Today I'm going to tell you about the Yemang Mine Railway, in the northeastern region of Nonsensible. This railway uses three 0-4-2 tank locomotives (I'm going to show you one in service and one that is covered with flowers.) that were built by the Nonsensible Locomotive Works in 1948.
These reliable locomotives have been in service each day and every day, except for Christmas and their yearly services at the main workshops, on July 3rd. This is locomotive #1, Hayden, at the starting point.
Today's consist uses 0-4-2 Hayden, one coupling car with employee Emmett Berston handling coupling duties, and two coal trucks.
The coal comes to the railway via a minimum gauge human powered mine railway, based on the Mamiao coal mine in China, which connects to the Shibanxi Railway. This is Albert Durran working a mine cart.
Uh-oh! One of the wheels has fallen off the cart, and Albert has to repair it! Fortunately, one of the prerequisites for the coal job is that you must be able to repair a 15 in. chassis of a mine cart, but fortunately this can be taught by looking through the local libraries. Coal mining is also one of the safest jobs in all of Nonsensible, because...well...this is Nonsensible, and anything I say goes.
This is Emmett handling coupling duties. Here you can see the normal coupling on the bottom near where Emmett is standing...
And now we see the coal coupling.
It looks like the train has made it around the tree!
Peeking down the track...
It has arrived! Normally, there would be a coal mine (sorry Albert, you have to come over here now) to accept the coal, but due to limited parts (and my laziness) there is none. Now, Hayden can get a rest on this siding before the next train.
This is the former #1, Wechestren, is currently on a siding awaiting either relegation (being sent to another line) or preservation.
As you can see, this locomotive is identical to Hayden, sans buffers, whistle, cab roof, and coal, and plus a lot of flowers.
As you can see, it has not seen use for some time.
This is the back of poor #1.
But wait! It can still run! All right, Wechestren is ready to go, with Albert at the controls.
Well, this is the end of the line for the Yemang Mine Railway. Hey, while you're still here, we might as well take a look at Nonsensible's semaphore signals.
These signals use what is called Automatic Block Signalling, which is where at each block of the line, for example between Malahat Station and Wisteria Park, there is a machine that hammers out data between each block, which the stationmaster reads, and demonstrates the appropriate hand signal. Here we see the stationmaster, Lesley Cohen, with the red paddle, or stop.
This is go, or green in railroad signalling terms.
This is the equivalent to a yellow signal, or proceed with caution.
This signal is only used at junctions involving switches, and it means that the switch is set for right. Left, if you reverse it.
This means that the switch is set for straight running.
If Lesley waves his red paddle vigorously, it is the signal for an emergency stop, and the train may not proceed until further notice.
Well, that's all from me for now. Merry (Late) Christmas, and a Happy (Late) New Year!
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