Chapter 1227 Dare to invest in the railway? You have to lose your underwear
Speaking of railways and steam engines, Li Xuan began to pay attention to them very early. The Royal Institute of Technology had not yet been established, and when it was just a young military camp, Li Xuan had already instructed several senior students from the Zhaoqing General Camp of the young military camp to start managing steam engines.
research and development.
At the same time, the design and research and development of railways also started!
There were not many problems with the design and development of the railway. It was soon put on trial in the Guangzhou Business District, and eventually it was gradually rolled out to major ports, industrial zones, and mining areas. Although they were all short-distance railways, the length was generally a few kilometers, and the shortest ones were
It is only a few hundred meters long. The longest one is the mining railway in Dangtu Industrial Zone. In order to pull the iron ore from the mine back to the steel plant, Jiangnan Iron and Steel Plant specially built a mining railway about twelve kilometers long.
In terms of the design and construction of railways, there are actually no technical problems. It is that railway tracks require a large amount of steel, and steel production is still relatively low these days. The price of steel is generally expensive, so the price of rails for building railways is also
It is relatively high, which drives the construction cost of railways to be relatively high.
At the same time, the vehicles running on these railways are all carriages, not trains in the usual sense of later generations. Most of these carriages are pulled by horses, and there is generally only one carriage. This does not mean that multiple or larger carriages cannot be built.
In fact, it is just a frame with iron wheels. The shock absorption problem that existed in the past no longer exists because of the emergence of springs. Therefore, there are no technical obstacles in the construction of the carriage.
There is only one reason why there is only one carriage, and the carriages are generally built relatively short, and that is that there are too many carriages and too much cargo to be pulled by the horses!
The obstacle that hinders the emergence of trains and the large-scale application of rail vehicles is not rail technology or carriage technology, but power issues.
The Royal Institute of Technology has been struggling for so many years and has done one experiment after another, but it still has not developed a high-pressure steam engine. Without a high-pressure steam engine, there is no way to use the steam engine as a train power.
Although the technology of low-pressure steam engines for industrial applications today is relatively mature and has begun to be used on a large scale in medium and large factories, with the goal of completely replacing water power, the volume and weight of these low-pressure steam engines are still relatively large.
In the early years, the Navy did not give up and tried to install such low-pressure steam engines on some ships, and they actually installed them and used them for a period of time. However, less than a year later, all these low-pressure steam engines were dismantled.
There is no way. The power of these low-pressure steam engines is too small, and the weight and volume are too large. It is useless to install them on the ship. Moreover, the sea is extremely bumpy. These low-pressure steam engines, which are huge in size and weight, often break down. In the end, the Navy
They gritted their teeth and immediately tore them all apart.
In order to use a steam engine as a power source for ships and rail vehicles, its power must be greatly increased, and its volume and weight must also be greatly reduced. There is only one way to do this, and that is to increase the steam pressure and create
High pressure steam engine comes.
However, the high-pressure steam engine's demand for materials and processing is too high. With the current industrial background of the Tang Empire, it is still impossible to build it, even in a laboratory.
Therefore, we have no choice but to continuously invest in the research and development of various new materials and processing techniques.
When will the high-pressure steam engine be able to be built if the materials and processing techniques are passed? As for now, it is still not possible.
However, Li Xuan felt that even if high-pressure steam engines were not yet available, it was still necessary to build some relatively long railways in certain specific areas.
As for railways, it is possible to use horses as power, but the worst thing is that the transportation volume will be less.
This kind of long-distance railway has a relatively small transportation volume and a relatively high operating cost. Therefore, if it is purely used for commercial purposes, it may suffer losses if it is not built in an area with prosperous business transactions.
A more suitable place is probably in the Zhili area, because this area has a large amount of freight and passenger flow demand. Even if there is a Yangtze River and numerous water networks, there is still a huge demand for road transportation. Before
Various types of horse-drawn carriages are used as means of transportation on the road.
If a long-distance railway can be built, it should not lose money, even if it is pulled by horses.
But if you are in the northern region, and on the border and grassland, you will probably vomit blood.
But the need for railways in the northern grasslands is more about military needs.
When it comes to military needs, we don't just consider the cost, but the availability.
So after seeing the battle report from the Ninth Army, Li Xuan planned to build a military railway in the northern grasslands. Relying on the railway, he could quickly transport soldiers and materials and help the empire completely control the northern grasslands.
However, before building a railway in the north, Li Xuan still planned to test it in the Zhili area.
Therefore, he summoned the responsible officials from the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Commerce and other relevant departments, and began to formally discuss the large-scale railway plan that the Ministry of Industry proposed every year and was rejected every year.
In the past few years, the Ministry of Industry has proposed building long-distance railways in certain areas every year. There are various plans, including the railway from Shanghai to Jinling City, the railway from Dangtu to Jinling City, and the railway from Jinling City.
Railways to Fengyang and even to Xuzhou.
There is also a railway plan from Hangzhou to Shanghai.
In short, there were various railway plans, but all were rejected without exception, because these railway plans cost several million taels of silver or even more, and the imperial finances simply could not afford them.
But what the officials of the Ministry of Industry did not expect was that this time, it was Emperor Sheng who took the initiative to summon important ministers to discuss the large-scale railway plan.
This made the officials of the Ministry of Industry very happy. In order to ensure that the large-scale railway project could be carried out smoothly, the officials of the Ministry of Industry were also well prepared. They eliminated some flashy plans on their own.
Finally, a railway construction plan was presented to the Holy Emperor!
This plan is called the Jiangnan Railway. This Jiangnan does not mean Jiangnan Road, but the south of the Yangtze River. The overall plan is to start construction from Jiujiang Prefecture and pass through Chizhou Prefecture, Taiping Prefecture, Chengtian Prefecture, Zhenjiang Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture, and Suzhou Prefecture.
This will be a super-large railway with a length of thousands of kilometers, and some branch lines will also be built to connect it.
However, people from the Ministry of Industry also know that such a large-scale railway plan cannot be successfully built in a short period of time, so what they propose is a long-term plan, and the specific construction that will begin in the near future is one section, that is,
The designed route for the section from Jinling City to Zhenjiang is about 70 kilometers long, while the mid-term plan is the Beijing-Shanghai Railway, which is about 300 kilometers long from Jinling City to Shanghai.
But even in the initial stage, the Beijing-Zhenzhen Railway, which is about 70 kilometers long, is not that easy to build.
This kind of railway is different from short-distance port railways and mining area railways. The above-mentioned railways are relatively short. Even if the unit cost is high, the total cost is limited. At the same time, most of them are in areas with very strong freight demand. After construction, it will not be necessary at all.
Worry about profits.
However, it is very troublesome to build this kind of long-distance railway.
The Ministry of Industry estimates that the total investment in building the Beijing-Shanghai Railway will be at least eight million taels of silver!
Such a large investment cannot be supported by the empire's finances, so it must be thought of elsewhere.
At the cabinet meeting, Li Xuan simply proposed the establishment of Datang Railway Company, with the company as the main body for building and operating railways.
The company must be controlled by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, and part of the equity can be appropriately transferred through listing in the future, but the controlling rights must be controlled by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises.
The early construction funds can be raised by the company through the issuance of corporate bonds, bank loans, etc., and the central government will provide certain financial subsidies.
This method basically turns the railway into a commercial model. Although the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises will control the enterprise, there are many enterprises controlled by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, and each one basically engages in commercial activities in accordance with business rules. The official
There will be no interference.
With the Shengtianzi's personal decision, others naturally did not dare to say anything nonsense, and the relevant articles of association were quickly finalized. In order to raise funds and expand influence, the Datang Dynasty newspaper also officially published the news of the establishment of the Datang Railway Company.
.
It's a pity that people these days still don't understand new things like railways, and few people will invest in them rashly. Although the railways in the Tang Dynasty have been around for many years, in people's impression, this kind of railway should
It is a short-distance transportation tool that exists in ports and mining areas, but how can it be profitable to directly build a railway covering hundreds of kilometers?
The operating costs of railways are very high. Compared with river transport and sea transport, there is no advantage at all, at least not at present. In this case, how can railways compete with river transport?
Shipping on the Yangtze River is so developed, can this railway compete with shipping across the Yangtze River?
Many people are skeptical!
Many of the medium and large shipping companies that operate Yangtze River shipping have come out to belittle the railway for their own interests, and have made bold claims that this railway will eventually die under the competition of Yangtze River shipping.
Even if the railway company advertises that steam engine trains can be used in a few years, they will still be beaten!
Why? When your train can be powered by a steam engine, is it possible that our ships won’t be able to use it?
If everyone uses it, how can you share the shipping cost with me?
When the time comes, we will definitely have to focus on railway transportation.
Any fool who dares to invest in railways will surely be depleted of money!