SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Railways

A network of military roads and railways link the Empire. Trains are on an 1850's European pattern [see here and here], and in the Empire are generally black with gold and red trim. They run on very wide tracks with about a three metre gauge. Most railway lines are single tracks with occasional passing places. Almost all railway (and other steam powered) engines are fired by wood rather than coal or oil, as because of the great age of steam technology on Dran almost all such fossil fuel resources are long-since mined out.

Railmasters, who answer to the Master of Industry, are responsible for the care and upkeep of the railways. Each is responsible for a section of the network, and lives near it. They have the power to demand assistance from the local Manors in doing their job (of course, politics always comes into this, though). Because of this, military roads, or at least passable tracks, run alongside all railways. Train drivers and other staff are also all employed by, and responsible to, the Master of Industry.

The use of the railways by civilians is highly restricted. Horse-drawn transport is far more common for the majority of the population.

There are a number of classes of train carriage:

• Nobles have private cars or travel in luxurious Nobility Class carriages.
• The rich travel First Class.
• Middle class people travel Second Class.
• The poor (those who can or must travel) go Third Class.
• Slaves go with their owners (if their owners value them), or in Slave Class, which is essentially cattle cars and can have a rather high mortality rate, depending on season and crowding conditions.

There are no local train stations. Each city has one main station, whose size depends on the traffic it sees. They are huge looming structures whose style resembles real-world fascist architecture, caked with centuries of smoke and grime. They were originally built at the edge of cities, so getting to the train involved leaving the city via an official check point. Now most cities have grown so large that they are no longer at the edge, but one still leaves the city to get to the train, and the railway lines are walled off so that they too are effectively outside the city. Many train lines are on elevated iron framework tracks within cities where, rather than demolish whatever was in the way, the railway has simply been built over it.

The First Station in Umbra is the largest on Dran. This is a huge structure with dozens of platforms and a labyrinth of buildings, subways and bridges, coated with centuries of grime. Umbra also has several other railway halts. There is a rarely-used off-loading siding at the foot of the Memorial of Fallen Enemies, a major station in its own right in the Iron House, and another by the Palace of Shadows. Other stations are at the College of Engineers, and two at the docks (one on each side of the Deminorsk).

In the countryside train stations (and Manors) are thirty to forty miles apart along the track. All countryside train stations have hostels for travellers, in which the travellers pay for their accommodation. These are maintained by the rulers of the Manor, so the size and quality varies with the family attitude to the railway. Some are luxurious; some squalid. Of course, guests of very high standing or friends of the family will be put up in the Manor itself. Manors on the railway tend to be more powerful than those (the majority) which are not, particularly those at the junctions of more than one line. Because of this railway lines sometimes follow courses determined by political manoeuvres at the time the line was built, rather than the most sensible route for the line to follow.

Roads

Military roads also link railway stations to the local Manors off the line, and in many places also follow the railway line. They are dead straight, and wide, built from local materials, usually stone, but in a few places, tarmac. These roads are the responsibility of Roadmasters, who, like the Railmasters, report to the Master of Industry, and who, like them, can demand assistance from the local Manors to repair and maintain the roads they are responsible for. Other roads to villages and the like are, by contrast, usually twisty and rutted tracks.

There are some steam powered tractors which haul road trains from place to place, but these are quite rare; in most places railways perform these tasks.

River Transport

River traffic is common wherever navigable rivers are to be found in populated areas.

Canals are used in some places along the Lystha, as well as in Krylar and in places in Karthan. They are not used around Umbra.

Sea Transport

Ships of the Undying Empire are of black iron, slow, heavily armoured, not very manoeuvrable and driven by steam or magic. The navy does not generally travel out of sight of the coast, because they have no way of locating their position accurately enough to do so with any confidence.

Ships of the Lunar Empire are clipper-like and have silver-white hulls and white sails. Some are magically driven. They are fast and manoeuvrable. They use kites for observation, and do have the capability to go out onto the open sea, being able to safely navigate out of sight of land.