Chapter 1003 Railway System Adjustment
After the whole family reached an agreement, the next thing became much easier. Ernst went to Sweet and told him about it and prepared the wedding preparations. The Sweet family was also knocked unconscious by the sudden falling of the pie. At this time, Sweet realized that his cabbage had been eaten by...the Crown Prince.
"Your Highness, why didn't I find out? They have been secretly dating for several years. I didn't even know it. They did a good job of keeping it secret." Sweet said a little depressed.
Ernst had the same idea. If he hadn't pressed for marriage, he, an old father, wouldn't have known about his son's underground love affair.
But he still said: "Don't have any psychological burden. Two people actually like each other, so let's help them. After all, the trend of free love in society is becoming more and more prosperous now, and it is no longer the same as in the Middle Ages."
Sweet frowned and said: "Your Highness, I am mainly worried that this will affect the overall situation of the country. After all, royal marriage can gain a lot of benefits for East Africa."
Ernst: "My opinion on this point is that it has little impact. Marriage of nobles is an important part of European diplomacy, but East Africa is not Europe after all. We in East Africa are isolated overseas, and our ties with Europe are not very close. It can be said that It is a system of its own, so royal marriages do not necessarily follow European traditions.”
"Furthermore, as East Africa is a country of immigrants from many sources, if Friedrich could marry a person with the ancestry of immigrants from the Far Eastern Empire, it would be greatly beneficial to the integration of our East African people."
After hearing what Ernst said, Sweet also thought it was reasonable. Of course, Sweet was still a little complicated. After all, this matter was related to his family. If Friedrich's marriage partner was other East African nobles, then Sweet would probably I won’t think too much about it.
In fact, Ernst had other plans in mind, that is, in the future, the Rhine royal family will also need the cooperation of local political forces. European aristocrats may not have this effect. Assuming that World War I is the same as in previous lives, then this period of time may be the last time for the aristocrats of the European continent. The glory has been achieved, and the nobles who have lost their power are just a name.
"Sooner rather than later, wait until the end of this year and take advantage of the New Year to hold a wedding for the two of them!" Ernst said decisively.
Ernst also wanted to have a grandson as soon as possible, and since Friedrich was already old, the wedding was better put on the agenda as soon as possible.
Naturally, Sweet would not object to Ernst's decision. Although his mentality was complicated, he knew Crown Prince Friedrich well, and if others knew the news, they would only envy him.
…
After confirming Friedrich's marriage, Ernst once again turned into a workaholic and devoted himself to East African political affairs.
"Your Highness, this is the latest feedback from the railway system. In addition to the current railway construction situation being implemented step by step according to the First Five-Year Plan, our domestic internal combustion engine locomotives are also stepping up production to improve the needs of my country's railway and transportation industries. ”
Research on internal combustion engine trains in East Africa dates back quite early, and there were even samples in the 1980s. However, the real technological breakthrough for internal combustion locomotives was not achieved until the 1990s.
Generally, internal combustion engine locomotives can be divided into three categories according to their transmission forms, namely mechanical transmission, hydraulic transmission, and electric transmission.
Mechanical transmission diesel locomotives use internal combustion engines as power. However, this type of internal combustion engine locomotive is only rarely used on low-power local railways and industrial and mining locomotives. Early hydraulic transmission diesel locomotives were driven by connecting rods similar to steam locomotives. .
As for electric transmission, it was the main application form of internal combustion locomotives in previous generations. The role of the internal combustion engine is to provide electricity to the locomotive, and then use electrical energy as a power source. Electric transmission is also the current mainstream development direction of internal combustion engine locomotives in East Africa.
This type of diesel locomotive has become relatively mature in East Africa, especially after the East African railway and electric power industries achieved rapid development in the 1990s. Electrically driven diesel locomotives officially achieved mass production in 1895.
Of course, old-fashioned steam locomotives have not been eliminated. The main reason is that the domestic production of steam locomotives in East Africa has only been less than 20 years ago, so the previous production was relatively limited. In addition, the East African railway was built too fast, and the gap for locomotives was getting bigger and bigger. , so now the East African railway system is facing a situation of more roads and fewer vehicles.
In addition, Ernst experienced the era of information explosion in later generations, so he knew more clearly that although old-fashioned steam locomotives gradually could not meet the needs of the economy and other aspects of society as time went by, they were simple in structure, stable and reliable, which was important. Strategic materials often require veterans to come to the rescue after the country's land and railway systems are damaged by war, or when encountering extreme natural disasters.
In addition, the old-fashioned steam locomotives in East Africa have just been expanded for a few years, so it is impossible to tear them down and start over. Instead, they must increase their production efforts.
Moreover, the standards adopted by the East African railway system are different from those of other countries, which requires East Africa to produce more steam locomotives as a strategic reserve in the future.
So Ernst said: "Promoting the development of diesel locomotives is a need for economic development, but steam locomotives are equally important. Now East African railway transportation capacity is limited by the number of locomotives, so both diesel locomotives and steam locomotives must be vigorously developed."
In fact, steam locomotives are not backward. They are still the main force in the railway systems of various countries around the world. Although other countries also produce diesel locomotives, the number is extremely rare and the technology is immature. Therefore, continuing to produce steam locomotives will not be beneficial to East Africa. Have too big an impact on the economy.
"According to your highness's request, our Ministry of Railways plans to increase the production of diesel locomotives to about 40% during the First Five-Year Plan, while the original steam locomotive production will remain unchanged, so that the original steam locomotive production will not have much impact." Andre said: "In addition to locomotive production, the current problem of the railway system lies in the lack of information exchange and material allocation, which requires the rectification of the entire system, especially the establishment of more marshaling yards, and coordination with various departments and enterprises to improve the efficiency of railway transportation."
After all, railways are not as flexible as roads, especially the railway routes and times are fixed, which leads to empty trains and increased railway operating costs in the case of improper information processing.
In addition, changes in regional freight volume and improper railway application and review processes can easily lead to the inability to fully release railway capacity.
In the past, East African railways developed roughly, so these problems were not obvious. During the First Five-Year Plan, the East African railway construction plan was not aggressive, so there was more time and energy to sort out and solve various problems of the original East African railway system.
Ernst also supports this point. The refinement of railway management is an inevitable trend in the development of railway transportation. Ernst does not want the decline of the American railway system in the previous life to happen in East Africa.
The decline of American railways is actually largely due to improper management. From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, the American railway system can be said to have grown wildly. After the development of roads, aviation and other modes of transportation, it was not adjusted in time, making the American railway system inevitably enter a period of decline.
It is true that the development of aviation and road transportation has caused certain pressure on railways, but this problem did not occur in Europe and the Far East Empire, especially in the previous life. The European railways were built no later than the United States, and other modes of transportation were not backward, but European countries, including Germany, France, Spain and other countries, continued to develop in the railway field, so the decline of railways is obviously not just caused by competition from other modes of transportation.