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A PHO thread for The World is my Layout

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OolongTeaDrinker said:
► LocoForLocos (Locomotive Hobbyist)
Posted on: September 1, 2008
@Streamline (Steam Enthusiast) ((@Honorguard Ra ))

When Leviathan hit Seattle in '03, the aftershock of its waves hit Tacoma, and shredded Engine 1364, a Class S-4 Vauclain model, which had been sitting there since 1954. I commissioned a few people up in Redmond, and together we recreated her almost perfectly. Unfortunately, while she is most definitely just 'sitting around and doing nothing', she cost a small fortune to build, and as much as I'd love nothing more than to see her running new routes, she's fairly heavy, and I don't know if the UPS accepts packages of that size. If Dispatcher ever decides to take a stroll over to good ol' Washington, though, I'll probably be able to scrounge around for some freight cars, and deliver them all personally.
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a bit of a statement for this, you might want to have that be stated to be a non-functioning replica or something like a 15 inch recreation.

Building a full size working steam locomotive can cost millions. The LNER Peppercorn Class A1 new build Tornado cost around 3 million pounds. And this is in 2008 money as that was completed in 2008.
 
godzillahomer said:
a bit of a statement for this, you might want to have that be stated to be a non-functioning replica or something like a 15 inch recreation.

Building a full size working steam locomotive can cost millions. The LNER Peppercorn Class A1 new build Tornado cost around 3 million pounds. And this is in 2008 money as that was completed in 2008.
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(( I thought I read somewhere that it only cost around 15k to purchase the original S-4 Vauclain, but upon rereading it seems as if that was 1902 money, and therefore probably a bit more to remake in Earth Bet's absolutely terrible economy. I shall fix it ASAP!))
 
OolongTeaDrinker said:
(( I thought I read somewhere that it only cost around 15k to purchase the original S-4 Vauclain, but upon rereading it seems as if that was 1902 money, and therefore probably a bit more to remake in Earth Bet's absolutely terrible economy. I shall fix it ASAP!))
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That 15K is worth nearly 500K in today's money. You've also got to figure in that the cost of building the loco will be even higher due to many of the skills becoming rarer specialized labor. There's no longer locomotive builders like Baldwin, Lima, or North British to manufacture many parts now.

In 2008, it's nearing 400K
 
GeneralPatt1000 said:
BrocktonBayHobbies (Verified Retailer) (Hobbyist Destination)
@Streamline (@Honorguard Ra

There is indeed a few steam engines left in the city. Dispatcher most likely has her hands on one already. There used to be a Railroad Museum based on the Trainyard grounds, which they acquired after the Boston and Maine went belly up following the port closure. The Museum had several diesels in addition to 3 steam engines.

I have it on good authority that they had one of the B&M's named 4-6-2 Heavy Pacifics in the Roundhouse and two other locomotives in a storage shed in what is now the Boat Graveyard. The 4-6-2 was in good working order as it did local excursions, but the other two needed work. I don't remember their wheel arrangements or types though, my apologies.

However, the Museum also went bankrupt and left everything sitting in place. They apparently overspent their budget and couldn't get any good loans, so they closed up shop. The Merchants eventually moved into the area and I never got any news of the engines ever again. Hopefully they were left alone, but I'm not expecting good news.

-Ted Banks, Owner and Proprieter of Bay Hobbies
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@BrocktonBayHobbies (Verified Retailer) (Hobbyist Destination)

There's still hope the steam engines aren't too badly damaged. Dispatcher is new, so we have no idea what kind of bullshit they bring to the Bay. If they can revive rail traffic in the area, it would help the economy. Wait, you said a named engine was in BB? Any idea who our esteemed guest is?

@LocoForLocos (Locomotive Hobbyist)

Class S-4 Vauclain model? I'm actually not familiar with that one. :confused:

Edited for added content--
Did a bit of research. That's a 2-3-4 model, and just needs parts swapped to go from upsize display piece to functional? What needs to be swapped? There may be some spares in the locomotive maintenance building that I'm pretty sure is on site. Couldn't tell you if we actually have the parts or what condition they're in.

@Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Dispatcher is our new Lord of the Rails, any chance we can get them to weigh in on this? Steam Locos were a dying breed before the Endbringers started ruining things. Every one we save is a piece of history we reclaim.
 
►ForTheHive (Not a Hivemind)

How independent are Dispatcher's projections? Could they delegate PR through one of them? Can they summon up a receptionist?

Can they summon up military trains? I'm not a train enthusiast, but I would not be surprised if there were some artillery or machine gun platform train cars somewhere in the depths of history.

Do the trains they summon have to have existed, or can they summon up trains that have only existed on blueprints?

Can Dispatcher send their projections outside of our "fine" city, or will they just vanish, dropping whatever they were hauling on the tracks?
 
StarRunner01 said:
►ForTheHive (Not a Hivemind)

How independent are Dispatcher's projections? Could they delegate PR through one of them? Can they summon up a receptionist?

Can they summon up military trains? I'm not a train enthusiast, but I would not be surprised if there were some artillery or machine gun platform train cars somewhere in the depths of history.

Do the trains they summon have to have existed, or can they summon up trains that have only existed on blueprints?

Can Dispatcher send their projections outside of our "fine" city, or will they just vanish, dropping whatever they were hauling on the tracks?
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((Hmm, personal knowledge can help here. I'll use a tag that references a UK Railway

►ThreeSquaredElms (Not a Brit)

@ForTheHive (Not a Hivemind)
Military trains you say... I know of some from Europe.

First off, any artillery pieces will not be that useful for Dispatcher, they're designed for longer range combat than most cape fights tend to be.

There's the Schwerer Gustav. A massive frick off railway gun built by Nazi Germany.
23 feet and 4 inches long, 38 feet and a single inch tall, and with a gun barrel that is over 100 feet long.
It weights nearly 1,500 tons, so about 3/4s of a ton of tons.
But this is also a design that is likely to be useless for Dispatcher, it takes up two tracks and isn't designed to be transported around hole. It takes a crew of 250 54 hours to assemble or disassemble the gun. 2,500 to lay tracks and dig embankments. And a pair of anti-air battalions to protect it from bombers.
Capes are too small of a target to hit with it reliably and an Endbringer will likely not be hurt at all by it. Also, it has trouble hitting targets that are less than 24 miles from it, so not at all close ranged.

There are smaller railway guns than the Gustav, but these are still artillery pieces, not likely to be useful fighting capes or gangs.

What would be more useful would be a scaled up version of the armored train the Romney, Hythe, and Dymchurch Railway in the UK ran during WWII.
The 15 inch gauge RH&DR took a pair of hopper wagons and their number 5 and converted them into an armored train.
Armor plated hoppers and 4-8-2 locomotive that are armed with a pair of anti tank rifles and a pair of machine guns; at least judging from the pictures.
Was crewed by about 5 soldiers, but scale that up and one could likely fit quite a few more, along with heavier weaponry. And if I remember right, the RH&DR shot down some Nazi Germany aircraft.

Lastly, as a joke, there's also the LB&SCR D3 Class tank engine. One of these 0-4-4Ts got shot up by a Nazi Germany Fighter pilot... The D3 was not pleased and responded by shelling the plane with her dome after her boiler burst. The plane landed in some water and the pilot drowned. The plane was used in the Allied war effort as a source of materials. The loco was repaired and put back into service. No one on the D3 or the passenger train she was pulling died.
 
OolongTeaDrinker said:
((The NZR H class would probably work pretty well, but it's put into use fairly far away from Washington, and as someone who's actually in Washington, I'd prefer to use trains that actually exist in that state. It also has the side effect of not messing with anything that's going on in Brockton Bay, so I won't be accidentally affecting anything going on that isn't in the PHO interlude. I probably should edit the post to have LocoForLocos acknowledge that it wasn't exactly the request that Streamline asked for.))
(( Edit: Never mind! I found a page listing Washington steam locomotives! I'll be editing it right away! ))
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(( Fair enough, it was rather far from Washington ( both state and DC), but I rather doubt NZR or the rimutaka incline would have impacted brockton one jot))
 
►BrocktonBayHobbies (Verified Retailer) (Hobbyist Destination)
Replied on August 31, 2008:
@Streamline

Sorry, my friend, I don't remember which one it was. It's been too long since the last time it ran. I'd have to go find the proper documentation. I do know that one of its sister locomotives, The Consitution, is in the Steamtown Museum of Cranton, Pennsylvania. Maybe they would know off the top of their heads. I'm sure they had contact with the Brockton Bay Railroad Museum before it went bankrupt.


►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied on August 31, 2008:
@Streamline

I can't answer a lot of questions at this time, as I haven't been briefed on the details so I can't answer ForTheHive as a result, but Dispatcher is a minor, as Leet's recording can confirm, so she's probably back to bed soon. We probably won't hear much about her powers until she's able to speak to the press, who I imagine will be demanding answers themselves. We'll have to wait and see.
 
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Starter 2: Dispatcher on the Boston news
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    • Thank you to everyone who worked on the last prompt with me, it is much appreciated. The edit has been posted to the main thread, I must apologize for getting the dates screwed up. August 31, 2008 is the correct one and I had to fix all of the wrong dates because I neglected to correct my inaccurate state that is was other dates early enough.

    In this prompt, we will be following the events of the press conference and the events following. It is 7:40 in the morning of August 31st now. It's been roughly 6 and a half hours since the explosions. The relevant chapters to read to freshen up is 2.4 to 2.6. Please have fun with this second prompt!
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    ♦ Topic: Dispatcher on the Boston news
    In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay
    Brocktonite03 (Original Poster)
    Posted On August 31, 2008:

    I'm not sure how much rest you all got last night after the excitement in the Trainyards, but I managed to get another 5 hours after hitting the hay again at 2:15. I woke up at 7:20, got a bowl of cereal, and flopped down on the couch to see if there was anything new. And what did I find? WBZ-TV News Boston giving a special report on but that same excitement. I'm looking at a live helicopter feed of the area around the Roundhouse right now and there is a large gathering of news vans and curious onlookers outside the perimeter fence. There's a whole bunch of those projections that were present last night lining the fence to keep people out.

    Looks like Reave was right and the media jumped into this with both feet. I wonder if we'll get a press conference out of Dispatcher this morning.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • ►Boston_Gold_244 (Verified not a cape)
    Replied on August 31, 2008:

    Wonder if this means we'll get to see how the locos from the old museum are.

    Also how long until Void Cowboy comes here to start foaming at the mouth about this being proof of a Decepticon invasion. Or has he already been banned?
     
    Void cowboy
    It would not be decepticons...it would have to cylans damn it.
    It could be Alexandra love child doing all this mess in the trainyards this past night?
     
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    ► LocoForLocos (Locomotive Hobbyist) (Leviathan Survivor: Seattle, WA)
    Posted on: August 31st, 2008
    @Boston_Gold_224 (Verified not a cape) ((@godzillahomer ))

    I'll give it three minutes, tops. ;)

    In regards to the locos, I hope they're in good shape. Who knows, one of them could be a Decepticon, and we're all being fooled! Well, I doubt it, but you never know! Pesky Decepticons... :rofl:
     
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    Bagrat (The Guy in the Know)
    Replied on August 21st 2008:

    I wasn't able to get in on the thread last night, as I am an extremely heavy sleeper, but I have knowledge to dispense now. Yesterday afternoon, Diesel engines were running in the Locomotive terminal and the yard area according to reports I have access to. Seems our Dispatcher was playing around with an E7A unit that appeared from nowhere as well as a couple of the Museum's engines that had sat abandoned in the shops behind the Roundhouse.

    The E7 was running gondolas around the yard as projections in track maintenance outfits ripped out some of the old track and dumped the scrap in the cars. The same projections then scurried around replacing said tracks with new rails that appeared out of nowhere as well. Eyewitness reports also say that some of the rail assemblies were levitating of their own accord. Perhaps Dispatcher was using her power to put them down in place for her workers?

    I also have some eyewitness reports that say some projections cleared out some Merchants who were using the locomotive backshops as a dealer stock up point. Apparently Miss Militia responded but the fight was over by the time she got there. The battle was one-sided in favor of the projections, who turned out to be railroad police.

    Dispatcher appeared in person, similar to how she did on Leet's recording last night and had a long talk with Miss Militia. Dispatcher showed off some of her powers, like giving orders to the locomotives and summoning more workers to clean them up and paint them. After Miss Militia left, the police showed up to arrest the Merchants that had been captured. I'm betting this incident is what set off Skidmark.

    Hopefully we'll be able to get some more info about Dispatcher and her abilities today.
     
    >Streamline (Verified Steam Enthusiast)
    Posted on: August 31st, 2008

    So, it's confirmed that Dispatcher has projections, not ghosts. A rail-happy Necromancer would have been super weird. Remote operation of real world locomotives/rail utility vehicles, plus projections capable of performing any job normally held by a normal employee, any one of which could be armed with nonlethal stun/emp weapons.

    That's a very nice power set, with some promising possibilities. (C'mon Steam Engines!) I am a little stuck on the "manifested trains" bit. How does that even work? Does it require foreknowledge about the train she wants to summon, or is it just *pop* here's a random train? Is it just American Engines or from all over the world? Are the "manifested" trains actually being teleported from somewhere else?

    I have so many questions! :jackiechan:
     
    ► LocoForLocos (Locomotive Hobbyist) (Leviathan Survivor: Seattle, WA)
    Posted on: August 31st, 2008
    @Streamline (Verified Steam Enthusiast)

    No need to rule out the rail-happy Necromancer theory just yet; maybe she raises trains from their watery graves? :D

    I'd guess that the 'manifestation' part is probably either material-based manipulation and teleportation like Oaken Heart from over here on the West Coast, just with the scope increased a bit. Dispatcher subsumes the material, and then stores it until it's used again. That's probably how she's able to appear and disappear at will, as well; she's simply just folding space upon itself to store things, of course it comes with a Mover ability.

    Of course, the name Dispatcher seems to say that it's something else, and the minions follow that. I'd have to guess that Dispatcher has the ability to 'dispatch' trains and minions, possibly with incredibly limited spatial manipulation? It seems the most obvious to me. Still, I'm a little curious how Dispatcher was able to get those trains? Did they purchase them? Steal them?

    ...maybe Dispatcher is a long lost relative of the Anders family, and Medhall is purchasing trains for them to use... It'd make more sense than most speculation on this thread, at least! :p
     
    OolongTeaDrinker said:
    ► LocoForLocos (Locomotive Hobbyist) (Leviathan Survivor: Seattle, WA)
    Posted on: August 31st, 2008
    @Streamline (Verified Steam Enthusiast)

    No need to rule out the rail-happy Necromancer theory just yet; maybe she raises trains from their watery graves? :D

    I'd guess that the 'manifestation' part is probably either material-based manipulation and teleportation like Oaken Heart from over here on the West Coast, just with the scope increased a bit. Dispatcher subsumes the material, and then stores it until it's used again. That's probably how she's able to appear and disappear at will, as well; she's simply just folding space upon itself to store things, of course it comes with a Mover ability.

    Of course, the name Dispatcher seems to say that it's something else, and the minions follow that. I'd have to guess that Dispatcher has the ability to 'dispatch' trains and minions, possibly with incredibly limited spatial manipulation? It seems the most obvious to me. Still, I'm a little curious how Dispatcher was able to get those trains? Did they purchase them? Steal them?

    ...maybe Dispatcher is a long lost relative of the Anders family, and Medhall is purchasing trains for them to use... It'd make more sense than most speculation on this thread, at least! :p
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    @► LocoForLocos (Locomotive Hobbyist) (Leviathan Survivor: Seattle, WA)

    You would point out that rail Necromancy is still a viable option. Hopefully not, that's how Doom Train becomes a Thing. You think Dispatcher can use her powers to basically 3d print a train, then stores them in a pocket dimension while not in use? I wonder if that gives her a Tinker rating, even if it's just a 1?
     
    ► LocoForLocos (Locomotive Hobbyist) (Leviathan Survivor: Seattle, WA)
    Posted on: August 31st, 2008
    @Streamline (Verified Steam Enthusiast) (( @Honorguard Ra ))

    It really depends on what you classify a Tinker as. If your classification is "the ability to create devices or alter existing devices well beyond usual restrictions of education, knowledge, resources, or physics", then I'm betting that Dispatcher would fit the bill on all but 'knowledge'. I'm willing to bet that her ability isn't solely restricted to trains, which means that she likely was knowledgeable about trains before she got her powers, but likely wasn't professionally 'trained' in the production of locomotives. If that's the case, then Dispatcher's ability would bypass education (no need to know exactly what she's doing to do it), resources (we haven't seen any trees go missing, have we?) and physics (floating trains, remember?).

    Therefore, I'd tentatively classify her as a Tinker 5+, expressed by a Shaker 2+ power, given the sheer amount of property damage in the clash with your druggie gang over there- though it is important to remember that even if the projections hadn't been there, Dispatcher likely could have dealt with almost the entirety of that gang all by herself. If the projections are all sentient and stronger than your average human? Well, over here on the West Coast, you'd have one of Uppercrust's enforcers at your door by Tuesday. In Brockton? Well, from how one of my friends told it, @TooManyIdeasTooFewCharact, I'd say that Dispatcher might end up as a major force to be reckoned with.

    Back on topic, however, do any locals have any ideas about what might happen as a reaction to Dispatcher assumedly taking control of the train tracks?
     
    Miss Militia (Verified Cape) (ENE Protectorate)
    Replied On August 31, 2008:
    @Bag_rat

    One of these days Bagrat, we're going to find out how you gather all these eyewitness reports and see if we can't tap into them somehow. Really, your capacity for information gathering is astonishing. But yes, I can confirm everything you said about the incident yesterday that I responded to. I did have a long and good talk with Dispatcher. She is very chatty and bubbly and almost could not control her words In my presence. Her temperament is a joy to behold after all these years of seeing traumatized children receiving powers that overturn their lives.

    I won't spoil how she explained her powers, but it is very unorthodox. Also, Dispatcher's projections, which is what they are, not ghosts or aliens, are very personable and professional. I wonder if her powers are emulating or drawing from some template of past railroad employees. She told me that none have names, but did have ranks and job titles. Her railroad police officers were armed with weapons that stun and disable only, and we saw the result of that at the Trainyards overnight. Her men and women defeated 40 Merchant thugs and Skidmark for no casualties on their side. 5 thugs escaped while we captured everyone else.


    @Streamline (@Honorguard Ra

    While I was leaving the Roundhouse, I saw that there was a steam engine poking out of an open stall. Dispatcher seemed to have maintenance crews gathered around it. They were washing it down, giving it a fresh coat of paint and generally inspecting it. It appeared to be in good condition to me. It wouldn't surprise me if she tries to run it today.


    @LocoForLocos (@OolongTeaDrinker

    I can't say for certain what will happen. Analysis is that the local gangs will adopt a wait-and-see approach or attempt to work with her in some fashion. Dispatcher informed me that she intends to rebuild the Bay's economy and expressed a lot of optimism that she could get it done with or without help from others. I hope she can pull it off, but we in the Protectorate and PRT will support her to the best of our abilities, whether or not she ends up joining us in the future.
     
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    Posted by Streamline (Verified Steam Enthusiast) On August 31, 2008

    @Miss Militia (Verified Cape) (ENE Protectorate)

    All good news to hear, especially given Dispatcher's powers. If she'd been a Villian, there would have been very little to stop her from just crushing the Merchants with box cars. Pigeon squish.

    She's giving a steam loco some TLC? I'm sold.
     
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    ►ThreeSquaredElms (Not a Brit)
    Replied On August 31, 2008

    Hate to be a downer, but I can see a slight issue with running the steam locomotive.

    The steam loco might not be usable legally. If the US uses boiler tickets, hers has surely expired. They expire after about ten years. This also comes with an annual safety inspection, which could have the ticket expired early if the boiler is deemed unsafe.

    Dispatcher would have to apply for a new one to regularly run her. Since she has been setting around, she might be able to get a new one if she passes a safety inspection. Also, those merchants could have torn bits off of the loco like souvenir hunters at Woodham Brothers in Wales. Wouldn't put vandalizing the engine like that past those people.

    I'd hate to see Dispatcher have an incident like the Gettysburg Railroad explosion back in 1995. The Gettysburg was found to have had a poorly maintained light Pacific and poorly trained people running her. Not a good look.

    ((I know Roger is a guy, but some people refer to locomotives as female, even if they have the name of a man.
     
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    ► LocoForLocos (Locomotive Hobbyist) (Leviathan Survivor: Seattle, WA)
    Posted on: August 31st, 2008
    @Miss Militia (Verified Cape) (ENE Protectorate) (( @GeneralPatt1000 ))

    Well, I certainly hadn't expected that. Consider me impressed. I can't believe I only loosely kept track of the news around this city; @TooManyIdeasTooFewCharact, any insight on the situation?
     
    godzillahomer said:
    ((I know Roger is a guy, but some people refer to locomotives as female, even if they have the name of a man.
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    (( Do you know the reason for that? it's because each Steam locomotive was different and if you treated her right she'd do what you asked and do it without effort. Treat her wrong and she'd let you know and become temperamental and do nothing without a little shove or persuasion and would still throw a fight just to do it.
    And Steam engines, be they triple expansion engine, rocking beam or a Steam Locomotive is the closest thing humans have come to building a living breathing creature. They are fed, watered, and need air to live. Not to mention just watching the way the valve train works and everything just moving is something to behold. I do know germans called their ship He's don't know if they still referred to their trains as she's thought.

    @Honorguard Ra You really need to add a "profile" if you are going to do this as it allows General to just copy and paste without having to think up a name. Also, allows others to keep track of who is linked to what.
     
    cailco said:
    @Honorguard Ra You really need to add a "profile" if you are going to do this as it allows General to just copy and paste without having to think up a name. Also, allows others to keep track of who is linked to what.
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    ((Whoops, forgot to do the profile thing on my last post. Thanks for the heads up. I'll fix it.:confused:
    Edited previous post. That should be even better formatting.)) :facepalm: ((edited again for more formatting- thank you @cailco .))
     
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