"Harry Harrison - A Transatlantic Tunnel Hurrah" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

A TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL, HURRAH!


By

Harry Harrison

BOOK THE FIRST

THE LINK BETWEEN THE LANDS BEGUN

I. A HURRIED MESSAGE AND A DANGEROUS MOMENT

Leaving Paddington Station the Fly-ing Cornishman seemed little
differ-ent from any other train. Admittedly the appointments were cleaner
and newer and there was a certain opulence to the gold tassels that
fringed the seat cushions in the first-class carriage, but these were just a
matter of superficial decoration. The differ-ences that made this train
unique in England, which was the same as saying unique in the entire
world, were not yet apparent as the great golden engine nosed its way over
the maze of tracks and switches of the station yards, then out through the
tunnels and cuttings. Here the roadbed was ordinary and used by all
trains alike.

Only when the hulking locomotive and its trailing cylinder of closely
joined coaches had dived deep under the Thames and emerged in Surrey
did the real difference show. For now even the roadbed became un-usual,
a single track of continuously welded rails on specially cushioned sleepers
that was straighter and smoother than any track had ever been before,
sparkling in deep cut-tings that slashed a direct channel through the chalk
of the downs, shooting arrow-straight across the streams on stumpy iron
bridges, a no-nonsense rail line that changed direction only in the longest
and shallowest of curves. The reason for this became quickly apparent as
the acceleration of the train steadily in-creased until the nearby fields and
trees flashed by, visible as just the most instantaneous of green blurs; only
in the distance could details be picked out, but they, too, slipped
backwards and vanished almost as soon as they had appeared.

Albert Drigg had the entire com-partment to himself and he was very
glad of that. Although he knew that this train had made the return trip
from Penzance every day for almost a year now and had suffered no
mis-hap, he was aware of this only in the-ory, so that now experiencing it
in practice was a totally different mat-ter. From London to Penzance was
a total of two hundred eighty-two miles and that entire incredible
dis-tance would be covered in exactly two hours and five minutesтАФan
aver-age speed including stops of well in excess of one hundred fifty miles
per hour. Was man meant to go that fast?

Albert Drigg had a strong visceral sensation that he was not. Not even
in this year of Our Lord 1973, mod-ern and up to date though the Em-pire