The Great Western Railway

[Anonymous]

 

 

http://www.5at.co.uk/5ATlocomotive.shtml

Distinguished Western Governors & US Senators, Vet-Center Team Leaders, Western State Wardens & All Friends of the Western State Cavalry Project, notably

David Wardale, Chief of Design, 5AT Locomotive Project, England
Roger Waller, Locomotive Designer, c/o DLM AG, Winterthur, Switzerland
Thomas Blasingame, Locomotive Designer, Boise, Idaho
Harry Valentine, Locomotive Designer, Canada
Gilbert Gillette, Railroad Administrator
Robin Barnes, 5AT-Locomotive Illustrator
Col. Patricia Horoho, Director, Walter Reed Army Hospital, Washington DC
Ms. Sally Spencer, BLM Wild Horse & Burro Program
Michael Antal, Charcoal Production Specialist, Hawaii
Michael Lurvey, Charcoal Production Specialist, Hawaii
Akwasi Boateng, Charcoal Fluidization Specialist, Pennsylvania
Dwight Beranek, Railroad Designer, Army Corps of Engineers
Bobby Muller, Veterans For America
Dr. C.P. Peterson, Chancellor, University of Colorado, Boulder
Jay Leno, c/o Jay Leno's Garage
Coach Sonny Lubick, Colorado State University

Mayor of Ft. Collins, Doug Hutchinson
Mayor of Cheyenne, Jack R. Spiker
Mayor of Laramie, Klaus Hanson
Mayor of Casper, Ms. Kate Sarosy
Mayor of Sheridan, Dave Kinskey
Mayor of Billings, Ron Tussing
Mayor of Bozeman, Jeff Krauss
Mayor of Butte, Paul Babb
Mayor of Idaho Falls, Jared D. Fuhrman
Mayor of Pocatello, Roger W. Chase
Mayor of Logan, Randy Watts
Mayor of Ogden, Matthew R. Godfrey
Mayor of Salt Lake City, Rocky Anderson
Mayor of Provo, Lewis K. Billings
& Mayor of Boise, David H. Bieter

Dear Friends,

Let me bring you up to date on my latest thinking for the Great Western Railway, this being a thousand-mile long, double-track line running from Ft. Collins, Colorado to Provo, Utah, with stops at Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper, Sheridan, Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Logan, Ogden, & Salt Lake City.

The GWR would be built by the Army Corps of Engineers & owned & operated by the Veterans Administration. It would employ, almost exclusively, post 9/11 veterans of the US Armed Forces. The line is designed to be the money-making agency of the Western State Cavalry whose mission it would be to implement the "Western Wildfire Code" stating that "On any 200 yard by 200 yard roadside square, the number of woody stems shall not exceed 200". Unlike the Railway which would be civilian & co-ed, the Cavalry would be para-military & all male, ultimately located in 144 Camps in 12 Western States, each made up of 60 Cavalrymen, all veterans of Iraq & Afghanistan, & 400 "Inmate Infantrymen", these being able-bodied, minimum-security prisoners with less than two years remaining on their sentences.

Cavalrymen & GWR employees alike would earn $12 per hour plus, room & board, plus medical for a one-year tour of duty. Thirty freshman credit hours might also be offered during this year on the land...& this may be the subject of a future posting.

As the by-product of the Cavalry would be railroad ties & charcoal, the original idea was simply to pay the bills by selling these two valuable products on the open market. It has been only in the past month or so when it occurred to me that it would be more profitable & much more fun to operate a much-needed railway in the Rocky Mountain West that was a major consumer of ties & charcoal.

Thus I came upon the design for a locomotive by David Wardale that I thought, but still am not sure, could be run on the charcoal produced by the Cavalry. The specs given at the top of this page give a range for the 5AT of 350 miles on coal...& my question is whether, the same range, with a locomotive of the same conformation might be achieved on charcoal. I understand that charcoal is considered to be much lighter than coal, but as this business is not my metier, I don't know if that is because charcoal is intrinsically lighter, or if, like Ivory soap, it is light because it is typically full of air. Would a fluidized bed of charcoal, I wonder, be as dense as coal?

If a 5AT locomotive can be built to run on charcoal with a range of 350 miles I think that the Great Western Railway might be in the market for twenty-four trains...20, Blue Line, 2, Red Line & 2, Green Line. The Blue Line trains with the Blue locomotives would provide the regularly scheduled service along the thousand miles of track, the Red Line trains (Red locos), would be chartered for group tours & for teams & fans attending athletic events...(most of the fourteen designated towns being college towns with lively programs). The Green Line would be a freight line belonging to the Cavalry itself.

The stations along this route, in my opinion, should be located between five & ten miles from the city limits of their towns. The less wrangling about individual property rights & loud, locomotive horns, the better.

The Cavalry, its female auxiliary the Western State Equestrian Corps consisting of a hundred, cowgirl vets who would tame mustangs & breed mules at the Cavalry HQ near Kalispell, Montana, plus the Railway plus the tentativley entitled "Idaho Locomotive & Rail Works" that would be located near Boise, would all be funded though a six-billion dollar grant by way of Chapter 31 of the "Servicemen's Readjustment Act" aka, the "GI Bill"
Chapter 31 is called "Vocational Rehabilitation"...& given the big budget of the VA, along with the great number of returning vets suffering from the neurological sprain known as PTSD, it seems to me that Chapter 31 is a perfect fit for this project.

Let me propose the formation of two design teams that would meet in Salt Lake City. One team would consider the design of the locomotive & the other the design of the Great Western Railway. The VA should pay for travel & lodging for design-team members, whose names are mentioned above.

Thus spake Zarathustra.

Best regards, David Yuhas, Boulder, Colorado