RK Series Racing; Stage 10 Drive
The night was quiet, but comparatively short, as the team was forced to get up substantially earlier than usual due to their early planned departure. Constantin got to work taking down what could be taken down without disturbing the others. Not that it was of any help, as Tim made such a racket getting out of the tent, ending in it almost being torn down and Valentin being forced awake as well.
Constantin was already productive loading up the Bricksley with their camping equipment as quitely as one can toss various containers into a steel truck bed. At least it seemed quiet enough to not alert anyone who wasn’t already awake.
With Valentin finally out of the tent as well, Tim quickly handed some highly basic breakfast over to the others, which didn’t take all too long to be had. After all, they were in some degree of a time-crunch.
Kivenaal’s ear flicked as he heard the sound of Constantin loading up the Bricksley’s bed with camping gear, and soon after, Kivenaal got out of his tent with a quiet groan and a light yawn.
Despite the noise Tim was making getting out of his tent, all seemed relatively quiet in camp, with most of Shift Happens still being asleep. Kivenaal quietly opened up a rear door on the Bricksley, reaching under the seat for a container, and pulled out a small, gray-plastic brick. Moving from the back of the truck over to the driver’s seat, Kivenaal opened the plastic packaging and started eating the contents within, not caring that he was eating an MRE cold. To him, it was fuel, and it really wasn’t worth wasting his time trying to heat everything up when one considered it had been sitting inside the truck the whole time.
Just after finishing breakfast, Kivenaal came around to the driver side of the Bricksley, himself now starting his breakfast.
“Mornin…”, all three collectively said, quietly, before returning to packing up camp, leaving him to have his breakfast in peace.
Kivenaal, in response, politely waved back at the others, after which he went about eating the cold contents of the ready-made “meal”.
Well, two of them did, as the third one was still in crutches and spent the better part of the morning getting some more of that pain-relief cream on. With the less-tightly fitting suit and the Bricksley’s tailgate making for good support, the process went a fair bit quicker than the last few times.
The cream application was followed up by some looong overdue maintenance of his haircut.
“ow… ow… oow…”, he mumbled on nearly every stroke of his brush as his hair became very entangled over the past few days, making it a less than pleasant experience to rectify.
One by one the equipment bags, boxes and other bits found their way into the Bricksley.
After the last one was placed in the bed, Valentin was shoo’d off of the tailgate, after which Constantin “quietly” closed it, thus finishing the loading process.
What Constantin did not expect, though, was the fact that the tailgate was not some AR400 armor plating hinged to copious amounts of bubble gum, leading ho him violently smashing it shut instead.
“Fuck… Sorry about that…” he said after the little mishap, flinching a little as well.
They headed over to Kivenaal, who was very close to finishing his breakfast by this time.
“As far as i’m aware, we’re ready.” Constantin said, the others nodding in agreement. Only Connor simply stood there, not doing anything worthwhile for the entire time, although he did watch the loading process unfold with some curiosity.
“Not a problem,” Kivenaal replied as Constantin apologized, before stuffing the last bite of food in his mouth.
Kaylie startled awake at the tailgate slam, not knowing what it was. Likewise, Jayde startled as Kaylie jolted awake. Kaylie sighed. “If I find out who’s slamming doors, I’m going to torque-check their lug nuts!” Kaylie called out, though made no effort to get out of the tent.
Kivenaal chuckled quietly and shook his head. When Constantin mentioned they were ready, Kivenaal said quietly, “Climb in. Don’t mind Kaylie, she won’t actually go after anyone with a torque wrench. She just doesn’t handle getting startled awake well.” After Kivenaal said that, he checked the passenger side mirror, then out the driver’s side window to make sure no one was in the path of the exhaust, then turned the key and started the V8.
Kaylie groaned. “Kivenaal, it’s too fucking early to use the truck as an alarm clock!” Kaylie grumbled.
Valentin claimed the front-passenger seat, thus having the greatest available knee and leg room.
The other three shared the rear bench, with Connor being in the cramped middle spot, Constantin and Tim shouldering him either side.
The drive itself wasn’t anything to write home about as the Bricksley rolled through town, past the station and towards the back end of the sheds.
There, they disembarked the big-ass truck again, after which Constantin went to the back to get the first bit of their belongings while Valentin went to the one door the sheds had on this side and politely knocked onto it.
Almost immediately after, the door opened, with an unfamiliar face looking back at them for a bit. The worker, without saying anything, heads back in and returns about a minute later, letting the team in to reclaim their parked railcar.
Work was then started preparing Robert for the big run as Valentin went in to pop the hood, grabbing the grease gun from the roof afterwards. Back up front, he went about greasing up every single bit that needed greasing as Constantin and Tim went back and forth between both cars loading up their equipment.
On one return trip, Tim takes out a roughly half-full purple bottle, carrying it back to the Bricksley and Kivenaal.
“That one’s yours.” Tim said, holding it up to Kivenaal as Constantin went past to collect the next piece of cargo.
“Ah, thank you. I’ll make sure to add this to the fuel later, help improve the mix,” Kivenaal said. “So, is it official that your team is going on the record run?” Kivenaal asked, getting out of the truck and grabbing the bottle, putting it in the bed with the other bottles.
“As far as i am aware, yes, but Val has the specifics, being the driver and all.” Tim replied, excited but uncertain.
“VAAL! The Shift Happens Guy wants to know about the record run!”, he subsequently shouted into the sheds.
“Give me a moment to finish up here! Don’t want it blowing up now…” Valentin replied, gradually becoming quieter leading to only the first four words really reaching the Bricksley.
A few minutes pass as Constantin is treading back and forth and Valentin was preparing the Railcar for it’s historical journey. After that, the team in it’s entirety gathered around the Bricksley again.
“So what exactly do you want to know now?”, Valentin asked, rather annoyed at being disturbed doing highly critical work under the hood of Robert.
Kivenaal sighed. “I wanted to know if you were doing the record run. However,” and Kivenaal looked to Tim, “I would have been fine with waiting until Valentin was done with mission critical work.”
“Well i am done now” Valentin said, with the initial annoyance more intended to be directed at Tim rather than Kivenaal.
“As per the run, we have permission to do whatever speed Robert will get us to. My idea is to see how fast it can go until the rails are level again, then stomp the brakes to see if they work. And hope nothing goes tits-up in the process…”, he continues.
“Well it’s been working flawlessly up until now…” Tim remarked in an attempt to raise the spirits a bit.
“Doing 220 instead of 160 is a wholly different level, though…” Valentin countered, still worried at what could go wrong in which way.
After a rather eerily long moment of nothing from anyone, Constantin pulled out his local-timed pocket watch and checked the available time until departure.
“We are gonna have to get going soon if you don’t want to be as punctual as the Deutsche Bahn…”, Constantin said, half-jokingly, though still serious in wording as time was starting to get somewhat tight.
“Yeah we gotta go. See you in camp later.” Valentin responded, thus wishing his fare-well to Kivenaal.
the others politely nodded or waved and followed Valentin into the sheds, hidden by the wall either side of the door.
Kivenaal nodded. “Good luck, be safe, and be fast,” Kivenaal said. “As my people would say, vuri ada ahd nevuri marin. Strong wind and calm seas. I’ll try to get the rest of them to the station to see you off, and I will see you in camp later,” he added.
Kivenaal cranked over the V8 and backed the truck up, turned it around, then headed away from the sheds at a faster pace than he’d arrived. Before he was out of sight, Kivenaal flicked the tail of the truck out and rounded a corner at speed, before disappearing past the yardmaster’s building.
The four team members piled into the car, Valentin, as always, entering first, followed by the other three in the usual configuration.
Steam pressure was built and soon after, they left the sheds, reversing the entire way to the station of Pritz for lack of a turntable at both ends of the station. With limited visibility through the mirrors and poking the head out being unsafe, Valentin was forced to carefully reverse down the line into the platform area of the station, barely being faster than a jogger for the entire route.
Still, they entered the station with some time to spare, with a slew of people crowding up on the platform, among which were the station master, an unknown member of the press and all of Shift Happens.
The Dione rolled to a stop, less gracefully than usual as the railhead brake seemed quite a bit more sensitive in reverse.
Both passenger-side doors opened, narrowly missing the platform edge because of the low-slung nature of Robert compared to conventional railway carriages.
“Good morning… everyone?” Valentin said from across the car, trying to get a view of who was there, but the seating position prevented him from getting a good look at anything that wasn’t numerous pairs of legs.
“Good morning, Valentin,” Jayde said, grinning. “All of us showed up to give you a proper send-off on this potentially historic voyage,” he added.
“Really, Kivenaal insisted that we show up,” Kayden said with a yawn. “But it’s still exciting, even if I’d have liked to sleep in.”
“Vuri ada ahd nevuri marin,” Rukari said, again giving a proper Valraadi salute on the platform. “Good luck on your speed-hunt,” he added, breaking out of the salute.
“I’ve already said my bit at the sheds, but, might as well say it again, stay safe out there,” Kivenaal mentioned.
“Good luck and have fun!” Kaylie called out.
“We’ll see you at the next campsite,” Malavera said. “I’d try to get Kivenaal to race you there, but somehow, I get the feeling that even if he fangs it, we’re not going to be faster.”
Constantin got out to make way for the editor, who immediately mistook him for Valentin.
“Huh, you sure are a lot bulkier than everyone described you as being…” the editor noted, eying Constantin in confusion. “Anyway. Richard Vellen, editor at the Turntable Times. Glad to be part of this record run.” he politely added, but the excitement was hard to hide.
“Constantin Schrant. Pleas” he responded with mutual respect. “I think you are mixing us up a bit, Valentin is still in the… railcar, more or less stuck in there for a number of reasons.” Constantin explained, followed by a lightbulb-moment of Richard as he took a peek into the car, seeing little more than Connor and the now vacant seat Constantin came out of.
Afterwards, Constantin helped the editor find his seat to the best of his ability, ending in a semi-graceful engress of Richard into the mid-bench rear seat. With Constantin on one side and Tim on the other, it would be a cozy experience.
Before Constantin re-entered, though, he saw how all of SH was present, wishing good luck and rooting for Valentin and the team as a whole. He respectfully nodded, followed by a proper, earthen salute, after which he re-entered the car.
In there, Richard was instructed on the use of seatbelts, not really because there were necessary, or mandatory, but rather through force of habit coming from earth.
With the Editor in place, steam pressure built, they still had a few minutes until scheduled departure.
During those few minutes, not much happened outside at the platform, with a small crowd of people, among which Shift Happens, eagerly awaiting departure.
Within, Richard started peppering Valentin and Connor up front with questions about how Robert came to be, some surface-level technical details, among other things.
He also learns the vague plan of the trip, in that they would be going from Pritz to Garda Winn, using the downhill segment of the early sections to gather speed to the best of their ability. Once on flat rails, a full-force emergency stop shall be performed using the newly installed railhead brake. After that, the remainder is done at ordinary line speed, assuming nothing breaks in the process.
Meanwhile, some other person, also a member of press, is shuffling his way toward the platform edge, spotting Robert still stood at the station.
“Railway Express Magazine! Please let me aboard that railcar!”, he shouts across the platform, annoying basically everyone present.
“Seat’s full… Turntable Times was here first…”, the station master comments next to him, grinning a bit as he was aware of the rivalry between the two papers that has been going on for quite a while now.
While Richard kept bombarding Valentin with questions, he reached for a small knob under the dash, followed by him pulling a plunger on the center, below the radio. This sends a “snake hissing” across the station, though less violent than what the steam main produces when shutting Robert down.
“You’d think that for a rare event such as this, someone would know better than to be late,” Rukari said.
Jayde checked his pocket watch, then shrugged. “Technically, he’s not late. Still got some time before departure.”
“I learned in the Marinzahiri that if you are on time, you’re late, and if you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re late, you’re in trouble,” Rukari replied.
“Not everyone is military,” Jayde replied.
“No, but Rukari does have a point,” Kivenaal said. “It’s probably rather well known that there’s only one spare seat in there. Being early is sensible.”
As a hiss rasped out from under the Dione, Kaylie startled and looked around for the snake she’d heard, then elbowed Kivenaal for laughing at her reaction.
“It’s not a snake, Kaylie. They just released the steam holding the brake in place. Chances are, Valentin’s getting ready to go soon,” Kivenaal replied.
Within the car, Valentin took a few deep breaths, collecting himself and focusing as best he could on the trip ahead.
A few loooong moments later, he reached for the Ignition key, turning it clockwise as far as it will go, thus sending a blast of the whistle across the station.
Everyone, including the press member still on the platform, knew what was happening and (almost) everyone erupted in cheering and applause as a result.
Afterwards, Valentin weighed his foot down a bit, with Robert dutifully reacting, starting to roll out of the station towards Garda Winn.
As the car shrank over time, being further and further away from anyone at the station, the cheers started to die down, with the first people already heading off to return to their daily routines.
So did the station master, who went for his office to see if he could gain sort-of live intel on the Railcar as it went along.
As Valentin set off in Robert and the crowd broke out into cheers and applause, Kayden had to smile. Team RK Series Racing had come a very long way from their exploded distributor on the side of the road, from their conversion of the Dione from ICE to Steam, the modification into a high-railer, and now, the addition of a proper braking system allowing for safe high-speed travel.
As the Dione started to disappear, and the crowd started to thin, it was Jayde who eventually got Shift Happens on the move. “If we leave now, we might be able to make it to the camp before 1 Sun,” Jayde said, checking his pocket watch.
The six piled into the Bricksley, the engine was started, and Kivenaal planted his foot down hard on the accelerator. The V8 gave a triumphant roar as the rear wheels spun, leaving the Railway Express Magazine editor mired in a mixed cloud of tire smoke and exhaust fumes.
As they left the small road leading to the station and shot out onto the main street of Pritz, Kivenaal had the Bricksley damn-near sideways, all-terrain tires howling as the engine bellowed.
“What manner of madness is this!?” Jayde grumbled.
“Speed and POWER!” Kivenaal yelled, as the Bricksley hurtled into the camp like a Dyre with its tail on fire, kicking up dust and dirt as Kivenaal did several donuts.
“Kivenaal! It’s only been a couple of minutes, now cut it out!” Jayde snapped. “Our departure is at 1 Sun. It’s 10 and 57 Moon. We still have 23 minutes to wait.”
“Oh, Twin Suns, the other teams are going to hate us,” Kaylie said, seeing the amount of dirt, grass clumps, and rocks that had been thrown around by Kivenaal’s rather… Enthusiastic entrance to the camp.
Back in the Railcar, the first 10 miles or so have been the calm before the storm as Valentin was taking it relatively easy up until now.
Though once they passed a specific signal box, next to which a few massive banking engines were prepared for the return journey back town the incline, Valentin took one last breath before pegging the accelerator to the footwell beneath. Knowing that at least 40 miles of rail was expected to be clear ahead of them made him a little more willing to give Robert his all for once.
The line started to slope downwards, and with full steam pressure being applied, Robert gained considerable speed. As expected, hunting oscillation made it’s presence known at about 60 MPH as the car swayed from side to side on the rails. Though not long after, the swinging subsides as the RPM gauge kept climbing higher and higher.
100 Miles per hour (160kph) was an easy feat for Robert, as demonstrated on flat-rail running days prior, but still had Richard absolutely awestruck at how a three-day conversion could be this capable.
Above that, acceleration dwindled as aerodynamics took over. Still, speeds kept increasing as they blasted past signal box after signal box every three miles. Within them, they sent special signals back and forth in an attempt to track time as accurately as possible.
In the latter stages of the descent, acceleration halted, the RPM gauge indicating about 3600 RPM, translating to a staggering 217kph, confirmed by Connor, who has been using the mileage posts to keep tracks of speed separate of on-board measuring equipment.
This speed was even sustained until the tracks leveled off again, at which point the planned emergency stop came near.
“Full-force stop in Three. Two. One. Now.”, Valentin called out as he lifted his foot off the throttle and twisted the brake regulator below the dashboard as far out as it would go.
The first turns yielded little reaction, but soon after, the brake pads made contact with the rails, pressing down hard and unloading a substantial part of the weight on the wheels and onto the brake shoes instead.
Having started the braking at a distant signal, despite it showing “clear”, Robert very quickly came to a stop, the referenced home signal in sight, also showing “clear”, but still at least a quarter mile up the line.
With that, the railcar stood there, for now.
“Care to take a view out of the window, Constantin? I’d like to know if the brake shoes are still there…”, Valentin requested, which was immediately acted upon as Constantin opened his door a bit to see the brake assembly next to the sill, pressed firmly onto the railhead and with ample pad life left.
“Looking good from what i can tell…” Constantin replied, having little idea on what exactly to look for.
After that, the brakes were released once again and the trip continued, but at whatever the given segment was limited to, thus ending the shakedown-turned-record-breaking run.
The remainder of that drive was rather peaceful, with Richard now back at work peppering the crew with questions left, right and center.
At some point, signalling stalled progress for some unknown reason, forcing Constantin to take the first walk of the day, informing the active signalman of their presence.
Eventually, they arrived at Garda Winn, where it didn’t take too long for the result of the run to be made aware to quite literally every person and being in the station.
“Now arriving at platform four is the new rail speed record holder at 217 kph.”
The PA system screeched in feedback noises, followed by it shutting off. After that, the stationmaster practically sprinted over to the mentioned platform where the railcar came to a halt, after which the editor was helped out of the vehicle.
An overly excited station master approached, but couldn’t get much of a hold of any of the members, as most of them were sat in the car, unable to leave comfortably and/ or safely.
Thus, the planning of the next stage was done on the platform edge, which quickly was thwarted by a change of plans out of control of anyone in the car.
Apparently, the team and car were invited to some sort of event that would be held in Trugarde main station to honor having broken the 200kph barrier with a railcar.
As such, they would depart as usual, but be diverted into the main station for a grand arrival to celebrate.
With that settled, they headed for their planned transition point, which was little more than a convinient siding. As they went from rail to road usage, a massive freight train roared past, slowly lumbering along pulling what seemed like an endless chain of cars.
The drive to camp was nothing special, mostly as the news of the record run hasn’t spread all that far yet.
But on arrival, one thing became apparent.
They were in second place, with only the Hillbilly Rollers being present.
They parked reasonably close, but not right next to the unmistakingly pink van, where Robert was shut off once again for the day.
(So, this was mostly written by @Elizipeazie with a little help from me. Because they’re on their phone and this segment is a little long, it didn’t want to copy nicely, so he asked me to post it for him.)
