Tales From The Temp Folder

[TZT] (TJ) Intro

So this is a story that I have planned after the end of the main TZT series. I will be doing a few spin-offs, like RPO. This is another one.
Spoilers ahead.
If you want to avoid spoiling The Zombie Train Series or The Jumper, skip past the underlined words.
You have been warned.

So this story takes place after the main TZT series. This one stars an pasty, old, white, railroad man, Gilbert, who mentors a young asian boy, Kai, who just moved in. Inspiration coming from the movie Gran Torino. Kai, along with his friends Barry, Andrew, and a dog by the name of Dikita, go on an adventure to try and preserve the line and dodge a gang trying to assert control. But also, will Gilbert find peace mentoring these kids, or will he continue on his strict and narrow viewpoint.

So that's your teaser.
Below is a planned into giving a brief history.
I also have a planned scene I want to do, which I'll get around to once I get some time. Until then, enjoy.
-FishyFish831

After the siege of Coalinga, Rail and Spike agreed to lay tracks up to here, so the enemy could never starve out our troops again. But the grades were too steep for regular standard gauge trains. So they built the first narrow gauge railroad since the 1870s.
It began at a small terminus built at King City, where standard and 3 foot narrow gauge trains shared the same double-tracked lines leading up to San Lucas. Here, the line split, with standard gauge ending just two miles outside of San Lucas. The tracks followed highway 198, crossing onto the right. It's a relatively straight shot, with a steep but consistent grade all the way up to the branch on highway 25. Rarely, the tracks move onto the street, to avoid buildings and other land obstacles, but the line is usually separate from the road.
A small branchline travels all the way to Bitterwatter, with a small yard and wye where the line terminates. Plans were drafted to extend the line all the way to Holister, but the planned traffic wasn't high enough to warrant the expense. The Bitterwatter Branch was abandoned first, after freight operations dried up.
But here where highway 198 meets 25, there's a small transfer station, where lumber, stone, and minerals used to be ferried back down to King City to be transferred onto the main line trains. It is also where banking locomotives used to be stabled for the steep climb just past the transfer station. A 5% grade, requiring double or even triple heading on most trains, up to the peak of the Laguna Mountains.
It is the same steep grade, all the way down into Coalinga. Just before, there is a switch off that crosses the highway for the last time, and pulls right into the Coalinga base. Passing sidings dot all along the grades, to allow for trains to pass each-other. At the base of the mountains, there are a couple banking sidings were trains can collect more engines for heavy trains. The entire line is protected with block signaling, like the big railway is, but as less and less traffic traveled along the line, the signals lost their absolute power.
After the war, the line descended into further disuse. The base was retired; and with it, the primary reason for the line. Lumber, stone, and minerals of all kinds, and even one or two passenger trains still ran the line, but even that was waning as trucks were reintroduced.
The line ran its last passenger train, on January 12th, 2037, where it caught a snowstorm and was delayed two hours. Not two weeks later, Rail and Spike declared that the line was abandoned, and life left this mountain for the last time.
The staff was offered a choice to either transfer out onto other narrow gauge railroads, or to work on the main line. But... there was one man who refused both offers.
That man, still maintains the engines.
That man, still keeps the rusted rails clear.
There is still one man, who still works on this line.

This is the story of Sergeant Gilbert Parker Peterson, the last railroad man working on the Red Horse Railway.