BOOK: Raising Steam

Raising Steam is the latest Discworld novel from Terry Pratchett. It is another in the Industrial Revolution series of the stories. It's about steam engines, in particular trains. You may think those are the only kind, but you'd be wrong. Mining used stationary steam engines to run water pumps to empty mines so the workers wouldn't drown. Very important. Being in a gold mining town, there are examples of these at the Empire Mine machine yard, a display outside the headframe (the top of the mine entrance). Putting a steam powered boiler on wheels was a bit evolutionary jump, in the 19th century, and deserves credit for the innovation it was.

Raising Steam follows the story of the son of an inventor killed by a steam boiler explosion, who figures out the Safety Valve, which pops open just a bit before the boiler would explode. This is a real thing, btw, included on all boilers and steam engines. Steam engines are entirely mechanical, no computer, no electrical. Just mechanical devices to regulate pressure so it never goes too high. The engineers, who deserve the title, manage heat and water and pressure using the gauges and valves to control the overall pressure, thus the steam available for work, driving the piston which powers the wheels. I've seen several steam engines up close and even now I realize just how much I don't know about their workings. The more you think about it, the niftier it is.

A local bloke wants to restore the narrow-gauge steam engine railway from Colfax, down on I-80, up to Nevada City. There once was a line running mining materials and coal and such, and carried gold, silver, tin, antimony (not the same as tin), and arsenic back. These are valuable metals. West of here, near Camp Far West, there was a copper mine too. Metals are like that, occurring together. The story includes aspects of the mining industry, miners, and the efforts to develop materials sufficient to both power the steam engine and the rails to support it as it moves. In the real world,  you have to use high quality steel for rails. Soft steel doesn't last and must be replaced or cause a derailment. Very important.

When I was giving up on Welding as a career, one of my classmates was an amateur engineer on the Niles Canyon Railway, and I talked to him while he was managing the engine at the station. He said the neatest thing about a steam engine is every part of it is there for a reason. It all makes sense. In modern times, that's rather cathartic. Naturally, functional equipment isn't allowed because denying it provides jobs to political appointees who are bad at anything else. Train Banners make me a sad panda. Trains bring tourists. Trains carry freight. Carry passengers smoothly, and with far more comfort than a bus, van, or stagecoach.

The most important aspect of the book is it reminds me we could have trains here again, and all the good that would do for the tourist industry. Until the mines reopen, that's all we've got going for us.