Something's on my mind...

[Karl the Mad]

One of the innumerable tropes to be found on TV Tropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... mNeverDies

And after perusing said trope I got to thinking. As history-conscious as Hope seems to be, a heritage railway or two is hardly out of the question, especially considering the presence of chaps like Archie and Bucky, and presumably other outmoded but stubborn old clanks. I would further presume that these railways would use faithfully-restored locomotives as opposed to more modern mockups, although I'm sure even the most die-hard rail enthusiast would agree that some environmentally-minded changes would have to take place.

As for what could be done regarding stories or plots? Perhaps a major power outage takes place, forcing the city to requisition the old engines for temporary municipal service. Or perhaps one of the locomotives proves to be haunted, or susceptible to possession, or what the hell ever. I dunno, but I'm sure we could come up with something.

We could spin a few characters out of it too, I'm sure. Engineers and mechanics for steam engines aren't exactly a surplus, after all.

[TennyoCeres84]

Nice ideas! You raised some good points, and they're definitely worth expanding.

[IamLEAM1983]

I figure all Hope ever had was a station in Old Hope with a few permanent engineers attached to it. After all, Hope has a limited amount of space to build on, being an archipelago, and I'm pretty sure urban promoters (and the Battle of Hope) made the preservation of any local railway a difficult proposition.

On the other hand, I figure there's some sort of railway museum further inland (closer to Providence) that's kept a few of the old engines and cars that made the jaunt into Hope two hundred years ago. I figure Hope's managed to preserve a few stretches of railway or to use part of the original railway's track for its maglev train.

As to what we could do with this... Ghost train stories, I guess? I don't really see the local Clank population clamoring for the Romantic aspects of using a steam train being maintained, not when there's Karthian captains of industry proposing cleaner and more efficient means of travel.