On August 20, 1651, although the coldest season had passed, on the Nanci Liangyang Railway line, a group of railway workers were still working hard to repair a section of rails. This is the railway branch line from the Heishan Coal Mine to Qingniwa Station. This branch line with a mileage of 41 kilometers is now facing many troubles. The most important of these is the frequent damage to the railway tracks in winter and the extremely high maintenance cost.

As we all know, the Southern Cone Liangyang Railway is built on the south bank of Xingnan River and is located in the cold high-latitude Gobi area. When the west wind is bitter in winter, the temperature drops very quickly. If you are not lucky, there will be another snowfall, then the railway tracks, roadbeds, roadbeds, and sleepers on the railway line will face serious freezing and hardening problems and will not play the necessary buffering effect. Especially when load-loading trains pass frequently, the impact of wheels on the rails is very strong. At this time, the ice expansion of the tracks caused by thermal expansion and contraction (often up to about 50 mm) makes the load of the railways very uneven, and deformation occurs under the impact of the wheels, which has a great destructive effect on the railways.

It is no secret that the quality of the rails produced on the East Coast is relatively inferior compared to later generations. One of the major manifestations is that the material is not resistant to low temperatures, which causes a large number of comb-shaped defects at the bottom after the train passes in winter, and the sleepers are also broken a lot. The economic losses caused cannot be underestimated. This problem cannot be seen when the East Coast is warmer, but in the colder South Patagonia region, this is very fatal. The frequent damage to the rails is not only high in maintenance costs, but also affects driving safety.

To solve this problem, we must start from many aspects, including technical research involving the material of railway tracks, and heat treatment processes in the production process of railway tracks. There is also the problem of drainage of railway beds in winter. Although the precipitation along the Nanci Railway is sparse (no more than 300 mm per year), due to the fact that the evaporation is not strong and the precipitation is mostly concentrated in winter and spring, the problem of icing on the track bed cannot be ignored.

After realizing this problem, the Nan Railway Company has now begun to regret the sand track beds that were used for small gains. They have now fully notified the railway lines under construction and instructed each construction section to stop the construction of sand track beds and instead build a well-drained gravel track bed to avoid the line from freezing and swelling in winter and affecting the life of the railway tracks on it. In addition, the railway lines that have been constructed will gradually begin to be rectified - this is another huge project - to ensure that the adverse effects of frozen swelling of the line are minimized.

In addition, the research on steel for cold protection will inevitably be put on the agenda. Regarding this, the State Administration of Railways also attaches great importance to it. They contacted Ping An Iron and Steel Plant and planned to start research from two aspects. First, the heat treatment process of the railway tracks under the responsibility of Ping An Iron and Steel Plant. Ma Vest, who is almost the only metallurgical expert in China, vaguely remembers that during the cooling process of the cast iron rails produced, how to eliminate different thermal stress caused by different heat distributions is the key to solving the problem. In addition, the heat treatment of finished products, the waste heat of the furnace, etc. are all factors that need to be considered. In short, this is another scientific and technological breakthrough action. It requires a lot of funds and manpower. This part of the cost is currently paid by Nantie Company. The personnel are provided by Ping An Factory, and the researched patents are shared by both parties.

Secondly, the problem of rail material cannot be ignored. This must be the responsibility of Tieling Special Steel Factory. The factory has received assistance requests from the State Administration of Railways. At the same time, the Nantie Railway Company has also sent a few personnel to bring first-hand information and large amounts of research funds to cooperate with Tieling Factory to conduct research on low-temperature resistant steel materials. This is more troublesome than the previous heat treatment process. The ratio of various elements such as carbon, manganese, and nickel in steel is different, and the characteristics of steel are different, which requires a large amount of experimental data to improve.

Although Ping An Iron and Steel Plant had handed them over the ratios of some of the highest-level steel models (a considerable part of which was given by the vest based on memory), it is still a time-consuming and laborious thing to study the most low-temperature resistant special steel based on this basis - it requires a lot of low-temperature resistant tests. If it is a railway track, it is still necessary to conduct low-temperature load tests, which requires going to the Southern Vehicle Factory Experimental Railway in Meilin County - it is still a very time-consuming and laborious thing. After all, there is no other shortcut to this kind of process and material matters. Everyone can only conduct a large number of experiments under the guidance of theory and experience, then gradually summarize, and finally select the steel composition distribution ratio that best meets the requirements.

In other words, these processes and ratios require a lot of money and time to spend, and there is no other way to go. Of course, once this is studied, it will have a very obvious driving effect on the metallurgical process and materials science of the East Coast Republic of China, and it is worth trying. Similarly, after the technical patent is researched, it will be shared by Nantie Company and Tieling Special Steel Plant.

However, as the saying goes, far water cannot quench near thirst. Before the railways that resist low temperatures can be studied, on the Nanci Liangyang Railway, what the Nanchi Railway Company can do is to de-icing the railway in time - mainly when it snows. If it does not snow, the groundwater level in the place will be low, which may not cause large-scale freezing of the roadbed - and at the same time, it is required to reduce the number of departures in winter or even temporarily suspended. Sorry, this is impossible!

If you go to the 203 kilometers of the Nanci Railway that have been built (of which the mileage of opening up to traffic accounts for about 70%), you will clearly find that on the railways where the three sections of the Heishan Coal Mine, Qingniwa, Araucan Port - Qingniwa, Xingnan Port - from Xinbao, for a long time, various materials have been frequently transported and exchanged between places through railways. Especially the branch railway from Heishui Coal Mine to Qingniwa, both personnel and materials are transported frequently. A large amount of Montenegro coal is transferred to the important maritime port of Araucan Port by railway, and then shipped to other places, for personal use, sold to the Spaniards, or transported back to local sales (with fierce competition with Tacheng Coal), creating excellent economic benefits.

Therefore, if you want to convince the Nan Railway Company to give up railway transportation in winter and use freight carriages to walk on the road, not to mention how to make up for the huge amount of grain, building materials, and coal transportation gaps, just say that the freight is not something they can tolerate. Now that they have tasted cheap railway transportation, they are already tired of the expensive road transportation. Nan Railway Company would rather reduce the speed of trains and increase the frequency of rail repair and replacement than give up this crucial cheap transportation method - cost determines everything.

For example, this is the railway maintenance near Qingniwa Station. Because it is located in a swamp area, the groundwater level is high, and the freezing degree of roadbed and roadbed is naturally higher than that of other places. In addition, it had snowed a few days ago, so the freezing is generally 50-80 cm, which is really not light. After passing a heavy coal-carrying train, not only did the sleepers under the rails produce many cracks, but also many irregular defects are produced in the lower edge of the rails. In the low-temperature freezing environment, the quality of the rails produced on the east coast is indeed not as high as the strength and toughness. It may not matter in the east coast, but it is exposed to the south Patagonia. After all, this is not the warm east coast.

The railway repair class of the Nan Railway Company, which had dozens of staff, finally laid the new railway tracks with the assistance of various equipment. After the leading squad leader greeted him, everyone took several human-powered track cars and drove towards Qingniwa Railway Station behind. On the way, they encountered a steam locomotive that came to pull a train on the railway, and they were able to take it back for free, saving a lot of effort.

After arriving at the train station, the station manager carefully checked the damaged tracks and sleepers they had replaced, signed the maintenance records, and then quickly walked to the telegraph room on the second floor, and asked someone to ride a horse to the Montenegro coal mine to inform the people there that the railway had been restored to open.

A young transmitter nodded nervously, then grabbed his coat and hurried downstairs. Now the test telegraph line between Qingniwa Railway Station and the Heishan Coal Mine is still being set up. The identities of the so-called telegraphers are actually very embarrassing. So, what could be done by a telegraph that was originally a telegraph could be done, but now it is even necessary for the telegrapher to ride a horse to notify him personally. It is really ironic.

The middle-aged train station manager, a veteran, took off the seal-skin hat on his forehead and carefully checked the insulation condition inside the house. Nantec Corporation stipulates that the room temperature of the telegraph room must be maintained to a certain extent. If the temperature is too low, the battery voltage that maintains the operation of the telegraph system will decrease, which will ultimately affect its use efficiency. Many lead-acid batteries have been transported into the room, so the temperature inside must be guaranteed.

After all this, the webmaster took out a pipe from his pocket, lit a pipe for himself, and then walked towards the freight yard outside the train station in whale leather boots. The previous heavy truck was parked at the freight yard to add water and coal, and unloaded a batch of intimidating supplies - these are all items necessary to maintain the daily life of local residents. The conscientious webmaster felt that it would be better to arrive at the freight yard in person to check the supplies. He was really worried about the Italian material custodians - they all came to the east coast at their own expense, and had learned some superficial math and some accounting methods, so they could easily do errands at the train station. In his opinion, these people were all scattered guys, and they were very greedy for small gains. If they didn't keep a close eye on them, they would not be able to make any mistakes.

"The barbarians are born as barbarians, and they only recognize white silver. If they don't keep a close eye on them, these hateful barbarians will probably benefit themselves a lot. Damn, I really think that if you climb up to the section chief above, you can do whatever you want? I had fought with Marshal Mo back then. You barbarians are nothing! With the handle, they will send you to the Montessori Port to blow the cold wind." The stationmaster was smoking his pipe while thinking fiercely. (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!