Clockwork Gondola
Why are you riding to Elmazar? You know you can get there faster and more comfortably with the Clockwork Gondola, right?
The road between Mandural and Elmazar is long, goes uphill and has a lot of traffic. This is the main reason that the Clockwork Gondola was commissioned in the first place. The second reason was to show the technological might of the city of Elmazar and its Clockwork tinkerers.The Clockwork Gondola is just that - a technological wonder of the world.
Elmazar is a city far up in the mountains, so far that it's hard to get anything edible to grow around there. Before the Clockwork Gondola was finished the city had to transport a lot of its food needs by horse cart. Now, about half of it is transported with the Clockwork Gondola.
Commissioned by the King of Asharia himself in 1993, the prestigious project took 94 years to plan and finish. In 2087 it was finished in all its glory, but not without cost. 47 workers had died in the process by fall damage from the support towers and some other work-related accidents, and the city of Elmazar has calculated that they will earn back the construction price in about 200 years. Still, if the popularity of the line keeps up, the city of Mandural has shown interest in making a similar line toward Lenthir - but only if the popularity stays up.
It is not for everyone due to the rather high ticket price. The noble families embraced the transportation at once, and commissioned that at least one of the gondolas should be a first class one, with premium furniture and less passengers.Two of these were made, and after only a month the popularity of these two gondolas showed that they would pay their own construction in a couple of years.
The Clockwork Gondola is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year (2112). The project is looking promising, and popularity has stayed at a consistently high level.
Power Generation
The Clockwork Gondola uses wind-up energy to move. This can be done both at the scattered wind-up stations along the lines or manually with a crank.
Motto
Travel Like a King
Related Professions
Price
Cargo price:
1G per kg cargo
10G per kg special cargo*
Passenger prices:
50G per ordinary fare
500G per 1st class
* Includes explosive, volatile, fragile goods
1G per kg cargo
10G per kg special cargo*
Passenger prices:
50G per ordinary fare
500G per 1st class
* Includes explosive, volatile, fragile goods
Rarity
Only one line
12 cars where:
- Two at station
- Eight in transit
- Two 1st class*
* Only run by special order
12 cars where:
- Two at station
- Eight in transit
- Two 1st class*
* Only run by special order
Length
8 m
Weight
15.000 kg
Speed
4 km/h
Complement / Crew
2 drivers
2 hosts
2 hosts
Cargo & Passenger Capacity
Maximum carry weight 10.000 kg
Oh! Cool, how long does it take to ride from Mandural to Elmazar? How many passengers can the first gondola take compared to the two newer ones? How much is a G? How long would a poor person have to save before they have 50G? Nice article! :)
Whee! Thanks for the comment - and the feature!
The travel time between the two cities is about 4 days by gondola, which is much better than the week it would take to travel by horse, even longer by foot. (I realize now that I haven't taken into account that people will need to sleep during the trip, so that's a thing I'll need to think about, lol)
As for passenger capacity, I had a general idea when I wrote the article back in July, but somehow I forgot to write it in then, and now I can't remember the exact number of passengers I planned to fit into a gondola, but I think it was somewhere around 40 in the normal type, and ten to fifteen in the first class type.
I haven't really developed the money system in my world yet, so I kinda used a random number for the price. 50G is supposed to be cheap enough that the middle class can use it once in a while, yet might in some cases still travel by horse, and expensive enough that the poor people would only afford travelling with the gondola if the ticket was given to them. They could probably save up for a trip in a year or two, but it would be easier to just take the time and walk for free and use the money for something else.
Again, thanks for the comment! It got me thinking, which is always good! :3
:) You're welcome! Well that means it's even better to take the Gondola because then they don't even have to find somewhere to sleep during their travels. :3 Do the Gondola make stops during its route to pick up people along the way? Hehe, I've got that problem too. I come up with a lot of things but forget to write it down. Oh, a lot of people. They must surely make a profit. Especially if they have several of them so one can leave every day. :D I guess the poor people don't travel that far then? Because if they travel they will miss time that they can spend on earning money while the middle class and the rich can afford to spend time traveling around? :) I'm happy that my comment was of use. <3