Moreover, to cope with the endless, ever-expanding railway lines, the engineers had gone completely mad. They had brought out something that had only flashed briefly across Earth's history.
A Nuclear-powered Locomotive... Yes, that was right—a nuclear-powered locomotive.
Thanks to advances in technology and materials, the miniaturization of Fission Reactors had progressed very smoothly. The smallest Fission Reactor, while maintaining its output, was far smaller than a single train carriage.
However, the railways in this world and those of Great Qin both used specially designed broad-gauge tracks. Although construction costs would rise, trains ran more smoothly, carrying capacity increased, and the larger carriages made Nuclear Power more convenient to use.
As for the incompatibility with the country's original standard-gauge tracks, that was not much of a problem. The standard-gauge lines were mainly concentrated in the vast transfer stations beyond the Star Gate.
All lines beyond the transfer stations used broad gauge, because supplies had to be transferred. It was impossible for them to be sent directly from the Star Gate to every location, and that would remain impossible even in the future. The Star Gate simply could not handle that kind of volume, and all supplies had to be allocated.
Since transfer stations were necessary anyway, changing to broad gauge became much easier. At most, locomotives and related equipment had to be redesigned. That was nothing major.
Railway development in the Song Dynasty had actually been faster than on Great Qin's side. The main reason was that Great Qin's population was relatively concentrated, while more distant regions remained the domain of plants and gradually recovering animals. There were no people there, so naturally there was no need for trains to reach those places yet.
As the population expanded in the future, railways could be built directly to those areas.
By then,