Sector 1 (217 - 220)Upon arriving, the first building group started to prepare a settlement. The sector had size around 10x2, stretching from West to East; Rackmassive is on the western side. A small hill had been chosen, quite close to the western edge. A large all-purpose stockpile and workshops zone were designated in soil, close to the surface. A few layers deeper, in stone -- a dinning hall, food stockpiles and kitchens; also, a large dormitory, soon filled with sufficient number of beds. Somewhere nearby was placed the modest office of the group leader (who possessed also positions of the broker, the manager and the bookkeper). On the surface were placed several carpenter workshops, the trade depot, pastures and the farm, where the plants for the textile industry were sown later. Apart from that, the farmers were cultivating plump helmet on the underground fields, but they didn't disdain also gathering of wild plants and fruits: the tropical lands were really rich with all sorts of vegetation.
All required initial preparations were done in less than two months, and the current state of the settlement was good enough to finally start working on The Railway.
The sector leader had some prescribed instruction, but many parts were revised and updated during the works on Sector 1. Here are some important aspects of the final project:
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The Great Dwarven Railway adopts left-hand traffic. It is not a trivia, since all rollers and auxiliary devices need to know side of traffic to operate properly. To emphasize this point to all users of the system,
every sector need to have at least 2 large signs reminding of the traffic side.-
Each border of every sector must be marked by bright-colored material. Near each border, the index of the sector must be displayed by the same bright material. The purpose of these rules is to provide convenience for the users (so they can know exactly where they are), plus it can greately help to maintain The Railway, since it allows to figure out easily the index of a sector with roller malfunctions or other technical failures, to send a repair party.
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The Railway must have the system of track stops and rollers to maintain constant and safe velocity. The initital instructions from Administration were rather vague about the particulars, so the building group of Sector 1 had to experiment a lot in order to find the optimum. Flat parts of the railway required little attention: it is enough to put rollers once in a while to not let trains to slow down significantly. The slopes were much trickier. In the end, it was figured out that
each ramp requires 1 roller just before, 1 roller just after, and for every 2 z-levels of decline require 1 high-friction track stop. This was fixed as the standard for all subsequent sectors.
A couple of dwarves were ordered to cut quartzite blocks all the time - quartzite had been chosen as the main material for the rails on Sector 1 (and distinctly red cinnabar -- as the material for border/index markup). A small train depot was build inside the hill: it was a very modest, but hopefully, only temporal construction, since later yet nonexistent the Main Station in Rackmassive would serve as a depot. A bit later, a large number of minecarts were made by the carpenter for the depot. The rails started to the East from the depot.
During the first part of the sector the rails loop along the hills, sometimes running on the edge of the cliffs, sometimes submerging into the small tunnels. Further, the railway comes to the small bridge between two hills (several wooden supports have been made for the construction), and goes into another short tunnel. After that, there is a quite steep descent with a couple of turns, and finally, straight line to the eastern border of the sector.
The construction of the rails took overall quite a little time, less than 2 years. However, setting up and proper testing of the system were demanding. The dwarves had to be absolutely sure that a minecart with a passanger runs from East to West and vice versa with no issues. Several times the system was partly rebuild, and few dwarves got injured and were spending some time in the sector hospital, none of them died though. The main challenge was to set up the descent areas properly.
Long story short, by the autumn of the 4th year everything had been done. During the last year, a vast number of curious migrants came to the sector. However, there was no sufficient labor: primarily, only few mechanics constantly worked on improvements, and hence, the migrants just ate and drunk to their pleasure in the tavern. To get them busy with something, the ugly barracks were built on the surface and a full squad had been gathered for military training. Initially, there were no plan for the metallurgy in the sector, but one of the amateur blacksmiths made some pieces of copper equipment for the militia. Luckily, at the end there were no assault attempts on the sector.
For the future sectors, additional rule had been made, counting the experience of excessive migration:
no more than 49 dwarves should participate in every sector's construction.
In the year 220 the group leader reported to Rackmassive on sucessful finish of Sector 1. Both taverns (in Rackmassive, and in Sector 1) celebrated that day with tons of booze. Few days later, an employee from The Railway Administration moved out to test the system in person, and to mark the place for the rails on the Sector 2.