Chapter 810

Diesel Electric

Cameron instructed Savannah on how to defuse the bomb.

Savannah wanted to make sure that she knew the proper way to do everything. She didn't want to accidentally set it off or trip one of the booby traps.

"Show me what to do and tell me what to do. Make sure I know what to watch out for." Savannah said. "Tell me before I mess something up."

Cameron was confident that Savannah would do fine.

"You must be very cautious." Cameron said. "You can do this."

Cameron carefully showed Savannah how to disarm the bombs. There was a radio receiver and a cell phone receiver to trigger the detonators and there were two sets of them. Both sets were booby trapped as well. With all communications cut, the booby traps became the 'fail-safe'.

Savannah was very careful when she disarmed the second booby trap. Cameron showed her what to do with the first one. It was a very intense procedure for her.

"I'm going to have to be really careful if I ever try this on my own." Savannah said. "I need to know because I may have to do it one day or set one."

Cameron felt Savannah would do fine going forward. She also thought the deactivated devices would come in handy as instructional material for others in the Resistance.

"You will prevail like you do in everything." Cameron said. "I'll use these devices, after I modify them to teach Young Allison as well."

Savannah didn't think that could hurt but she wanted to make sure they were safe.

"I want you to make sure there's nothing that can accidentally blow up when you teach Young Allison."

Cameron would render everything inert before she practiced with Young Allison. She wanted the girls to know how to do this. It was more likely they would set one up in the future rather than disarming one.

Savannah looked at the row of eight rail cars. She believed it would be a time saver if the Metal girls were allowed to assist them. There were explosives on each one of them in several places.

"Can we get some help now to remove the explosives from the tank cars and hopper cars?" Savannah asked. "The girls all wanted to help."

CamNet already made Cameron aware of the heated discussion that occurred in the helicopter. She thought it would ease tensions as well. She was sure that Savannah's presence would smooth things over for everyone

"Sheila's on her way. I already sent her a message." Cameron said. "I can hear her now."

Savannah could soon hear it too. The UH-1 neared their location.

Sheila was still the pilot.

There was something that troubled Savannah. She wanted to address it while they were off alone from everyone. She wanted to make sure Cameron understood she meant what she said. It wasn't a bluff. It was a belief.

"Cameron, I don't want you to punish Sheila for what she did earlier." Savannah said. "I'm serious about taking her punishment. I told you why."

Cameron reached out and touched Savannah's cheek. The look of love was in her eyes.

"I could never hurt you, Savannah." Cameron said. "I would rather be terminated first."

The UH-1 thundered toward them.

Savannah wasn't sure Cameron wouldn't pursue this at a later date. It was a 'Metal thing' to finish a task. She wanted to make sure that it didn't happen.

"Cameron, I want you to promise me." Savannah said.

Cameron could see this would become an 'issue' between Savannah and her if it wasn't put to rest. She wanted to make it clear to Savannah that it was over.

"The matter is dropped." Cameron said. "I promise, Savannah."

Savannah gave Cameron a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you." Savannah said.

The UH-1 landed and everyone hopped out and started to remove the explosives.

There was a truck that approached them as well. Sheila let Steve's team off on the way there with the girls so they could bring the other truck up. The truck would carry the explosives back to the building so Cameron could rig up a surprise of her own for them.

Cameron felt it was the only proper thing to do and return the favor of an explosive surprise. The Skynet forces left one for her. She would leave several for them.

The truck left and everyone including Cammy boarded the UH-1. They flew back to the site of the operation to start the recovery of HK equipment.

That left Cameron and Savannah with the railcars. The explosives were already removed. The immediate threat was gone. There were still all the ingredients of a fertilizer-fuel bomb to deal with.

Cameron saw this as another opportunity to teach Savannah a few new things.

"Let me instruct you on some basic railroading principles and safety measures." Cameron said. "The locomotives will be here soon. You must be very careful with your hands and pay attention around you. It's still very dangerous work to couple the cars as it has been since the inception of railroads. The 'automatic coupler' that was always talked about has never been developed and put into production. The way the cars are coupled hasn't changed for over a century."

Cameron showed Savannah how the couplers worked as well as the air lines for the brakes.

Savannah could tell right away when Cameron had to physically open the knuckle on the coupler with her hand how an accident could happen if communications were messed up with the head end crew. The advent of the radio probably helped a lot in avoiding accidents as opposed to the hand signals that originally needed to be given in the old days.

"This is dangerous work." Savannah said. "Having to open the knuckle could prove costly to someone's hand if the cars are moved too quickly before one is ready. Then you need to move down to hook the airline. If there was a sudden movement of the rail car, it would run over you. This is a risky job."

Cameron was aware that the nature of the railroad job and how it needed to be done was basically unchanged for about a hundred and thirty years. Radios replaced hand signals and lanterns over the years. The other work was still 'hands on' between the cars. She didn't want to mention to Savannah that more than one brakeman ended up coupled between two freight cars with the coupler through the center of their body. She told her the stories anyway. Some of them were still alive when they were found but died soon afterwards. Many more had their hand smashed flat, lost fingers or lost a hand to the couplers. She wanted to make sure that Savannah understood how dangerous it all was and how quick an accident could happen.

Savannah wasn't terrified of the railroad work but she did know it would take a lot of respect to do everything right and not cut corners. It made her think of some of the things that the Resistance did. She's been close to death more than a few times. She wanted to remind Cameron of that. She thought Cameron cut too many corners at times.

Cameron spoke before Savannah was able to.

"What we do isn't exactly safe. I'm afraid sometimes I get a little carried away." Cameron said. "We will use similar terminology as we do with the helicopter controls when we switch the cars out. We will say, 'are you ready' and answer, 'I'm ready'. We will both know the other one is paying attention and things will happen safely."

Savannah didn't see anything safe about being a brakeman or switchman. She would do everything Cameron told her to avoid any incidents.

"That sounds like a very good idea so we don't have any mix ups or accidents." Savannah said.

They could see a headlight in the distance. The beam shimmered along the shiny rails as the locomotives approached.

The ground began to shake a little as the two powerful locomotives arrived. The idle throb sound of the engines was thunderous.

John Henry controlled them from the Command Center. There was an onboard camera and there was drone footage from overhead for him to judge and guide things by. He too was aware how dangerous everything could be with railroad equipment. He'd already viewed thousands of incident reports in his quick research.

Cameron opened the knuckle on the rear tank car and on the lead locomotive.

Savannah and Cameron went up the steps and in through the nose door of the locomotive.

Savannah was impressed with the shear size of the locomotive. Everything about it radiated strength and power. It was very impressive.

"This thing is gigantic." Savannah said. "How big is that engine?"

Cameron was well acquainted with the locomotive propulsion system. It was much more involved than the giant diesel power plant. She would try to keep things simple.

"It's seven hundred and ten cubic inches per cylinder. There are sixteen cylinders in the engine. That works out to eleven thousand, three hundred and sixty cubic inches." Cameron said. "The engine produces over four thousand horsepower and can run for weeks on end. All they need to do is add fuel. Many of the fuel tanks hold four thousand gallons of diesel fuel."

Savannah was impressed to be around the locomotives.

"Wow!" Savannah said.

Cameron smiled at Savannah. She wanted to remind her of something that she worried Savannah sometimes forgot.

"It's a machine, just like I am." Cameron said. "You always need to remember that."

Savannah always did remember that. It was nothing negative to her as it was to some people. She believed that it actually made Cameron even more special. That was the way that she always felt once she understood Cameron was a cyborg. Cameron's true nature was very impressive to a young mind. She wanted to clarify something.

"You may both be machines but it's not 'like you'." Savannah said. "Nobody is."

Cameron was sure Cammy was like her as well as Cam and Camille. They were actually all identical. Then there were the Duplicates…. She didn't mention it. Instead she reflected on the last time she was around railroad equipment. It was a much less pleasant experience.

"The last locomotive I operated was much more complicated than this." Cameron said. "It was a steam locomotive. I wrecked it."

Savannah was impressed by what Cameron did that day even if she was confused about herself and who she was. She was even confused about 'what' she was at that time. Even 'zoned out' she used her natural Terminator abilities to save a lot of people she didn't know. Cameron could have chosen to save herself but acted to help save others that were strangers to her. That was a level of care and concern that Cameron wasn't constructed with. That was a characteristic that Cameron learned from her association with humans. She learned that people matter. That applied both to the future and the present. It was something that she was to remind John about in his development as a leader. She honestly hoped that she played a part in that development of Cameron. She decided to focus on Cameron's accomplishments at that time.

"You saved a lot of lives and injuries that day. It was what you did that saved them." Savannah said. "I've studied the report."

Cameron didn't want to talk any more about it. She didn't like when that happened to her and she 'forgot' who she was. It always troubled her and was very disturbing to her. It seems to be something that she didn't have any control over when it happened. She decided to move ahead with the training.

"This is fairly simple. It's a diesel electric locomotive. There's a diesel engine which turns an alternator. The alternator makes electricity which is fed to the electric traction motors on the axles." Cameron said. "You have a throttle, a reverser or direction selector. There's a locomotive brake, which is what we will use, a dynamic brake, which uses the traction motors to slow the train on a downgrade and a train brake. We won't use the last two for our switching.

Savannah thought about what Cameron described with the operation of the locomotive and why it was called a diesel electric.

"So a diesel electric locomotive is basically a mobile power plant." Savannah said.

Cameron tilted her head slightly.

"That's absolutely correct." Cameron said.

Savannah wanted to know more about the 'dynamic brake'. The name alone sounded intriguing to her.

"What exactly is the 'dynamic brake' and how does it work?" Savannah asked.

Cameron wanted to keep her explanation simple.

"In practical terms it would be the equivalent of downshifting a vehicle. When there's no power being applied to the electric traction motors they create resistance. On a diesel electric locomotive that resistance is turned into heat and it is dissipated into the atmosphere. On pure electric locomotives the traction motors actually operate as generators and they can put power back into the overhead electric line on down grades."

Savannah wondered what other forms of propulsion locomotives could use.

"Are electric and diesel electric, besides steam, the only forms of locomotive propulsion?" Savannah asked.

Cameron knew that there was a list of other types of propulsion that were used over the years. Most of them didn't prove successful in main line operations.

"There have been many variations used over the last hundred years. A few of the more notable ones were diesel mechanical, diesel hydraulic and gas turbine electric."

Savannah could understand the terminology of the first two that Cameron mentioned. She was a little curious as to what a gas turbine was.

"What exactly was a gas turbine electric locomotive?" Savannah asked.

Cameron knew there were actually several variations of the gas turbine type locomotive. She wanted to keep it simple.

"The few that were tried that had the most success actually used a jet engine as the power plant. The exhaust gas from the jet engine turned a generator which produced the electricity for the electric traction motors. As you can imagine they were very loud and residents complained about the use of them, especially at night. Different variations of those were rated between five thousand and eight thousand horsepower. Most of those used jet fuel and one experimental version actually used atomized coal dust. Some of them were able to produce ten thousand horsepower after further modification."

Savannah decided she would need to read up a little bit more on railroads. There was obviously an entire fascinating world associated with it. She knew it was time to get started on the current task. Things didn't get done thinking about them.

"Let's do what we need to do here and get started." Savannah said.

Cameron sat in the engineer's seat and described each of the controls as she used them. She moved the throttle slightly. There were a series of positions or 'notches'. The throaty roar increased slightly and the locomotive moved forward slowly. She backed off the throttle and let momentum move the locomotive forward. There was a loud clang and slight jolt as the couplers locked together.

"That's how we move the locomotive." Cameron said. "I'll show you how to connect the air line again."

Savannah followed Cameron out of the nose door of the locomotive.

Cameron went down and connected the air line. They needed to pump up the air supply to release the brakes.

Savannah stood on the front platform and watched her.

Cameron came back up the steps.

The air compressor could be heard working in the back of the engine compartment.

Cameron and Savannah went back into the cab.

"You take it now." Cameron said. "The couplers are going to bunch together in the drawbar housing as we push. There will be a lot of metal clanging and small jolts. That's normal. You're compressing the 'slack' between the couplers. Take it slow. The liquid in the tank cars will tend to slosh back and forth too."

Savannah released the locomotive brake and moved the throttle slightly. The locomotive moved ahead with a multitude of clangs and jolts and then stopped.

"You have the full weight of the cars now, the slack is all gone." Cameron said. "Give it some more power, just a little bit."

Savannah moved the throttle another 'notch' and everything started to move slowly forward.

Cameron wanted to go over everything with Savannah that they were going to do for the switching operation. It was going to consist of a number of different 'moves' to get everything lined up the way Cameron wanted it to be before they left.

"We're going to move the first set of tank cars with diesel fuel past the switch that runs into the facility. We will cut them off from the hopper cars and back up past the switch." Cameron said. "I'll open the switch and you'll move forward so the two hopper cars go past the switch onto the spur track. I'll uncouple them or 'cut them off'. You'll still have three tank cars in front of the locomotive at that point."

The instructions seem pretty straightforward to Savannah so far.

"OK." Savannah said.

"You'll then back the locomotives and the three tank cars out past the switch. I'll throw the switch and you will proceed slowly forward and couple the second set of tank cars with the first set of tank cars. I'll call the distance for you as you move the tank cars forward. I'll hook up the air line between the tank cars and walk back to the locomotive. I'll then uncouple the locomotive from the tank cars. You'll back up past the switch. After I throw it, you'll move forward slowly and couple with the hopper cars on the spur track."

Savannah was worried that her movements would be a little jerky.

"OK." Savannah said. "Then what will I do?"

Cameron knew that they needed to wait for the boxcars to be loaded. That would be the factor that controlled when they would be able to complete their switching moves.

"We wait until they get the boxcars loaded. When the big door opens, you'll move slowly forward with the two hopper cars and couple with the two boxcars. I'll call the distance for you."

Savannah felt she understood how the switching moves worked. Sometimes they would to move freight cars several times in order to get them where they needed to go and in the proper order. The fact that there was only one main line and one spur track required additional switching moves.

"OK. I know what to do." Savannah said. "Then I'll wait for your signal, back out past the switch with the two hopper cars and the two boxcars, you'll throw the switch. I'll then move forward towards the tank cars, you'll call the distance. We'll couple and you'll connect the airlines. Then you'll uncouple the two boxcars cars from the hopper cars. I'll back past the switch, you'll throw it and I'll move the two hopper cars onto the spurn track and then into the building. You'll call the distance. You'll uncouple them from the locomotives and I back out past the switch, you'll throw it and I'll move ahead towards the boxcars. I'll couple to them and you'll connect the airline. The assembled train will be ready to move at that point as any other train would."

Cameron was very pleased that Savannah understood everything that needed to be done and in the proper order.

"That's it." Cameron said.

Savannah knew that it was going to take time to develop a little finesse. The weight and number of the cars that were moved were a factor in how much power to apply and then in stopping distance.

"That sounds simple enough." Savannah said. "I need to get the 'feel' of things and the responsiveness of the locomotives."

Cameron didn't think that Savannah would experience any trouble at all to make the switching moves. The biggest factor for safety was to not overdo the speed.

"Watch your speed, especially when we make the final spot with the hopper cars." Cameron said. "We don't want them shoved through the back wall."

Savannah wondered if that alone could set off the fertilizer to explode. She didn't intend to find out.

"OK." Savannah said. "I'm ready."

Savannah did everything as Cameron instructed her. The boxcars were soon loaded and everything was switched into place.

Steve's team would take the short train away on a route John Henry cleared for them as he restored all the rail traffic back to normal operation.

Cameron rigged the explosives to the two hopper cars and the building itself.

Savannah watched and assisted her as she did it. Cameron allowed her to rig the second hopper car herself.

Once the booby trap was set, they headed for the helicopter.

Savannah and Cameron checked over the helicopter. They along with the Metal girls boarded the UH-I when they were done.

Savannah climbed into the copilot's seat.

Cameron climbed into the pilot's seat.

"Go ahead and start it." Cameron said.

Savannah checked the instruments and fired the turbine.

Cameron wanted to give Savannah the opportunity to get some more flight time in.

"Do you want to take us home?" Cameron asked. "You can fly."

Savannah was ready.

"I will." Savannah said.

Cameron knew this was going to be a 'test' for Savannah. It had been a very long day for her so far and it wasn't done yet. She wanted to give Savannah the opportunity the rest if she wanted it.

"You must be tired." Cameron said. "You got it?"

Savannah looked over at Cameron and smiled

"I got it." Savannah said. "I'll be OK. I'll manage. I'm fine."

Savannah had her night vision ready. It'd been dark for several hours already.

"I want everyone to help watch for any danger around us." Savannah said.

Savannah checked everything again. She looked around and looked up. She took off.

"Gail will be in formation off to the port side." Cameron said. "We'll have a drone in front and in back of us at altitude. The others went with the train."

Savannah looked forward to return back to the Young residence. She was tired and hungry but she never said a word. In the future, both things could be a daily occurrence. Vanna, Allison and Jesse endured worse hardships. A few minor ones wouldn't hurt her. She really hoped that she wouldn't have to endure some of the other hardships the girls from their future needed to go through. If she did, she did. In reality she knew that she actually already did as Vanna. Vanna survived so that meant that she would too. She didn't want to dwell on that. She needed to concentrate on her flying and make sure she brought her aircraft and her passengers back to Palmdale safely. That was her job right now. She always made sure that she did a good job. The current flight would be no exception.

What Was There

We think things will be
As they've always been
Change is continually happening
Most of it is from deep within

Sometimes we can see
The direction things are headed
Those we began to fear
The thoughts are soon dreaded

Then there are the surprises
They hit like a ton of bricks
How did we miss this
More of someone's dirty tricks

It always seems to be
When one finds another one
The one closest is the last to know
Then they're the one left with none

We have to ask ourselves
As everything we now beware
Was there really anything
What was there

Nobody