Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 152 Train Weight Reduction
As its course changed, the Halibut began to leave the busy shipping lanes, and there were fewer and fewer ships around.

The captain was somewhat worried, but the other party had paid the full amount in real money. If it was a scam by pirates, he only needed to throw the gold coins into the sea, and the robbers would lose everything.

Pirates may be cunning, but they would never plan a losing proposition, which rules out the possibility of a trap.

Especially since this was a request from the unicorn himself, the captain thought it over and dispelled his worries.

The Flounder's voyage continued until late the next night when Kira suddenly stood up and said, "The cargo ship has arrived. Please lower the sails and stop the ship."

"It's nighttime, and you're handing over the cargo like this?" the captain exclaimed in surprise. "That's dozens of tons of cargo!"

"It's alright, you can just stop the ship. You don't need to be responsible for the transfer work." Qi Luo's voice became even softer.

The captain's eyes instantly lost their luster. "Yes, sir!"

Following Kira's instructions, he gave the order, and the sailors lowered the sails, bringing the Flounder to a stop on the dark sea.

Qiluo suddenly shook her head, her long horns gathering light and dust, ripples enveloping the entire ship, and everyone fell into a deep sleep.

A white ship appeared on the side of the Halibut. It steadily approached and lit several extremely bright searchlights.

The zombies pulled out a cable, and two skeletons, one black and one white, traversed a distance of dozens of meters, dragging the cable as they jumped across.

More cables were then thrown over and pulled, and the two ships quickly came together. The zombies jumped onto the Flounder and tied the cables, while some set up gantry cranes and installed hoisting ropes on the White Triangle's side.

Yunier began directing the zombies and constructing movement paths.

"You've worked hard, Qiluo." Hanster stood by the railing and lowered the gangway. "There's a midnight snack ready in the cabin, while it's hot."

"Hmm, what is this food?" The unicorn stepped forward.

“Noodles,” Hansfield replied.

"Noodles again?" Qi Luo was a little unhappy. But when she entered the cabin and found that it was mixed noodles, with a big bowl of oily minced meat sauce next to it, she immediately smiled.

"Not bad, Mr. Hanster!"

“Leave a little for Miss Eunice,” Hansster instructed.

The zombie transport crew was very familiar with the process, hoisting the goods from the Halibut to the White Triangle one after another. First came the axle oil, then the heat exchangers, followed by clothes and miscellaneous items, and finally the food.

But this part was never-ending, and Yunier's brows furrowed even more deeply. She quickly flipped through the list and discovered that Kira had added a full twenty tons of food, and it was all dried goods!

"Miss Sacred Beast, why is there so much food?" she quickly asked Qiluo.

The food list includes seven tons of boneless and skinless processed dried fish and ten tons of hulled wheat. This stuff is easier to preserve than flour and has 60 percent more calories.

The rest are all high-calorie foods such as dried fruit, cheese, and oil.

"What's wrong? We can't go without food in the snowfield." Qi Luo licked the plate clean; the table was now empty.

“If we calculate based on dry weight, this kind of high-density food only requires 400 to 500 grams per person per day!” Yunier asked, puzzled. “Although Miss Sacred Beast, you are worth ten of us, this amount is enough for us to eat for ten years!”

Qi Luo counted on her fingers, calculating for a while before sticking out her tongue, "It is a bit too much. Did Su Ming miscalculate the decimal point?"

"Mr. Su arranged this?" Yunier asked, puzzled. "If it's just to rescue fifty-seven people, even one-tenth is far too much."

"It doesn't matter," she said casually. "Food is a valuable commodity in the heart of the snowfields—Su Ming probably took that into consideration."

“That’s true,” Hanster agreed. “In the North during winter, gold coins are not as useful as food as barter.”

****
After completing its resupply, the White Triangle continued north, crossing the mid-latitude seas and heading towards the Arctic Circle. As temperatures continued to drop, everyone on board put on the thicker clothing they had just acquired.

Su Ming and Zi Jin are very busy every day, with a large amount of documents and drawings spread out in their workspace.

At the same time, a topographical map of the northern continent was also unfolded. Their plan was to land on the Jishou mudflats from the Arctic Ocean coast, then enter the lower Sanghe River plain, cross the Xialing Mountains, and enter the first step of the Timbulik Icefield.

This route is about 2000 kilometers long, with the altitude rising from zero to about 700 meters.

The journey then continues across the Zhongling and Shangling mountain ranges until finally reaching the plateau region at an altitude of 3000 meters, a total distance of 7200 kilometers.

It took the design studio two days to submit the improved design for the locomotive and body structure.

The client allowed him to use a lightweight ceramic material, the higher the proportion, the better. This material has only a quarter the density of steel, yet its strength is comparable. Its disadvantages are that its toughness, heat resistance, and elasticity are average, and it lacks ductility.

What kind of magical material is this? Is it really so cheap that you can use it casually? The engineer had no idea.

And isn't ceramic heat-resistant?

The engineers were baffled, but the customer came first. They replaced more than half of the metal, and where the mechanical properties were not satisfactory, they used composite structures such as bone components inserted through metal pillars, or metal shells filled with bone.

After this adjustment, the curb weight of a single steam locomotive decreased from 168 tons to 100 tons, and the weight of a single freight car decreased from 25 tons to 22 tons.

Su Ming also completed the planning of the train configuration.

"Two locomotives, pulling 20 carriages. The total weight is 2200 tons, of which 900 tons are coal."

Normally, trains refuel every 200 to 300 kilometers, but this time there were no fuel supply points along the way, so they had to carry enough fuel at the start of the journey.

"The fuel ratio is so high?" Violet glanced at the loading list. "We should try to reduce it."

“There’s no need to reduce the fuel.” Su Ming shook his head. “Most of it will be consumed in the first half of the journey, and the overall weight of the train will continue to decrease as we go further. Carrying a large proportion of fuel is beneficial to the range—our focus should be on reducing the dead weight of the train.”

Zijin did a simple calculation and understood it mathematically.

"Of course, it's not about bringing as much as possible." Su Ming opened his laptop, launched the MATLAB software, and displayed an analysis model containing a large number of parameters and complex integral formulas. "For example, our open wagons weigh 20 tons and have a cargo capacity of 72 tons. With the current efficiency of steam locomotives, including the wagon compartments, the fuel load is about 60%, which is close to the maximum range."

Zijin knew the concept of integration, but the formula Su Ming used was too complicated and beyond her comprehension.

Su Ming was decent at applied mathematics, but he couldn't handle such highly specialized calculations. Fortunately, he now had the financial means to hire a studio to develop this train loading model.

Although the amount of money that can be deposited into the bank is limited, no one will refuse Miao Xin if she brings cash to someone's door.

“We don’t have rails; the train has to travel directly on the snow,” Su Ming continued. “The Youth Civilization Train must use a high cylinder cutoff ratio to operate with high traction. Our speed will not exceed 10 kilometers per hour, and our maximum range is less than 2500 kilometers.”

“This is too much.” Violet ran her hand through her hair; she felt she’d started losing hair lately. “We need to further reduce the weight and improve the motorcycle’s efficiency, right?”

"That's right, so keep it up!"

In the preceding days, the two had already done a great deal of work on the magic side, with levitation being the first spell to be eliminated. Although Violet could usually fly around easily, her own weight was less than fifty kilograms. To levitate a behemoth weighing over two thousand tons for more than ten days would require so many magic crystals that it would bankrupt the entire Western Continent.

The scholar suddenly had another idea, and she quickly began to make corrections on the drawings.
Su Ming analyzed the train's weight.

Excluding 900 tons of coal, of the total weight of 2200 tons, 400 tons consist of crew, equipment, various supplies, and materials needed to execute the plan.

This is categorized as mission load and cannot be reduced.

The two locomotives weigh 200 tons each, and the carriages weigh 650 tons.

The last 50 tons is the water reserve in the water-coal truck, which is only enough for two hours of consumption under heavy load.

The studio's efforts to reduce the weight of the train were far from ideal; compared to the original train, each carriage only lost a mere 3 tons of weight.

Su Ming examined the details. The workshop extensively applied structural mechanics, constructing the box section with pure bone, reducing the weight of each section by 8 tons; in this respect, they had fulfilled their responsibilities.

The problem lies in the chassis. The elastic components of the suspension system must be primarily metal. While other structures reduced weight by adding a large amount of filler, the designers widened the wheel area and increased the number of axles, which actually increased the overall weight.

The engineers' intention was to reduce the load per unit area and prevent the train from getting stuck in mud and snow. However, this adjustment negated most of the weight reduction gains, and judging from the current load data, the train is still getting stuck.

Su Ming frowned deeply; the wheels and chassis, weighing over four hundred tons, were a major problem.

Zijin finished quickly. "We can remove the insulation layer from the steam locomotive." She handed the revised blueprints to Su Ming. "I have a magic array that can push the air away by a few millimeters, creating a vacuum layer. If we engrave it on the surface of the boiler, it will have a very good insulation effect."

Su Ming took the blueprints and found that the scholars had almost completely removed the steam locomotive, including the outer structure of the boiler and piston, the inner insulation material, and the refractory bricks of the furnace.

"How much magic power are you consuming?" Su Ming asked.

"I consume six slightly flawed crystals every day," Violet replied. "I have over a thousand of these in stock."

A slightly flawed crystal costs ten gold coins; it's not cheap, but they can afford it.

Su Ming quickly calculated the effect, "Not bad, each steam locomotive can cut 12 tons!"

The scholars were very dissatisfied, asking, "Only 24 tons were reduced in total?"

“It’s worth it,” Su Ming replied. “The replacement can improve the system’s thermal efficiency, especially in such frigid regions. The effect in this regard outweighs the weight reduction itself.”

Violet then pointed to the steam outlet, "I plan to set up a constant rain spell here to condense and recycle the water in the steam, which will consume about 9 to 10 crystals per day."

This consumes a lot of resources, but after weighing the pros and cons, Su Ming realized that it could indeed save time searching for pure water sources.

Zijin pointed to the coal-fired water truck and said, "If the water recycling rate reaches 90%, we can carry only 10 tons of reserve water, which reduces the load by 40 tons."

Su Ming jumped up excitedly, "You're a genius!"

“I am.” The scholar rolled her eyes at him.

Because the water tank is smaller, two axles can be removed from the coal-fired water truck, which further reduces the weight by 6 tons.

****
The two continued working. The studio's understanding of bone materials was far inferior to that of Su Ming, the necromancer, so he made further sweeping replacements, reducing the weight of the motorcycle by more than ten tons.

The workshop door suddenly opened, and Qiluo burst in on all fours, bringing in a gust of cold air.

Su Ming and Zi Jin quickly reached out to press the blueprints on the table, but it was too late; more than a dozen blueprints had already been blown into the air.

"Hello everyone!" The unicorn slammed the door shut with its tail. "Let's see what new creations we have today!"

A drawing floated to her side; it was a panoramic perspective view of the train drawn by the studio. Qi Luo's eyes lit up, and she transformed into human form and grabbed it.

"Can I have this?" she asked, hugging it tightly to her chest.

"No!" Su Ming reached out to pull, but it wouldn't budge. The unicorn's weight was there, and the little girl didn't even flinch.

She pouted, "Fine, I'll pull your sled once!"

Su Ming had no choice but to give up, watching Qi Luo skip away, her little feet making the cabin floor tremble.

Zijin has reprinted a picture, which has become the norm these days.

Su Ming took the blueprints. "How about changing the wheels into sleds?"

“The carriages are too heavy, and the load capacity is still insufficient.” The scholar shook her head; she had had this thought as well.

She handed her draft to Su Ming. The drawing had removed all the axles and wheels, and the suspension directly connected to six wide-board skis. Su Ming couldn't resist making a few changes, modifying the scholar's drawing to better reflect a mechanical design.

"The sled's load is too high, which will damage the snow surface," the scholar explained. Especially after the vehicle in front causes damage, if the following vehicle continues on top of it, it will quickly create deep ruts, causing subsequent vehicles to get stuck in the snow.

Su Ming glanced at Zi Jin's calculations; the pressure exerted by a fully loaded truck bed on the snow exceeded 0.3 kg/cm². "That's indeed too high."

Zijin pulled out another draft, which suggested lowering the height of the carriages to reduce the load. This meant that the number and length of the train carriages would need to be increased, but the contact surface pressure would still be 0.2 kg/cm².

"Let's use this plan," Su Ming suddenly said.

Zijin looked at him in confusion, her forehead practically covered in a question mark.

“We can improve the snow’s load-bearing capacity.” Su Ming added a snow groomer behind the steam locomotive. “After the locomotive passes, the snow groomer will flatten and compact the loose snow, thus ensuring sufficient load-bearing capacity!”

"This is great!" The scholar was overjoyed to find that his proposed plan had become feasible after adjustments, and he even jumped up and down on the spot, which was rare for him.

The two men then proceeded further. To accommodate the sleds, the length of the carriages also needed to be shortened, reducing the load per carriage. This resulted in the entire vehicle being adjusted to sixty carriages, making it more maneuverable on the snow.

Overall, the weight of the carriage increased by 100 tons, but more than 400 tons of axles and wheels were removed!
“A low-intensity Nether Shield can be deployed on the bottom of the sled, which can provide protection when encountering rugged terrain,” Violet suggested. “The shield can also provide lubrication and reduce friction.”

The low-drag characteristic of the Nether Shield has been demonstrated many times in its sea-ship form.

"Is the energy of the bone imprint sufficient?"

Zi Jin did some mental calculations and said, "It's not enough. We'll be traveling for two or three days, and then we'll need to stop for a day to recover our energy."

“It’s a good deal!” Su Ming concluded.

With increased speed under low resistance, the vehicle can travel farther in two days than it did in three days, not to mention the coal savings.

Su Ming opened the software and re-simulated, quickly finding that after such modifications, the Youth Civilization train's top speed increased to 20 kilometers per hour, and its maximum range increased to 6000 kilometers.

The two gave each other a high five!

(End of this chapter)