.
A train formation consisting of twenty green carriages was already waiting on the platform.
The dispatcher sent the coupling signal.
Assistant driver Liu Qingquan's expression turned serious. "Report to lead driver, requesting reverse coupling."
Reverse coupling meant reversing the steam locomotive to back it up and connect with the train formation.
During this process, the train driver was required to have sharp eyes and quick hands, stopping precisely at the exact position without a hair's breadth of error.
Otherwise, at best, it would damage connecting valves and other equipment; at worst, it would cause casualties and accidents.
Since the train driver could not see the outside situation,
and the steam locomotive had neither rearview mirrors nor reverse radar, he could only judge when to decelerate based on the distances provided by the assistant driver.
Thus, the difficulty of this operation can be easily imagined.
Even an assistant driver like Liu Qingquan, who had worked for decades, was not confident he could reverse it into place.
He couldn't help feeling a bit worried, observing the outside conditions while keeping an eye on Li Aiguo's operations.
He saw that Li Aiguo was calm, composed, and unhurried.
One hand gripped the brake handle, the other pulled the throttle, alternating operations from time to time.
He looked just like a veteran driver of several decades.
Accompanied by Li Aiguo's skillful operations, the steam locomotive slowly glided backward.
Getting closer and closer to the train cars, closer and closer.
Crossing the warning line, Liu Qingquan began counting down: "150 meters, 100 meters.... 10 meters... 5 meters..."
A dull, continuous clunk of the cars colliding--they were coupled.
Inside the camp car.
Cao Wenzhi, who was resting lazily on his bunk, opened his eyes and said to his assistant driver, "How about that, Old Wang? I told you this kid has some real tricks up his sleeve."
The assistant driver slapped his thigh and laughed heartily. "Old Cao, with this kid around, we might actually be able to compete with Master Zhang from the main depot for that Moscow route."
"Of course. Being able to drive the train to Moscow is the glory of every railway worker." Cao Wenzhi's expression turned solemn.