Geometry of the Earth

The railway reached the mountains without laying a single rail.

Not physically. Not yet.

On the walls of the Belfast National Railway planning office, the northern line had advanced more than one hundred and thirty kilometers from Helmarte. Sheets of drafting paper covered nearly an entire wall, each representing a distinct section of the alignment. Black lines marked the center line, blue indicated rivers and drainage channels, brown represented elevation contours, and red circles marked proposed bridges, culverts, stations, water facilities, and locations requiring further structural investigation.

Beside them hung the longitudinal profile. It was perhaps the ugliest drawing in the entire office, and to Ernest, the most critical.

The horizontal scale represented distance; the vertical scale represented elevation. A thin black line traced the natural ground, while a smoother, engineered line passed through it: the railway grade.