This Wooden Train, barely over half a meter tall, already looked very much like the old-fashioned steam locomotives Joseph remembered.
Except it had a pair of enormous front wheels for propulsion—Trevithick had been unable to devise a compound suspension mechanism, and Joseph did not understand the principles involved either. So they had used oversized driving wheels instead.
Trevithick pushed the model's Piston Rod by hand, and the wheels immediately began to turn with it, moving very smoothly.
He chattered excitedly, "Your Highness, I calculated it precisely last night. If it is powered by a 90 Horsepower Steam Engine, it can reach a speed of thirty-eight kilometers per hour while pulling nine coal wagons and sixteen carriages. One load of coal will keep it running for six hundred kilometers."
Following the Crown Prince's suggestion, he had found that the LJ98 Steam Engine needed to be modified and reduced in size, which lowered its output to 90 Horsepower. However, thanks to the immense improvements in the train's overall design, that power was already sufficient.
Joseph remembered Trevithick mentioning earlier that each coal wagon could carry five tons of coal, while an ordinary carriage could carry four tons of cargo. In other words, this First-generation Train already had a net carrying capacity of sixty-four tons.
In fact, if they reduced the amount of coal carried, it could transport more than eighty tons of goods, though it would need to stop more often along the way to replenish its fuel.
Joseph suddenly recalled seeing, in later generations, trains driven by two locomotives, one in front and one behind. It seemed that could double the carrying capacity.
He looked at Trevithick and asked, "If we use another locomotive to push from behind at the same time, could we double the number of carriages attached?"
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