152 lines
7.9 KiB
HTML
152 lines
7.9 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title> Ran When Parked </title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="html_resources/style.css"></head><body><div class="back"><a href="index.html"><</a></div>
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<h1>Ran When Parked</h1>
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<!--
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I started writing this to prepend to the chapter. Not sure where I was
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going with this so I'll just leave it in here, commented out.
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<p>
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<span class="quote speech">What are the odds it's just gonna
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work?</span><br />
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Michelle's eyes wander around the driver's cabin.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Batteries are dead so it's not gonna
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start. Will it run? No idea.</span><br />
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Jack pulls a key out of his pocket and inserts it into a key switch on
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the control panel. He turns the key and – as expected –
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nothing happens.
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<span class="quote speech">Guess we'll need to find a power source
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then.</span>
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</p>
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<p>
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The two roam around the hall, looking for a generator or anything that
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could be abused as one. Michelle makes her way to an area with
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workbenches and all sorts of tools. Jack looks at the crates and boxes on
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the closest one of the huge shelves.
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</p>
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<p>
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<span class="quote speech">I ... uhh... found one. No idea how we're
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gonna get to it though.</span><br />
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Jack stands in front of the shelf, looking at a large crate that's
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about 2m above him.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Please let that not be the only option.</span>
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</p>
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-->
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<p>
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Michelle pokes her head out from underneath the train.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">I think that's it.</span><br/>
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She puts a large piece of leftover hose aside and crawls out.<br >
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<span class="quote speech">That was quick – nice job.</span><br />
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Jack walks over to the compartment holding the batteries, takes the
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cables off the terminals, and hooks them up to the generator he had
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turned into a makeshift power supply. He starts it and climbs into
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the train. Michelle follows him and they go to the driver's cabin.
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Jack turns a key switch and part of the dashboard lights up. Then, he
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pushes the engine start button. The engine begins to turn over.
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While holding the button, Jack points to the fuel pressure gauge,
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slightly raising his voice to talk over the engine:<br />
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<span class="quote speech">That's progress already.</span><br />
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The needle on the gauge slowly creeps to the right.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Too slow though</span>, he adds after a
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moment.<br />
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He holds the button for a while, the engine keeps turning over,
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but it doesn't seem to fire even once.
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</p>
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<p>
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Michelle suggests they take a look at the fuel injection. Jack turns
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the key switch off again and they go to the middle of the railcar.
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The floor panels above the engine bay are already missing, they had
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removed them earlier to replace the bits of rotting hose in the fuel
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line. Jack grabs the manual from one of the seats and starts flipping
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through the pages while Michelle jumps out and stops the generator.
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He begins to undo <span class="comment">knowledge gap here: How
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does that work? What do you undo to fix a gunked-up fuel injection?
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Also, do/did diesel engines have a carb?</span>
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</p>
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<p>
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After <span class="comment">cleaning out gunk and doing some makeshift
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fix</span>, they try again.
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The engine attempts to start a few times but it still doesn't run.
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Michelle notices the fuel pressure is back down to zero so they pull
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the line out to see what's going on. Michelle waits next to
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the train, holding the end of the fuel line over a bucket while Jack
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returns to the driver's cabin.
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<span class="comment">suggestions for improvements welcome</span>
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</p>
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<p>
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He presses the button for a few seconds, then he leans out of the window
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looking at Michelle and the bucket. She looks up at him and says:<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Barely a few drips. But there's pressure
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on the other side of the fuel filter.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">So we need a new one?</span>
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</p>
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<p>
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He walks over to the closest door and jumps out. Michelle begins
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undoing the clamps holding the fuel line to the filter while Jack
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starts searching all drawers and boxes in the vicinity for a
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replacement. One side of the filter comes loose and Michelle starts
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with the other side.
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</p>
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<p>
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<span class="quote speech">Not the right one but I found this.</span>
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<br />
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Jack holds up a box he found in a drawer. He opens it while walking
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back to Michelle and pulls out a fuel filter that is significantly larger
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than the one pulled from the train. The fuel line fits inside it so they
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add a piece of larger hose over that and put multiple hose clamps around
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both.
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</p>
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<p>
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Michelle climbs back inside, Jack starts the generator again and follows
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her.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Ready?</span> She has her fingers on the
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engine start button.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Go for it.</span><br />
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It takes a while but the engine eventually sputters to life. Michelle
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lets go of the button and it keeps running.
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</p>
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<p>
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A few hours pass as they fix up a bunch of other small things around
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the train and put the floor panels back in. While climbing around the
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storage shelves in the <span class="comment">hall/hangar?</span>, he
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finds a crate of dried-out lead-acid batteries. After adding some water
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and letting them sit for a while to dissolve the acid, he shoves them
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into the battery compartment and connects the cables.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Michelle, can you turn the switch?</span>
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<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Nothing.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">I figured. Let's see if...</span><br />
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He connects the generator back to the train and starts it.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Start the engine, I'm wanna see
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if we can charge the batteries like this.</span><br />
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With the engine running, he wraps some loose wires around the battery
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terminals and connects them to the generator, causing quite a few sparks
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to fly. The generator's engine sounds like it's suddenly
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struggling under heavy load. He yanks the wires out but a few bits of
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them have already fused with the battery terminals.
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<span class="quote speech">Okay, that was truly a room temperature IQ
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move.</span><br />
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He disconnects the train from the generator and waits for a moment
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to see if its engine will continue running without electricity.
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It does, so he forces the lugs onto the battery terminals which now have
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pieces of wire stuck to them.<br />
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Michelle leans out of the window and says:
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<span class="quote speech">The gauge with the battery symbol just jumped
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to the red line.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">If it's not past it, should be
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fine.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">Well, slightly?</span><br />
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Jack climbs into the train and goes to the driver's cabin.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Nah this is fiiiine.</span>
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</p>
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<p>
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After giving the dashboard a once-over and leaning out of the window
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to check that the train is free to move, he attempts to disengage the
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brakes. Nothing happens. He flips a few switches and a compressor starts
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puttering away under the floor. The next attempt to disengage the brakes
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is met with a lot of hissing from underneath the train, but nothing else
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happens.
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</p>
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<p class="copyright">Copyright © 2023 Jan Danielzick (aka. BodgeMaster) – All rights reserved.</p><script>let spans = ["<span class=\"paper green\">", "<span>"]; let pre_texts = document.getElementsByTagName("pre"); for (let i = 0; i < pre_texts.length; i++) {if (pre_texts[i].className != "paper") continue; let lines = pre_texts[i].innerHTML.split("\n"); let result = ""; for (let j = 0; j < lines.length; j++) {result = result + spans[j%2] + lines[j] + " ".repeat(80-lines[j].length) + "</span>\n";} pre_texts[i].innerHTML = result;}</script></body></html>
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